THE PRIVILEGE INSTITUTE

Eddie Moore Jr. (with camera), founder of The Privilege Institute, is organizer of the 23rd annual White Privilege Conference March 9-12 at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Everyone has privilege. What’s done with it is the focus of the 23rd annual White Privilege Conference March 9-12 at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Organizers expect nearly 1,000 people from 35 states to attend the forum, themed “Wade in the Water: White Supremacy, Religion and Reciprocity,” including faith community leaders, business professionals, educators, and activists. Topics will include power and privilege; how diversity paradigms sustain white privilege and organizing against white supremacy. A one-day institute for middle- and high school students will also be held.

Registration is open for in-person and virtual attendance. The fees vary according to group size and attendee category. For conference details and Covid-19 safety protocols, visit www.theprivilegeinstitute.com/wpc23charlotte.

With the rise in racial violence and reckoning in the U.S. over the last decade along with a resulting backlash, the forum’s intent is to open dialogue on what privilege means, no matter how painful.

“I think the timing is really divine, to be honest with you, because we’ve been at it for 23 years now,” said Eddie Moore Jr., the conference’s founder, and president of the Green Bay, Wisconsin-based The Privilege Institute. “I think in light of some of the things that have been going on … we have to continue to have spaces in places where we can have these difficult conversations, be in agreement, be in disagreement, but most importantly be committed to action, and doing a better job understanding the challenges [while] providing some solutions working towards action.”

The conference will include workshops, presentations, and networking among participants in a setting that welcomes honest dialogue about how privilege and oppression play out in society and what can be done to change it.

Among the speakers are Bree Newsome, a Charlotte artist and activist who drew national attention when she removed the confederate battle flag from the South Carolina Capitol flagpole; Rev. Gregory Drumwright, a North Carolina-based theologian and social justice organizer; Khyati Y. Joshi, co-founder of the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice and an authority on the intersection of race, religion, and immigration; and Resmaa Manaken, a bestselling author and anti-racist educator.

Although participants generally are looking to be more aware of their own bias, Moore said he’s found many leave realizing that understanding privilege and acting upon it is a non-stop process.

“Some of the things that we continue to get comments from people after leaving are the things they have to do in the most intimate places that they go back to,” said Moore, who is co-creator of the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge that has engaged more than 1 million people in learning how racism and inequities affects society. “I think that's what the ‘choir,’ if we use that as a way to describe some of the people who come who want to be there, that feel they talk about when leaving that conference. Some of the toughest work they have to do is to work with the people they love the most – those family, intimate friendships and relationships that they have that haven’t explored issues of white supremacy, white privilege and other forms of oppression.

“Secondly, there’s also some internal work that people have to do – even myself as someone who believes in justice and who’s been doing justice work. There’s some things that I internalized around male supremacy around men being dominant, that I every year have to do some additional exploration. So, there's some tough internal work that people have to do.”

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