Tennessee school trains staff on white Christian privilege, says people of color, LGBT are oppressed

A Tennessee school district offered voluntary Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for staff that included a section about how people who are white, male, cisgender, heterosexual or Christian are considered privileged while people of color and those who are nonbinary, polyamorous or pagan are oppressed.

The parental rights group Parents Defending Education obtained a presentation, published Monday by Fox News Digital, from the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System through a public records request.

The presentation from the district's July 19 ENGAGE conference was titled, "The World Needs More Purple People," and it promoted using Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to connect with students.

A "privilege" and "oppression" chart is included in the slideshow. It states that "Privilege Status" is associated with the labels "white," "able-bodied," "men, cisgender," "heterosexual," "Christian," and "middle class." 

Meanwhile, the presentation states that "Oppression Status" is associated with the labels "person of color," physical, cognitive and mental health disability, "women, grand, nonbinary, genderqueer," "LGBQ+, polyamorous, asexual, aromantic," "Muslim, Eastern, Pagan, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist," and "working class."

The presentation also included a section titled, "Trauma from language," which stated: "Topics can be triggering," such as saying things to students like "Make this for your mommy."

Staff were also advised to not use the word "should," in phrases like "You aren't in kindergarten, you should know...," according to the slideshow. It also said that the phrase "'I don’t see color' is the same as saying 'I don’t see you.'"

A spokesperson for the school told Fox that the lecture was not mandatory and the district is in compliance with state law.

"Since this presentation was developed independently by educators and not developed or delivered by the District, I do not have any additional information on the presentation," the spokesperson also said.

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