US soldiers were taught about their ‘white privilege’ during a training session at Fort Gordon last week.
400 US soldiers at For Gordon were taught about their white privilege during a training session last Thursday.
Stripes.com reported:
Army officials are investigating a diversity training briefing at Fort Gordon, Ga., in which a slide about “white privilege” was inappropriately shown to soldiers, according to an Army spokeswoman.
The Equal Opportunity briefing took place Thursday for about 400 soldiers of the 67th Signal Battalion, Capt. Lindsay Roman, an Army spokeswoman, said Friday. The slide titled “The Luxury of Obliviousness” has bullet-point items about “white privilege.”
One item reads, “Race privilege gives whites little reason to pay a lot of attention to African Americans or to how white privilege affects them. ‘To be white in America means not having to think about it.’ “
An image of the slide appeared later Thursday on a Facebook page and generated a torrent of negative comments about political correctness run amok.
The presentation was not authorized, nor was it part of the standard slides shown to soldiers, Roman said.
“The unit (Equal Opportunity) instructor deviated from the authorized topic and content which was provided,” Roman said. “To prevent further instances, all unit instructors will receive additional training on the importance of following Army EO training requirements.”
This is not the first time the military has taught about white privilege. The Equal Opportunity Advisor Student Guide, which was used to train Equal Opportunity instructors during a 3-month course at Patrick Air Force Base, also explicitly discussed the topic of white privilege.