A Mayo Clinic professor has diagnosed whiteness as an illness, and he’s offering his expert opinion on what to do about it at this year’s White Privilege Conference in Connecticut.

Dante King, an “Author, Educator, Leader, Speaker & Innovator” at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science will headline the March 2025 conference in Hartford, where he’ll focus his keynote address on “Unpacking Whiteness & Anti-Blackness as Illnesses,” according to a flyer from The Privilege Institute sponsoring the conference, which will be held at Connecticut Community College in Hartford, Conn.

King’s talk “explores the development, construction, and functionality of race and racism as psychopathology, psychopathy, and sociopathy,” according to the flyer. “It spotlights White-delusion as the normalized psychological and cultural context upon which all Americans live and exist.

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“It also highlights the psychopathic and sociopathic development of anti-Blackness as an American Politic. Attendees are invited to evaluate their communities’, as well as their own individual relationships to Whiteness, anti-non-Whiteness, and anti-Blackness,” it read.

The White Privilege Conference initially booked Robin Di’Angelo, the white author of the bestselling book White Fragility, as keynote speaker, despite widespread criticism of the tome that catapulted her to fame in 2018.

The “circular logic” in White Fragility frames Black people as “almost entirely powerless,” The Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada wrote, while black Columbia University professor John McWhorter argued the book “openly infantilized Black people” and “simply dehumanized us,” in a 2020 column for The Atlantic.

“While I am disappointed that I cannot be with you this year, I am absolutely thrilled that you now have the opportunity to experience the brilliant and brave Dante King,” Di’Angelo said on the flyer.

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“I have had the honor of working with Dante over the past several years and in my decades of engagement in anti-racism, I have never experienced his level of truth-telling,” she said. “Dante brings the rare combination of boldness and compassion, enabling him to take a group deeper than I have ever witnessed. I can sum Dante up in one phrase: Awe-inspiring!”

The annual White Privilege Conference was launched by Eddie Moore Jr. in 1999 offering workshops for students and adults focused on racism, race, perceived white privilege, sexism, black oppression, and racial justice, and has since expanded to incorporate other issues aligned with the LGBTQ community.

The annual event is aimed at promoting the theory of White Privilege – that American society is hopelessly stacked against minorities and the only way to fix the system is for white people to acknowledge their immense “privilege” and repent.

The event draws thousands of students, teachers, school administrators and counselors each year, and they incorporate the lessons learned into classrooms nationwide. The conference has also inspired similar trainings at public universities and K-12 schools, funded by taxpayers.

The 2025 event features yoga, networking, workshops, exhibits, entertainment, keynote addresses, “caucus space,” film previews, and other festivities across four days, March 26-29.

Student workshops at past events included “Racial Literacy Reflections: Youth Buffering Rejection through a Racial Trauma Magazine,” “I’m a good person! Isn’t That Enough?” “Nativism 101,” “Hip Hop and White Privilege,” “White Privilege and Implicit Bias: Dealing with Unconscious Stereotypes and Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” and others.

The cost to attend varies by the type of registration, from a minimum of $350 to as much as $775, according to the an event page on The Privilege Institute website. Sponsorships for the conference cost between $250 and $25,000.

The theme for 2025: “Antiracism, Art, and James Baldwin’s Legacy.”

“CT State Youth Summit celebrates the centennial anniversary of artist/activist James Baldwin with interactive workshops, panel discussions, spoken word and a call to action,” the event page read.

Baldwin’s legacy, it contends, “connects to (Connecticut State Community College’s) mission of ‘bold and disruptive change’ and working towards being an equally-minded institution.”

CT State Community College “will recognize up to 15 continuing education hours” for all “licensed clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists and licensed professional clinical counselors … and their respective intern trainees” who qualify.

“The CE hours are LCSW-supervised and a certificate will be provided upon completion of both attendance and a one (1) page write-up integrating WPC content into your clinical practice,” according to The Privilege Institute event page.