Are California's New 'Woke' DEI College Standards Illegal?
Join Reason on YouTube at 1 p.m. Eastern for a discussion about a lawsuit against California Community Colleges' new DEI standards with FIRE attorney Jessie Appleby and the plaintiff
California Community Colleges' new teaching standards "mandate viewpoint conformity" and "compel professors to teach and preach the State's perspective," according to a lawsuit called Palsgaard v. Christian, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE.
Join Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a discussion with Jessie Appleby, an attorney with FIRE, and Bill Blanken, the plaintiff and a chemistry professor at Reedley College in California, who says the standards advanced by the state's community college board amount to "compelled speech" in the classroom.
They'll discuss the details of the case, dive into the proposed changes in the classroom, discuss the origins of the "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) standards that pervade academia and the corporate world, and examine FIRE's other case against Florida's Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits the kind of classroom instruction that California's new standards compel.
Watch the stream on Reason's YouTube channel.
Sources referenced in this conversation:
Palsgaard v. Christian complaint
California Community Colleges DEI curriculum model principles
Tema Okun: "Dismantling White Supremacy Culture"
The Intercept: "Tema Okun on Her Mythical Paper on White Supremacy"
