Exclusive: Diversity Training Tells DEI Coordinators to Disrupt Schools

A diversity training affiliated with the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), instructs participants to disrupt schools and suggests that those who hold “dehumanizing views” must be purged.

The video from the training, which was obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, was recorded at the 2021 Diversity Practioner’s Institute. The online conference was hosted by the Southern Association of Independent Schools, an organization that is part of the NAIS.

The talk, titled “Set Up to Fail?: Red flags for DEI professionals working for institutional change,” was led by educator-activist Liza Talusan, who hosts workshops on “inclusive hiring” and “anti-racism.” 

Talusan is also on the board of an organization called “Teaching While White,” which seeks to make teachers “racially literate” so that they can answer questions like “How does investigating whiteness impact the identity development of white students?” and “What are the best practices for making whiteness explicit in classrooms?”

The session was sponsored by Carney Sandoe and Associates, a recruiting firm for the NAIS and Pollyanna Inc, which aims to assist “academic institutions and corporations achieve their diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging goals.”

In the talk, Talusan told the DEI professionals that “Your job is to interrogate tradition. Your job is to point out that way whiteness, and white advantage, and white culture, and white norms are embedded in the school.” She added, “Your job description is to be disruptive.” 

“When you’re a director of equity there should be nothing in your day that is upholding the status quo,” Talusan remarked, also noting “your job is to shift power to those most impacted.” If your school is attempting to become anti-racist, “people have to turn over power” Talusan contends.

The educator-activist also alluded to the need to purge community members who do not go along with the DEI agenda.

“Some of us have people in our school who create toxic environments,” Talusan stated, going on to remark, “and my question is: why are they still there?” She followed up the question by asking, “Whose safety is being sacrificed and minimized to allow others to be comfortable maintaining dehumanizing views?” The presenter did not elaborate on what she meant by the term “dehumanizing views.”

Talusan also spoke out against the concept of civility, saying “The only people I’ve ever heard told to be more civil are black women, black men, and anybody who is trying to fight for justice.” She continued, remarking “I have never heard white people be told to be more civil.” Talusan even went so far as to claim that “Civility is the burden of those most marginalized.”

Talusan is active with the NAIS People of Color Conference (POCC), an annual gathering that seeks to further spread the tenets of Critical Race Theory throughout America’s private K-12 schools.

Several years in a row, Talusan has written a “love letter” to attendees of the conference. In her 2020 letter, she called the conference a “respite from whiteness” and warns white people that “your presence at PoCC as a white person changes things,” even saying that it “changes whether people feel safe.”

Talusan’s letter also reads “If you’ve read my work … you know that I’d prefer that your whiteness wasn’t present.”

Breitbart News exclusively reported that the NAIS was hosting Critical Race Theory trainings for teachers at these POCC that were run by a former Black Panther. Additionally, Breitbart News uncovered that the organization has implemented a “queer inclusive” curriculum that begins in pre-K.

Breitbart News also revealed that the NAIS has partnered with Gender Spectrum, an organization that seeks to normalize child transgenderism and even works directly with a surgical firm that performs sex-change operations. 

Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com