BUZZ
In order to be on Pomona and Pitzer Colleges’ NCAA Division III athletic teams, over 550 athletes, coaches, and staff are now required to undergo a lengthy anti-racism training.
Moreover, some student athletes feel they are forbidden from questioning the training, according to a report in The Student Life campus newspaper; one student who participated in the training told the student newspaper some students felt like they were being forced to accept certain ideas or that their opinions were silenced.
The training, called “A Long Talk About the Uncomfortable Truth,” is “aimed at cultivating an anti-racist culture” and combatting “widespread ignorance,” it reported. The anti-racism training is also being required across Pomona College.
“This summer, the program began previewing similar training sessions with Pomona faculty. Pomona has since implemented A Long Talk for RA’s, Sponsors, Campus Advocacy Resource Education and Support advocates, Cultural Communities Mentor Program mentor groups and all first-year students,” the Student Life reported.
Pomona and Pitzer Colleges are not the only ones to require this training. American University in 2023 also required its athletes to undergo the training.
“Prior to the beginning of the opening session, prework was required through the organization’s website. This prework is a multimedia collection of content reflecting the truth about the history of racism in the United States and the impact it continues to have on our society today,” according to the university’s website.
A major point of the training is that “it is not enough for white individuals to be non-racist—to say they have Black friends, or to be comfortable around members of the Black community,” it added. “To become anti-racist is to break that silence, to interrupt racism, and to encourage others to do the same.”
The University of Washington, BYU, Yale, and several other universities have engaged the programming over the last several years.
“One crucial component of the A Long Talk curriculum is the ‘CPR’ technique: Clarify, Probe and Redirect,” the Yale Daily News reported. “As an acronym, CPR is effective because ‘addressing racism is an emergency,’ much like when someone’s heart ceases to function.”
Participants are taught, according to one of the slides: “You can’t win an argument with ignorance, so remember that INTERRUPTION is the goal. The majority of people are not terminally ignorant, but may say/repeat ignorant things. Your job is to be an IGNORANCE INTERRUPTER to find out if they are permanent or temporary.”
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