California professors sue colleges over ‘totalitarian’ rules that make them ‘teach and preach’ austere ‘anti-racism’ they don’t agree with, in policy affecting 1.8M students

A group of professors has sued California community colleges for making them teach “diversity, equality, and inclusion” (DEI) ideas they disagree with, saying it violates their First Amendment rights.

The six professors at three colleges in the Fresno area say they must “teach and preach” austere “anti-racist” beliefs, under rules that affect more than 54,000 educators and some 1.8 million students.

Their papers were filed this week by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire), a freedom of expression group.

Fire attorney Daniel Ortner called the state’s DEI rules a “totalitarian triple-whammy.”

“The government is forcing professors to teach and proclaim a politicized point of view that they do not share, imposes incomprehensible guidelines, and threatens to punish professors if they cross an arbitrary, indistinguishable boundary.”

Professors who don’t follow the rules will struggle to get promoted and could lose their tenure, court documents show.

The college system has not yet commented on the matter.

Proponents of DEI schemes say they address longstanding racist and sexist discrimination in schools and workplaces, but critics say they ultimately fuel divisions between groups and marginalize white men.

The professors are James Druley, David Richardson, Linda de Morales, and Loren Palsgaard of Madera Community College; Bill Blanken of Reedley College and Michael Stannard of Clovis Community College.

Their lawsuit focuses on the “new rules for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility,” which the academics say they must “teach and preach.”

According to the system, educators must promote “anti-racism” and “recognize” that “people of different racial, ethnic and other minority groups face” “the many forms of oppression.”

The case references an official glossary of DEI terms, which includes everything from “colorblindness” to “hidden racism,” “implicit bias,” “privilege,” and “white immunity.”

According to the glossary, there is no such thing as “reverse racism.”

That term was “created and used by white people to misdescribe the discrimination they experience” when minorities abuse them, it says.

The glossary also focuses on the concept of “merit” and testing systems for colleges.

This is not a “neutral measure of academic achievement,” but part of an “ideology of whiteness” designed to contain minorities, it says.

In a separate California DEI document, professors are told not to take academic freedom too far.

They must not “weaponize” academic freedom to “inflict curricular trauma” on students, the document says.

Palsgaard, an English professor at Madera Community College, said this is problematic for teachers who try to present opposing views.

“Hearing uncomfortable ideas is not a learning trauma, and teaching all sides of an issue is not a weapon of academic freedom,” said Palsgaard, one of the plaintiffs.

‘That’s just called education.’

Another plaintiff, Blanken, of Reedley College, said he struggled to cram DEI ideas into his chemistry classes.

“What is the anti-racist perspective on the atomic mass of boron?” he said.

The professors’ 219-page complaint was filed this week in U.S. District Court in Fresno.

They want the DEI rules declared unconstitutional and ended.

They also want their fees and legal fees paid.

The newspapers call the the college system chancellor Sonya Christian, the State Board of Governors, the State Center Community College District Chancellor Carole Goldsmith, and the District Board of Trustees.

Melissa Villarin, a spokeswoman for the college chancellor’s office, said they “have no comment on this pending lawsuit at this time.”

“Our response to the plaintiffs’ request is expected to be filed in court the following day,” she told DailyMail.com.

The case is just the latest example of educators complaining about bullying by teaching chiefs who parrot DEI principles they disagree with — and about struggling to get hired or fired if they don’t.

For some, DEI schemes are important and necessary as they can help overcome historic racism and sexism and make it easier for people of all backgrounds to advance in education and work.

But many conservatives say that DEI is a form of reverse discrimination that unfairly hits white men back.

Others say DEI schemes may be well-intentioned but rarely achieve their desired goals and often make matters worse by creating divisions in offices and classrooms.

DEI employees now account for more than 3.4 positions for every 100 tenured professors, according to nationwide research from The Heritage Foundation, fueling fears of a ballooning industry that some say is little more than a wake-up exercise.