Patrick Hampton, staff member of the conservative Hamilton Flourishing group, said Hamilton County teachers have been learning about "white privilege" at in-service training.
He said in a Facebook post, "This is what Hamilton County employees and teachers have to sit through. This is called professional development. The liberal left is running the systems that educate children."
Mr. Hampton posted a slide from a speaker that says, "White privilege is both a legacy and a cause of racism."
The slide also says, "White privilege exists because of historic, enduring racism and biases."
Another slide says white privilege:
- Less likely to be followed, interrogated or searched by law enforcement
- Skin tone will not affect their credit or financial responsibility
- When accused of crime, portrayed as good person
- Don't lose opportunities when mistakes are made
A slide on Racism says:
- People of color cannot be racist because they lack the institutional power to affect white lives
- Even if minorities sometimes complain about whites, such complaints serve as coping mechanisms to withstand racism rather than actual anti-white bias
- Even when minorities express or practice racism against whites, they are not racists.
HCDE officials said, "Hamilton County Hamilton County Schools regrets that there have been misinterpretations of a presentation today to Opportunity Zone Learning Community teachers. The presentation was actually about how adverse childhood experiences can impact behavior in the classroom and methods to have effective classroom management.
"Slides from a presentation by guest speaker Robert Jackson, a former NFL player and teacher, given today to teachers at the annual Urban Education Institute have been taken out of context and misrepresented in Facebook posts. The slides are being misrepresented as a presentation on white privilege. For the slides in question, the speaker was reviewing terms that can impact perception and definitions attached to the terms when the slides were used. White Privilege was one of several terms on slides during the short part of the presentation.
"The district will put additional safeguards in place for external presenters to ensure there is less potential of misinterpretation of the content shared in the future."