Professional development for teachers in San Diego now reportedly includes “white-privilege” training so the educators can commit to being “anti-racist.”
Instructors in the training sessions told faculty members of the San Diego Unified School District that they will experience “guilt, anger, apathy [and] closed-mindedness,” according to documents obtained by independent journalist Christopher Rufo.
Teachers in the training are told “you are racist” and “you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies” after being told that they are “colonizers living on stolen Native American land,” according to Rufo’s report on the controversial training.
Video clips of Robin DiAngelo, author of the book, “White Fragility,” and Ibram X. Kendi, author of the book “How to be an Antiracist,” are presented to the educators who are told they “are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies.”
The training begins with a “land acknowledgement,” in which the teachers are asked to accept that they are colonizers living on stolen Native American land. Then they are told they will experience “guilt, anger, apathy, [and] closed-mindedness” because of their “white fragility.” pic.twitter.com/meUO3GiXNu
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 3, 2020
Trainers reportedly tell the participants that “white people in America hold most of the [power]” and that white teachers have an “ability to thrive” that is “being preserved at every level of power.”
The teachers are told that they are part of an oppressive white power structure. The trainers claim that “white people in America hold most of the [power]” and that white teachers have an “ability to thrive” that is “being preserved at every level of power.” pic.twitter.com/NMTpiyb6Ws
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 3, 2020
Teachers in the training are reportedly told they have to become “anti-racist” activists and must “confront and examine [their] white privilege,” as well as “acknowledge when [they] feel white fragility.” They are also directed to “teach others to see their privilege” while transforming their schools into activist organizations.
Finally, teachers are told they must become “anti-racist” activists. They must “confront and examine [their] white privilege,” “acknowledge when [they] feel white fragility,” and “teach others to see their privilege.” They must turn their schools into activist organizations. pic.twitter.com/1KaJobp5Km
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 3, 2020
The training session is reportedly based on the Racial Healing Handbook, according to Fox News.
“We are a majority-minority district with a majority white teacher workforce,” Maureen Magee, the school district’s spokeswoman, told Fox News in an email.
“The ability to hold honest conversations about race with grace is important, which is why we offered the training and why so many teachers elected to enroll,” Magee added. “Our students benefit from being able to talk about race and other difficult issues, regardless of their background. Most of all, we believe every open and sincere conversation about race — no matter how it begins — provides an opportunity to learn from one another, for hearts to open, and for minds to grow.”
Here’s the problem: only 47% of San Diego Unified students reach proficiency in reading and math. Teaching “white fragility” will do nothing to help students improve their academic abilities—it will only serve activist teachers who want to shift the blame to “systemic racism.”
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 3, 2020
“We need to teach students basic reading, writing, and arithmetic—not white fragility, intersectionality, and antiracism,” Rufo, a Research Fellow at Discovery Institute, wrote.
Back in September, Rufo, who serves as the director of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty, exposed disturbing indoctrination of federal employees with white-privilege seminars. A taxpayer-funded training for white male executives on deconstructing “white male culture” was hosted by a research laboratory that designs America’s nuclear weapons.
Rufo uncovered documents from a three-day re-education camp held last year by Sandia National Laboratories in which trainers insisted that white males must “work hard to understand” their “white privilege,” their ”male privilege,” and “heterosexual privilege.
The San Diego Unified School District had decided to become “anti-racist” this year, following nationwide protests in the wake of the police shooting of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A plan was put in place to increase diversity among faculty and eliminate bias in the hiring process, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Police were required to go through de-escalation training as well and the district’s grading system was also overhauled in the effort to deal with alleged racial discrimination.
“This is part of our honest reckoning as a school district,” Richard Barrera, the district’s vice president, said in October, according to NBC San Diego. “If we’re actually going to be an anti-racist school district, we have to confront practices like this that have gone on for years and years.”
Rufo’s report on the school’s training sessions ignited many angry responses from Twitter users.
Disgusting. The second my workplace makes me do this shit they will have to fire me.
— Ace-elect ♠️ (@dramaticallyace) December 4, 2020
I wouldn’t attend. I’d suggest the school administration be terminated.
— Michael Harwood (@UofM_Tiger9396) December 4, 2020
Despicable to see this happen in my hometown. No place for it, children and youth deserve better
— C-Bass #LightTheWorld (@Cbasschronicles) December 3, 2020
Almost every parent that was concerned about their children’s education has pulled their kids from public schools. There is nobody left to protest against this.
— Zuckjeet 🎄🤶 (@zuckjeet) December 3, 2020
In an effort to correct for “supposed” institutional racism we are teaching actual institutional racism. Think about that!
— Bryan Beatty (@BryanB8) December 7, 2020
I’m speechless
— 🇱🇷 (@tmmorgmac) December 4, 2020
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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