ASU professor who sued school over mandatory DEI training tells 'Fox & Friends' that course teaches 'racism'

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Arizona State University professor Dr Owen Anderson appeared alongside co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Ainsley Earhardt to talk about his lawsuit against the institution over its mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training on Friday, March 22 episode of 'Fox & Friends.'

Anderson filed his suit with The Goldwater Institute, a conservative nonprofit organization, after teaching philosophy, religious studies, and theology at ASU for more than 20 years.

Dr Owen Anderson accuses ASU of running racist DEI training

According to the lawsuit, the DEI training is in violation of a two-year-old law that forbids public agencies from requiring employees to engage in training that presents any form of "blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex."

It further alleges discrimination by "compelling the speech of public employees by requiring faculty and staff to take an examination following a training that presents forms of blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex, and answer with Arizona State University’s ‘correct’ answers, in violation of the Arizona Constitution."

"This is the first time I had required DEI training," Anderson told the co-hosts. "And what was objectionable about this specific training is that it divides people up based on race, and then it assigns blame based on skin color."

"That's the essence of racism. And so we have a state law in Arizona that prohibits state agencies from using public money to teach race blame, or any kind of racial judgment."

ASU says the lawsuit 'misled' the court 

A spokesperson from the university told 'Fox & Friends' the previous day, "The Goldwater Institute suit misled the court and misrepresents both the content and requirements of this training to make an argument that represents a political perspective but is not based on the law."

"ASU's commitment to providing a supportive and welcoming educational environment for students of all backgrounds will continue and the university will respond appropriately to the Institute's test tactics," they stated.

However, the professor pushed back saying, "What the Goldwater Institute did was they provided 173 pages, which is just the content of these teaching modules and the quizzes, so that people can see for themselves and the court will be able to see."

Titled "ASU Inclusive Communities," the training's content reportedly includes themes such as "White supremacy (is) normalized in society," and "Sexual identities are linked to power, and heterosexuality, the dominant sexual identity in American culture, is privileged by going largely unquestioned."

Anderson further claimed that he opposed demands to "decolonize" his classroom and his syllabus a few years ago. There are other members of the faculty who are sympathetic to his cause but are understandably "afraid to speak up," he noted.