Parent objects to teaching ‘white privilege’ theory
By Michael S. Hoey
CORRESPONDENT
The Delavan-Darien School District will evaluate a class called American Diversity offered at Delavan-Darien High School before it is taught again as the result of a complaint filed by resident Lisa Olson.
Olson lodged her complaint during the Dec. 10 School Board meeting. Her son is taking the diversity class and brought home material about “white privilege” and “critical race theory” that Olson considered offensive. Olson asked the School Board to remove the material from the curriculum of the class and evaluate the entire class.
According to material Olson provided, some of which she got from her son and some she researched on her own, white privilege is a set of advantages that are believed to be enjoyed by white people beyond those commonly experienced by non-white people in the same social, political and economic spaces.
Some definitions of white privilege say white people can benefit from it without being racist or prejudiced and may be unaware they have any privileges reserved only for white people. Other definitions say white people are racist even if they do nothing overtly racist because they benefit from the privileges. Those definitions say white people who deny white privilege are ignorant.
District Superintendent Robert Crist said Jan. 7 that the class is not offered during the spring semester. A committee will be established that will include representatives of every ethnic group in the city to evaluate the course title, its objectives, and the material used to meet those objectives, keeping common core standards in mind. A formal course approval will be submitted and approved by the School Board before the class will be taught again next year.
The School Board was updated on that decision Monday night.
Olson said teacher Jeremy Anderson used poor judgment in selecting material for the class that Olson found to be “divisive, hateful, radical left-wing political propaganda.”
“I am extremely offended that this course is being used as a way not to bring Americans together but to divide and blame, and that solves nothing,” Olson said.
Anderson was not made available for comment per district policy. Before the decision was made to evaluate the course, Crist said he thought Anderson was looking at different methodologies to present materials so students can draw their own conclusions.
Olson said that was not the case. She felt Anderson was teaching white privilege and critical race theory as facts and indoctrinating his students without providing any counter evidence.
Crist said Olson has been the only parent to express any concerns about the elective class and said the district was working through the complaint process outlined in district policy. He said before the decision was made to form a committee to evaluate the course, the district needed the necessary time to investigate Olson’s concerns and how the issues are presented and discussed in class.
Olson listed material by Tim Wise, Peggy McIntosh and Robert Jensen as particularly offensive from the class. She said students spent two class periods watching a YouTube video of Wise that promoted the idea that white people clearly enjoy a system of privilege.
Wise said in the video the popular “colorblind” approach to race relations is ineffective because white people do not understand the consequences of color as a result. Wise considers the phrase “united we stand” ironic since disadvantaged minorities are not united with white America.
Wise said white privilege actually hurts white Americans because they don’t have the coping skills to deal with crises and they have a sense of entitlement that turns all white people into collaborators.
Jensen wrote in an article presented to the students that America should not celebrate Thanksgiving because it is a “white supremacist” holiday that celebrates the genocide committed by our founding fathers.
A list created by McIntosh provides 50 reasons that prove white privilege exists. McIntosh wrote that whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege and she called it an “invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious.”
Olson said the students were given an unfair assignment in which they were assigned to go to Walmart and count the number of toys marketed to African American children. Olson said Walmart stocks its shelves with products appropriate for the community it is located in, and Delavan has an African American population of 1.7 percent, making the assignment misleading.
Olson said the material should be removed from the course. White privilege is discussed in larger schools that offer diversity classes including Lake Geneva Badger and Beloit Memorial. White privilege is not part of the curriculum in smaller schools like Elkhorn, Williams Bay and Big Foot where diversity classes are not offered.
