University retreat lectures students about their 'white privilege'

The University of Vermont is ensuring that tomorrow's generation of leaders are burdened with as much white guilt as possible. Well, at least the future leaders who "self-identify" as white.

Peter Hasson of CampusReform.org reports that UV recently offered a three-day retreat for students who "self-identify as white" to "confront their white privilege." Yes, those are actual phrases used by the university, so I'll give you a moment to take in all the stupid those phrases present.

Now that you're done facepalming, here's what Hasson reported about the retreat:

According to the university, the self-identifying white students who attend the retreat will come to “recognize and understand white privilege from an individual experience” and have the opportunity to “conceptualize and articulate whiteness from a personal and systematic lense as well as the impact of white privilege on the UVM community and beyond.”

The self-identifying white students also tackled tough questions such as “What does it mean to be white?” and “How does whiteness impact you?”

The university website features testimonials from past attendees of the retreat, who praised the way the event was a “safe space.”

According to the school’s website, the University of Vermont offered the retreat at no cost to its privileged white students, covering all expenses including meals.

I don't know about you, but shouldn't the university have charged them for the cost of the retreat, including all their meals? Doesn't a free retreat and free food reinforce the "white privilege" concept?

At the very least, their meals should have included some soul food and Tex-Mex, so they can see how the "other side" lives. Or perhaps, if they are truly trying to make the students feel the pain of being white, the university should have fed them nothing but Wonder Bread and rice cakes during the retreat.