ICYMI: Canadian Scholars Deem White Papers Racist, Want New Inclusive Term

Canada always amazes me with its ability to take everything a step too far… or ten steps.

They demonize truckers, celebrate Nazis, and now… they’ve managed to make yet another simple educational tool into an issue about race. Now that takes some real… boredom.

From The College Fix:

A group of Canadian scholars argued recently that the term “white paper” should be scrapped due to its problematic “racial and historical context.”

In a University Affairs op-ed, Jennifer Jakobi of the University of British Columbia and leaders of Women in Science and Engineering (part of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) assembled “experts from across Canada” to get input on a replacement term.

Despite the fact that paper is white, the experts — “researchers, librarians, Indigenous leaders, science policy experts” and “advocates” in the topics of racism and decolonization — agreed that “hierarchies inherent in the creation of white papers are seen as artefacts of colonialization.”

The group also noted “white paper” is “exclusionary to some groups, and evokes racism, privilege, power or oppression.”

“Whatever the intent,”Jakobi (pictured) and Co. said the term implies “superiority” and additionally cited research about “white” being associated with “good” and the color black with “bad.”

The experts suggested replacing “white paper” with “position statement,” “resource” and “brief,” all of which could add something more specific after.

I’m starting to think that we’ve made the jump from social issues to color issues. Would I be surprised if, within the next generation or two, young parents choose to stop teaching their toddlers what colors even are in hopes of eradicating racism?

Not even a little bit.

If you operate within the confines of white=good and black=bad when you think about people, then that’s on you. At that point, it’s not really because of the “unfair” systems that you’ve apparently benefitted from. Just because you think about something in a certain way doesn’t automatically mean that everyone else does. That actually sounds more like a narcissistic tendency/issue than a race-based one…

Everything cannot be racist. It’s statistically impossible. Despite what college students are being taught, reveling in victimhood isn’t cool or fun, and there shouldn’t be any assertion that it is. That’s not how things are going at the moment, but it should be. I’m tired of writing discussion boards and papers about how white people suck. I get it. Now I’m bored… what else you got?