Zack De Piero, an English professor, this month sued Pennsylvania State University for a series of discriminatory and racist behaviors and policies. The teacher is suing the university for instructing him to inflate the grades of certain minorities, in addition to having to endure anti-racist hysteria.
De Piero worked through the summer of 2022 at Penn State University in Abington, teaching various English and literature classes. During that time, he was pressured and humiliated for being White, according to the text of his lawsuit, which he is presenting together with the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR).
The former university professor not only condemns the university as an institution but also the 30 members of the board of directors and some specific staff members.
According to De Piero's lawsuit, which he later confirmed to Fox News, many of these pressures were exerted through anti-racist courses or compliance regulations, which singled out White teachers as a problem or referred to the English language as the "embodiment of white supremacism." According to Fox, which had access to the text of the lawsuit, De Piero was forced to attend a workshop entitled "White Teachers are a Problem."
Anti-whitewashing workshops
"I think there is almost a religious, cult-like environment where you had this Original Sin," Zack De Piero explained to Fox News. " In this case, I'm White. I need to repent for that sin. I need to keep going to these [trainings], keep doing the work… I think they were waging a psychological war campaign and they're trying to break people. And they almost broke me. But they didn't," he added.
Another workshop mentioned to Fox News involves group breathing exercises, in which white staff had to hold their breath for much longer than people of color to "feel the pain that George Floyd endured."
Zack De Piero also claimed that during his time at Abington, the school pressured him to give better grades to Hispanic or Black students. In the meantime, Asian students were to be evaluated more harshly.
According to the lawsuit, De Piero's superior in the English department reportedly stated that "racism against white students and teachers is legitimized." According to the accusation, that same colleague in the English department pressured him to make different evaluation scales based on the race of students.
When Zack De Piero complained about these types of behaviors and policies, the lawsuit claims that the university considered De Piero to be the problem. It even suggested that he undergo mental health treatment. De Piero eventually left his position at Penn State University.
