Charles Egerton denigrated white people during a lecture at the University of North Carolina (UNC) – Greensboro and stated that “whiteness” is a ploy to oppose critical race theory. 

His comments were delivered during a panel, titled, “Common Threads: Attacks on Critical Race Theory: Centering Whiteness.” A description for the video lecture promises to unpack “four central myths and attacks being used by political and social opponents that seek to demonize and misrepresent Critical Race Theory and center whiteness. ” It further reads:  

“Whiteness is defined as a false ideology that infects people of light skin which in turn supports a system of white supremacy and anti-Black racism. The various components of the fallacious attacks against CRT are discussed in comparison with the realities of what CRT is and is not. 

A slide for the lecture labels whiteness as an “overarching disease.”

“We frame these attacks in an understanding of a systematic weaponization of the Straw Man Fallacy. The presenters assert that Critical Race Theory is a powerful diagnostic and research lens that is essential to our pursuit of justice and oneness.” 

 

Although the Youtube page is now deleted, a transcription by Not The Bee noted that Egerton described whiteness as an “attack on the truth” : 

“…looking at whiteness as a disease. The social construct is false. There is no superiority of people with lighter skin. So it’s important to see it as, really, it’s a disease because it’s an attack on the truth.”

Continuing:

“Whiteness is not true, in terms of what it imposes on us in our culture and our society. And then racism is a symptom of the disease of whiteness, really. And that’s just saying where it starts and where it leads to.” 

According to his university biography, Egerton is an instructor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and has taught at UNC since 2016. 

 

 

Published – November 7, 2022