An Oklahoma school teacher is in hot water for reportedly telling students, "To be white is to be racist, period."
James Coursey — who teaches philosophy at Norman North High School, south of Oklahoma City — made the remark as he lectured his class about healing America's racial divide, The Norman Transcript reports.
The website also quotes Coursey as saying: "Am I racist? And I say, 'Yeah.' I don't want to be. It's not like I choose to be racist, but do I do things because of the way I was raised."
An unidentified female student who recorded the remarks on a cell phone told KFOR-TV, which first reported the story:
"Half of my family is Hispanic, so I just felt like, you know, him calling me racist just because I'm white … I mean, where's your proof in that? I felt like he was encouraging people to kind of pick on people for being white.
"You start telling someone something over and over again that's an opinion, and they start taking it as fact. So, I wanted him to apologize and make it obvious and apparent to everyone that was his opinion."
Norman Public Schools Superintendent Joe Siano said in a statement:
"While discussing a variety of philosophical perspectives on culture, race and ethics, a teacher was attempting to convey to students in an elective philosophy course a perspective that had been shared at a university lecture he had attended. We regret that the discussion was poorly handled."
It is not known whether the teacher will be disciplined, but a number of students who support him walked out of the school in protest Tuesday.
"What has been reported in the news doesn't accurately portray what happened in our philosophy class, nor does it reflect what we believe in at our school," one supporter said in a statement obtained by The Washington Post.
"The information was taken out of context and we believe it is important to have serious and thoughtful discussions about institutional racism in order to change history and promote inclusivity."
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