Segregationist conference planned for Anchorage to discuss race and the land in Alaska; whites can only attend half of the conference

By
Suzanne Downing
-
45

A two-day conference on the relationship between “race and land in Alaska” is being sponsored by the Alaska Humanities Forum on Aug. 6 and 7.

The first day of the conference is limited to “BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) folks,” according to the Alaska Humanities Forum.

The nonprofit, which receives government and private funding, says that both days will “include elements of storytelling, art, conversation, and connection to land and place. This will take place in the Mountain View neighborhood of Anchorage.”

Mistinguette Smith from the Black/Land Project, will be the facilitator of the two day “conversation experience.” Last year, Smith wrote that she was erasing the term “BIPOC.” This year, the conference is dedicated to BIPOC on the first day; this means anyone who is not white.

“After a year of chafing and muttering about it to myself, I am ready to say this out loud. I am refusing the acronym BIPOC. I am taking it out of my mouth. I’m laying it down. I am recommitting to the much maligned term “people of color.” I’m not doing this because I’m old-fashioned or politically retrograde. As a Black woman who loves Black people, I am acutely aware of the unique and specific ways that racism harms Black people. I’m refusing BIPOC to reclaim a strength: the political power of solidarity,” Smith wrote in USA Today one year ago.

“BIPOC – an acronym for Black, Indigenous and other people of color – was part of how we talked about race during the COVID-19 spring of 2020. The term was useful to bring focus to the deadly experiences of oppression faced by Black and Indigenous people. Although some people didn’t like it or didn’t understand it, the term BIPOC filled the streets with multiracial rage about the murder of George Floyd and anti-Black policing. BIPOC reminded us to open our Zoom with acknowledgements that wherever we are, we are on Indigenous land.”

Smith wrote, “People of color is not a racial identity, but a political one.” Yet the conference is racially segregated according to the term BIPOC.

Read Smith’s viewpoints at this link to get a sense of how the August conversation will develop.

Those Alaskans who feel discriminated against by the conference may file a complaint with the Alaska Human Rights Commission at this link.

“This program is still being developed, however, we wanted to give participants the opportunity to save the date on their calendars as soon as possible,” says the humanities forum website.

Partnering in the racially sensitive and segregated event are: Grow North Farm, The Alaska Center, NeighborWorks Alaska, Native Movement, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Alaska Master Gardeners Anchorage, and the Alaska Botanical Garden.

45 COMMENTS

  2. Let’s have a White People conference and celebration of Whiteness Day. Great inventors. Great business people. Great leaders. Great authors. Great filmakers. Great scientists.
    Great musicians. Great athletes. Great spiritual advisers. Great inclusionists. Great advocates for the poor. Great taxpayers. Great patriots.
    Let’s do this!!!

  5. So it’s wasn’t about equality after all. It is about reverse discrimination. Racism is wrong no matter what color irt comes from.

  6. Racism on display. And it’s not by white people.

    That idiot Gen Miley wants to understand “white rage”? Here’s exhibit A

  7. It’s a thread worn tactic to use any possible “differences” to divide and conquer. Seems that agenda driven extremists believe that the results justify the means.
    I’m first and foremost an American, who happens to have a Yupik and Norwegian/German ethnic heritage. I strongly object to anyone using my ethnic heritage to place a wedge between me and my fellow Americans.
    Any conference about “race and land in Alaska” can only involve Alaska Natives and non Natives. BIPOC just stirs the race issue,catering to the haters who hate, just to be hateful crowd.

  8. It would be excellent to stand up to this brand of racism, discrimination, and segregation by using the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights (ASCHR). However, ASCHR is part of the problem. They have their own history of discrimination, selectively choosing cases to represent according to their own opaque and discriminatory precepts that have nothing to do with equal treatment under the law but rather furthering their own political agenda. Good luck to anyone who does file a complaint. I would recommend that people who file such a complaint do their homework. If in fact they want to attend a racist conference, it would be good to document every step, and the show harm of being denied attendance. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a state agency that was proactive enough to make a phone call and help make organizations more inclusive?

  9. I have a pretty good tan and a Yupik wife. I just might show up. Then again do I want to hear this drivel?

  11. “There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that TRUE PEACE is within the souls of man.” — Black Elk

  12. So…can a person of mixed heritage attend AND speak or will we be told how it is? Again? Just be quiet and we’ll tell you how it’s gonna be. Good to know in advance. How much? $?

  13. Wait…so my tax dollars find this organization but I’m not allowed to attend the event in its entirety?? Sounds illegal to me.
    It’s time for white people to start protesting this crap!

  15. So what if there was a conference where the qualification is simply “non-BIPOC”? and another that catered to “non-LGBTQIA? After all, we just want “raise awareness”, for whatever they pejoratively call us “non-people”.

  16. Last i looked it up, white is a color.
    Excluding a person based on their outward appearance, their inferred race is racism.

  17. Actually, white is a combination off all colors. Black is the absence of color. If you have ever looked at what a prism does to light. you can see that.

  18. Is it any wonder that people (of all races) are fleeing the woke movement of the Democratic Party?

  19. They are doing it and getting away with it because nobody will stand up against it. They are reading the comments section of this newsfeed and then basing their decision on our comments. Half of you won’t even disclose your real name!! They have nobody standing in the way.

  20. All you idiots who say they’re person of color are ALL have a white admixture. Not one of you supposed ‘bipoc’ are full blood. Not a one. And not ONE of you are ‘indigenous’. No one is. We ALL came from someplace else. I am done with this malignant hatred and repulsive victim culture from the ‘bipoc’. I say GTFO.

  21. Partnering in the racially sensitive and segregated event are: Grow North Farm, The Alaska Center, NeighborWorks Alaska, Native Movement, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Alaska Master Gardeners Anchorage, and the Alaska Botanical Garden

    Based on the sponsorship list it looks like they are trying to put bipoc persons back in the field….

    • The irony is, no men are literally created equal. Every human is unique. The phrase, taken from the Declaration, carries the implied meaning that all men are created (endowed) with equal God-given rights. After all, that is the essence of what the Declaration is about.

  24. The new racism, which if funded by the government is comical since there are laws against this.

  27. Don’t kid yourselves, these are likely Southside Karen’s wanting to commandeer Mt View backyards for agricultural purposes, or simply justifying their federal paychecks. Charity starts at home ladies, and kindly keep your divisive foolishness out of our neighborhood.

  28. I am old enough to remember when insisting that there be special areas for blacks only was considered racist.
    .
    Ahhh… how times change.

  30. I’m signing up for the entire conference – which will include the first day. While I appear as a Caucasian male, I identify as a 6′ tall, pregnant, Chinese, black woman. Looking forward to the conference – it will be enlightening!

  31. More discrimination. These types of events only divide us. Ahhh… Mountain View, disinvite the whites, more noise to divide us. Let me think who is on the work group thinking this up. I can name one. Thought you were half Italian. Is that where your color comes from TH?

  34. What if nobody but white folks showed up?
    50% of zero is of course, zero divided by two…
    Which is half of nothing.
    So, nobody would be allowed to attend, right?
    Or is it just half of nobody….

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