University of Kentucky doled out thousands to an assistant professor’s private company to host an “anti-racist” workshop for school administrators in January 2021.
According to documents obtained by Young America’s Foundation through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Center for Healing Racial Trauma instructs administrators to “replace white supremacy with the more accurate white inferiority complex.”
YAF asked the university whether they thought some races are inferior to others, as the workshop implies. A spokesman for the school declined to comment.
The price tag was $5000 for a four hour “introductory workshop” and a 2 hour “intermediate workshop” for only 50 people each, according to an invoice from Professor Candice Hargons’ Center for Healing Racial Trauma.
Hargons, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology also serves as the executive director of the Center for Healing Racial Trauma. According to the UK’s website, Hargons “directs the RISE^2 Research Team (Relationships, Intimacy, and Sexual Enrichment | Race, Intersectionality, and Social justice Engagement), where they study sex, social justice, and leadership – all with a love ethic.”
Asked about the possible ethics concerns of hiring a faculty member’s private company to provide this service, the university also declined to comment.
The administrators’ workshop titled “Cultivating an Anti-Racist Mindset for Academic Administrators” involved participants stating their “chosen metric for anti-racism,” to whom they have chosen to be accountable, and the steps that they have taken thus far.
Mary Davis, Dean of the UK J. David Rosenberg College of Law, wrote that she has begun to “force myself to accept white inferiority,” and that it has been “really hard.”
Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Eric N. Monday focused on race-based hiring and compensation in his responses.
He chose “increase # of BIPOC M/F staff,” as his chosen anti-racism metric and specified that they be at “compensation of $50,000 or greater.” He further added that that he “created a BIPOC recruitment fund of $250,000 per year for [the] next two years.” It is unclear where the money for this recruitment fund is from.
“I will also add a diversity, equity, and inclusion element into all merit reviews for faculty,” one administrator wrote.
Multiple worksheets mentioned reading books on Critical Race Theory such as Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and White Fragility by Robin Diangelo.
The information revealed by these administrators’ answers, as well as their willingness to participate in such a workshop, show how truly far-gone our universities are. The university administration at UK is adopting a philosophy of white inferiority, so much so that they refused to answer when YAF asked if they believed that some races were inferior to others. The answer should be pretty easy: No.