by Frank Bergman
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is under fire after a parental advocacy group exposed a university-backed project that openly targets the white “family system” and describes “whiteness” as a societal disease that must be eliminated through re-education and ideological conditioning.
The findings come even as President Donald Trump’s administration continues dismantling far-left DEI structures across government and public institutions.
Yet many of these programs remain embedded in federally funded universities.
UMN alone received $628 million in federal research awards in 2024.
The group Defending Education uncovered that the university’s Culture and Family Lab, part of its Institute of Child Development, hosts an entire resource hub titled “Whiteness Pandemic Resources for Parents, Educators, and other Caregivers.”
The premise is unambiguous and asserts that American children raised in white families are supposedly incubating racism from birth.
One line from the site states:
“At birth, young children growing up in white families begin to be socialized into the culture of whiteness, making the family system one of the most powerful systems involved in systemic racism.”
The resource demands that white parents “self-reflect, re-educate [themselves], and act,” urges the adoption of “courageous antiracist parenting,” and recommends that caregivers “listen to, take seriously, and follow the stories and recommendations” of Black Lives Matter while “humanizing victims of police brutality and racism — such as Mr. George Floyd.”
It also directs parents to openly political materials for children, pushing discussions about “race, racism, white privilege, and antiracism.”
“Whiteness” Treated as a Pathogen
Much of the material draws from a 2021 paper by lab director Gail Ferguson, titled “The whiteness pandemic behind the racism pandemic,” published in American Psychologist and dedicated to George Floyd.