by Ailan Evans
The University of South Carolina is facing backlash over a “White Student Accountability Group” meeting that instructed students how to “recognize their contribution” to racism, according to a conservative student organization.
Students at the University of South Carolina (USC) College of Social Work were invited to attend a “White Student Accountability Group” meeting on April 26, according to emails obtained by conservative student organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
The purpose of the reported “White Student Accountability Group” is to help social work students recognize “their contribution to and responsibility to dismantle racism” in their everyday lives, according to the event description obtained by TPUSA. Students were also reportedly taught how to encourage their peers “to use their voice, power, and privilege to enact change in their classrooms, community, and practice” and “support students in developing skills to host similar groups among peers or colleagues to expand the community dedicated to racial equity and justice.”
Statement condemning the "White Student Accountability Group" hosted yesterday by the College of Social Work. pic.twitter.com/G7xV9aBTaT
— UofSC Turning Point USA (@uscturningpoint) April 27, 2022
“The very suggestion that certain students should be subject to a higher level of scrutiny on the basis of skin color is not only wrong but counterproductive and anti-American,” the TPUSA Executive Board wrote in a statement. “Notions such as white privilege and white guilt do not combat racism and division, they reinforce it.”
The group meeting was a student project and not an official event sponsored by the College of Social Work, a USC spokesperson told Fox News.
Other universities, such as Loyola University Maryland and the University of North Texas also have their own version of “White Accountability Groups.”
TPUSA said it respects “the dignity of all people regardless of their racial or ethnic background,” but that unfortunately “the same can not be said of [USC’s] College of Social Work.”
“We condemn the College of Social Work and call on them and the University of South Carolina to reevaluate what we are promoting to our students,” the statement concluded. “We firmly believe that America’s youth should not be taught to resent one another.”
USC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Ailan Evans is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “University of South Carolina” by University of South Carolina.
