Last Saturday, students sat in a circle on the floor of the Center for African American Studies lounge playing “Star Power,” trading colorful chips and receiving badges of different hues. But “Star Power” is no typical board game: it is geared toward exploring wealth and privilege in the United States.

The students were attending an anti-racism workshop entitled “Confronting Racism and White Privilege,” hosted by student group Confronting Racism and White Privilege Project (CRAWPP).

CRAWPP works “towards exposing and challenging our internalized racism and its underlying systemic causes,” according to its mission statement. Created in the fall of 2003, the group was originally a student-run, discussion-oriented group devoted to anti-racist work.

The following year, the group expanded its focus to include outreach to the campus community. Members hosted “Whiteness at Wesleyan” forums that discussed the roles that whiteness and white privilege play in activism and housing policy.

When the majority of the group’s members graduated in 2005, CRAWPP disappeared completely until Beth Herz ’07 and Liz Love ’07 revived it this fall, with a new mission statement and outlook.

“The idea is that white students need to work internally and as a community to examine their position in racist structures, in order to effectively participate in multi-racial organizing,” Love said. “White people have all benefited from the social construction of whiteness, whether or not they recognize it.”

Fellow member Mike Litwack ’08 agreed.

“White people directly benefit from the oppression of people of color in the white supremacist society in which we live,” he said. “My body carries power and privilege because it is a white body. My whiteness and my white privilege have deeply shaped how I understand the world, how I understand others, and how I understand myself.”

Because of this benefit, Love argues that challenging whiteness on a personal and systemic level is necessary in anti-racism work that seeks to confront racism on a daily basis.

“If a white person is going to engage in anti-racism work, they must understand their own roles in perpetuating racism,” Love said.

CRAWPP meets weekly for discussions, in which members “join in the struggle to dismantle racism,” according to its mission statement.

“White people have to do internal work to be a part of the process,” said member Shira Miller ’07.

Additionally, the students convene to plan outreach programs, such as last Saturday’s workshop.

About 40 students attended the 8-hour session, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Facilitated by Community Change, Inc. and the Women’s Theological Center—two Boston-based organizations committed to anti-racism work—students engaged in discussion, self-reflective writing, and interactive games.

Additionally, the two facilitators from these organizations showed a PBS video clip and presented a PowerPoint presentation that explained the definition and ramifications of institutionalized racism. The leaders then localized the discussion, leading a brainstorming activity about the expression of institutionalized racism at the institution of Wesleyan.

“I think that the most valuable parts of the workshop were the times when we actually talked about Wesleyan and how race operates on our campus through specific institutions,” said participant Alexis Horan ’10.

The aforementioned game, “Star Power,” involved a simulation of social stratification through the amassing and trading of chips.

“It demonstrated the social stratification and power structure in society,” said participant Susanna Myrseth ’10. “It also demonstrated the abuse of power.”

Co-leader Herz elaborated.

“[The game] showed the myth of the American dream and the accumulation of wealth and privilege from generation to generation,” she said.

Having spent much of this year planning and preparing for the workshop, CRAWPP members were pleased with the event, though it was not without difficulties.

“Participating in the workshop illustrated to me the many challenges of organizing conversations on race and racism across differences,” Litwack said.

Love agreed, noting that though students of all years were in attendance, there was also a widespread difference in attendants’ expectations and ideas.

“Organizing [the workshop] is a challenge, because it was open to everyone and thus the students that came were coming from different backgrounds with different needs, and that was made visible during the workshop,” she said.

Though the event was 8 hours long, CRAWPP members were frustrated that they did not have enough time to discuss everything they had wanted during the workshop.

“Time was short,” Herz said. “We didn’t get to everything on the agenda.”

Despite these complications, however, the group hopes to hold similar workshops in the future.

“CRAWPP would like to continue to offer spaces like this,” Herz said.

As for long-term goals, the group is hoping to establish a critical pedagogy program.

“[The program] seeks to re-narrate history through more progressive education programs,” Love said.

Additionally, such a program would attempt to create a safe space for learning where students could examine history through an anti-oppression lens.

“[The program seeks to] re-imagine the classroom as a libratory space,” Litwack said.

CRAWPP’s ultimate hope is that the University will eventually offer a course cluster that includes classes on education, anti-oppression, social justice work, and critical theory—and that participating students will go on to become teachers and employ the methods they have learned.