School forces 'racist' teachers to attend White privilege program, admit they're on 'stolen land'

Teachers serving in the San Diego Unified School District are reportedly being forced to attend a "White Privilege" training program during which they are told you are racist. The teachers were allegedly told that they “meet in a stolen land” that has been taken away from native Americans. The mandatory training documents were revealed by Journalist Christopher F. Rufo, reported The New York Post. The documents involving slides from the mandatory training were published by Christopher F. Rufo. The teachers were asked what they felt when told that they were racist and "upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies." The program calls on staff to recognize their privilege while also teaching others to recognize their own. They are also instructed to embrace “antiracist” ideas and to “teach others to see their privilege.” The presentation from the program was based on the teaching of White Fragility authored by Robin DiAngelo and Be Anti-racist: A Journal for Awareness, Reflection, and Action’ author Ibram X Kendi.

The program appears to be designed to recognize White privilege and racism. The teachers were asked how they felt about being called a racist or being told “you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies.” The program educates them to not react with animosity to such statements but rather reflect on the statements and see if there's any truth to it. One of the slides in bold letters told the participants: "You Are Racist." This was followed by two questions: “Try to use 1 word to answer the question: How would this make you feel?” and “What would you want to say to someone who tells you this?” The training also encouraged them to check their White privilege and asks them to reflect on White fragility. The program states that guilt, anger, apathy, frustration, closed-mindedness, and defensiveness are often signs of White fragility when confronted with racism or racial discourse and warns that the participants could experience the same. It further states that this kind of fragile response "turns race into the R-word."

The seminar also calls on participants to acknowledge that they are on stolen land. It appears to refer to the Kumeyaay tribe of indigenous people who were forced out of their ancestral lands. The slide reads, "We acknowledge that we meet on stolen land, taken from Indigenous peoples. I am speaking to you from Kumeyaay land. We must acknowledge the hidden history of violence against Indigenous peoples in an effort to move towards justice.”

The ‘white privilege training’ appears to have begun as an anti-racism initiative in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police. The program was aimed at “eliminating racial injustice in policing and other spheres of American life.” Donald Trump recently slammed the training and said he wanted to end racial sensitivity training for federal government employees in September, labeling it as "divisive, anti-American propaganda". He also claimed that the training was designed to teach people to “hate our country”.

Trump said he wanted to end taxpayer-funded seminars on “critical race theory” labeling it a “sickness.” Earlier this year, Trump came under criticism for holding the July 4 celebrations on Mount Rushmore, sparking calls for the removal of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial as it is carved on sacred land. "Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation of a country that cannot keep a promise of a treaty than the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States calls Mount Rushmore," said Harold Frazier, the chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. "The United States of America wishes for all of us to be citizens and a family of their republic yet when they get bored of looking at those faces we are left looking at our molesters," said Frazier, in a statement released on June 29, reported CNN.