Seattle Tells Its White Teachers to 'Bankrupt' Their Privilege and Acknowledge Their 'Thieved Inheritance'

Washington’s trying to improve its education system.

To that end, the state’s largest public school district is reportedly instructing white teachers to “bankrupt [their] privilege” by keeping a classroom focus on social justice.

This, according to CityJournal writer and Discovery Institute Christopher F. Rufo.

On Friday, Christopher posted to Twitter a series of allegedly leaked documents from Seattle Public Schools.

Front and center: critical race theory training for its molders of young skulls.

The slides ask teachers how they’ll promote racial justice at work, but first, they’re informed everyone’s “on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish People.”

Beyond that, the district issues a Stolen Labor Acknowledgement:

We want to recognize that the United States was built off the stolen labor of kidnapped African and enslaved Black people’s work, which created the profits that created our nation.

Furthermore:

We also recognize the Brown labor currently happening in California and across this country. They are working under terrible air quality conditions, with wildfires burning over 1.2 million acres of land, in addition to the pandemic; to pick strawberries for your smoothies.

The trainers begin by claiming that teachers are colonizers of Native American "ancestral lands" and that “the United States was built off the stolen labor of kidnapped and enslaved Black people’s work, which created the profits that created our nation.” pic.twitter.com/lTSXFACqDD

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 18, 2020

As noted by The Daily Caller, the Creative Team identifies itself — by name, race, and pronouns.

The participants identify themselves by both gender pronouns and race labels. While it has become commonplace in academia to use gender pronoun identifiers, this is perhaps the first example of an institution creating the expectation for explicit race-labeling in the workplace. pic.twitter.com/PJM95tVR0X

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 18, 2020

One member hails from the Department of Racial Equity Advancement.

Here’s the Caller on what they created:

Another slide features author Zaretta Hammond, who has written a book entitled “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain,” which guides teachers on interrupting “implicit bias” in the classroom so they can build trust with “diverse” students. The slide pulls a quote from the book that calls on teachers to “commit to the journey” by checking implicit biases. Another slide shows a quote from Hammond’s book describing how “your lizard-brain” will “freak out” when it’s time to talk about sensitive subjects like racism and sexism, a neurological mechanism that tries to keep people in their comfort zones.

The trainers tell white teachers that they “must commit to the journey” of anti-whiteness, even if their “lizard-brain” makes them “afraid that [they] will have to talk about sensitive issues such as race, racism, classism, sexism, or any kind of ‘ism.’” pic.twitter.com/hfU94v4Rjy

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 18, 2020

Under Bankrupt Your Privilege, the instructional tells white people what’s what:

Let’s take this moment as an opportunity to translate our feelings into actions that protect and cultivate Black futures. … For others, it’s time to bankrupt your privilege in acknowledgement of your thieved inheritance.

The central message is that white teachers must recognize that they “are assigned considerable power and privilege” because of their “possession of white skin.” To atone for this guilt, they must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.” pic.twitter.com/XqFG10xfx4

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 18, 2020

One slide points out, “Whiteness, the centrality of whiteness and the possession of white skin are assigned considerable power and privilege in our society.”

The training appears to separate everyone into two groups.

White people “ultimately…[have] the greatest responsibility to a relationship,” and “reflection and self-interrogation are critical.”

On the other hand:

If you experience marginalization, part of your responsibility is to take care of yourself, practice self-empathy and centering the importance of your feelings.

Teachers also get the low-down on government.

Part of the training involves a lesson on “spirit murder,” which is done to “the souls of Black children every day through systemic, institutionalized, anti-Black, state-sanctioned violence.”

Next, the teachers hold a discussion about “spirit murder,” which, according to Dr. Bettina Love, is the concept that Americans schools “murder the souls of Black children every day through systemic, institutionalized, anti-Black, state-sanctioned violence.” pic.twitter.com/zvgfEI8IJ7

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 18, 2020

So what’s the long and short of it all for whites?

If you’re pale, the city’s got questions:

How are you anti-racist outside the classroom?

In what ways are you practicing anti-racist pedagogy?

How do you talk about the current social justice movements taking place?

What are you willing to risk for racial justice as an educator?

What are you willing to risk for racial justice as an educator?

What is getting in your way?

What are you afraid of?

The goal of this program is to transform public schools into activist organizations. At the end, teachers must explain how they will practice “anti-racist pedagogy,” address “current social justice movements taking place,” and become “anti-racist outside the classroom.” pic.twitter.com/dc4f7R8TVU

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 18, 2020

As for the school district, TDC’s request for comment went unreturned. But if the documents are authentic, the home of Nirvana certainly isn’t alone in its attempt at utopia.

In September, I penned “Minnesota School Superintendent Welcomes Back Teachers, Tells Them to ‘Examine’ Their ‘Whiteness.’

Is all of it accomplishing justice?

Are we bankrupting privilege, or something else we need?

It seems to me America’s in the midst of the Great Pitting — of one race against another, or of all races against one.

And so far as I can figure, the end result isn’t betterment.

But we’ll find out.

We’re definitely going to find out.

-ALEX

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