This article was originally posted by Richard Liebrecht of the Edmonton Sun.
“A white person looking for an apartment to rent does not face similar challenges that an aboriginal person does,” said Coun. Amarjeet Sohi, explaining what is meant by the phrase white privilege.
But Ryan Hastman, the federal Conservative candidate for the Edmonton-Strathcona, said he’s concerned because the campaign’s focus on white people is too narrow.
“If we try to address these issues by singling out groups, it seems to be counterproductive,” said Hastman, who posted some of his concerns on Twitter.
The City of Edmonton and 13 Edmonton organizations – including the Edmonton Police Service, Alberta Human Rights Commission and Edmonton Catholic Schools – are behind the Racism-Free Edmonton campaign.
The campaign is focused on identifying and resolving institutional barriers faced by aboriginal people and other racial groups in Edmonton, according to a City of Edmonton release.
The campaign aims to have 30,000 Edmontonians sign a scroll committing to defeating racism locally.
On the campaign’s website, http://www.racismfreeedmonton.com, under the “What can you do to stop racism” heading, the first line reads “acknowledge your white privilege.”
Read the full article here.
Re/Visionist 
Racism Free Edmonton is a settled fact, I guess: all mentions of white privilege have already vanished from the site. Compare: Google Cache. I’d like to think they’re regrouping rather than agreeing to perpetuate public silence, but considering the Edmonton Police Service’s involvement, that’s too generous.
A better hedge against backlash would be to make “check your privilege” step one, with locally observable white privilege as an existence proof of the need to do so. McIntosh’s article merits public discussion, and the empty Related Documents field in its place is unconscionable.
Contact details for anyone interested:
Email: racismfreeedmonton@edmonton.ca
Phone: (780) 495-1957
Fax: (780) 944-0308
Jason, thank you for your comments on the topic and further info. We at RE/V are all particularly fond of the “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” article. Voices like yours are those we are delighted to hear from, so feel free to submit any further thoughts and/or fleshed out pieces on this or other topics to revisionistslc@gmail.com.
You are seeing this message because a comment was deleted. While we hope to facilitate healthy dialogue with a multitude of perspectives and opinions, we support the maintaining of a safer space for a discussion free of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and other oppressions.