'Speciesism' is oppression against plants, animals: Public school district assigns students 'privileged or oppressed' worksheet

A Maryland public school district provided students with a worksheet that explained various types of oppression, including "speciesism," or the oppression of plants, flora, and animals, according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education, Fox News Digital reported.

Howard County Public School System had teachers assign students a "Privileged or Oppressed? Worksheet" from the district's Black Lives Matter curriculum.

The worksheet listed 13 types of oppression, including racism, sexism, classism, elitism, religious oppression, anti-Semitism, militarism, ageism, adultism, heterosexism, ableism, xenophobia, linguistic oppression, and speciesism.

The worksheet outlined "non-target groups" and "target groups" for each type of oppression listed. For example, racism was explained as targeting "people of color (African, Asian, Native, Latino/a)" but not targeting "white" individuals. The worksheet taught students that heterosexism oppresses "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender" people, not heterosexuals. Religious oppression was defined as targeting "Muslims and others," but not "Christians, Protestants." It also stated that militarism often targets Vietnam veterans but not those who served in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or the Afghan War.

Lastly, the worksheet explained that speciesism is another form of oppression that targets "animals/plants/flora."

The BLM curriculum instructed students to identify "the places where they enjoy privilege and places where their status causes them to lack privilege."

In January 2021, the district's Board of Education approved a resolution "recognizing Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action." The board declared that the district was "not using the external curriculum put out by the BLM organization" but that school staff had "created lessons that can be used in Middle School or High School."

Documents obtained by PDE revealed that the lesson plan was titled "Diversity and Globalism: Secondary Social Studies Community" and featured a "Black Lives Matter" banner.

According to the lesson plan, for students to understand globalism, they must first learn about privilege and structural inequities. The lesson plan taught students that "people who benefit from privilege are unaware of the existence of the benefits they receive through their status."

One of the learning objectives from the curriculum included that students "understand and can advocate for the principles of Black Lives Matter."

Parents Defending Education director of outreach Erika Sanzi told Fox News Digital, "BLM is an explicitly ideological and political movement that supports the Muslim Brotherhood, seeks to disrupt the western nuclear family, and instructs students to be queer affirming and trans affirming."

"Instruction about racial injustice and black excellence, whether through literature, historical narrative or current events, is essential but the BLM Week of Action materials are not that—instead they are an attempt to indoctrinate children into supporting a movement that they don't understand," Sanzi added.

HCPSS did not reply to a request for comment, Fox News Digital reported.

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