NYC teachers told to focus on black students over other groups

[Fuzzy Bear]

A teacher's hurt feelings because the workshop wasn't about her family history, which tragic as it was, has nothing to do with NYC schools, is not the center of this issue.

In any case, I agree. The NY Post mischaracterizing and scaremongering on attempts to deal with rampant bias in the school system is a factor that contributes to white fragility and activating white nationalism in voters.

https://nypost.com/2019/05/25/teachers-allegedly-told-to-treat-black-students-as-victims-punish-whites/

“If I had a poor white male student and I had a middle-class black boy, I would actually put my equitable strategies and interventions into that middle class black boy because over the course of his lifetime he will have less access and less opportunities than that poor white boy,” the consultant, Darnisa Amante, is quoted as saying by those in the room.

This kind of speaks for itself, does it not?  

“My grandparents taught me to understand the dangers of ‘targeted racism’ or the exclusion of any group, and the importance of equity for all people. This is my core value as an educator,” the superintendent told colleagues.

“At the break, I stood up and, to my surprise, I was verbally attacked by a black superintendent in front of my colleagues. She said ‘This is not about being Jewish! It’s about black and brown boys of color only. You better check yourself.’”

Why would any non-black parent think that this particular superintendent had any concern for THEIR kids' education, or their welfare in general?  If a white superintendent took such a position toward white schoolchildren, they'd be excoriated for racism, and deservedly so.  So why is this OK?

This story wasn't manufactured out of whole cloth.  The DOE Officials in NYC aren't going to explicitly share this content of a seminar with the public; stories like this is how the pubic in many locales actually learn of the content of "training" that educators receive on the public dime; they will blame the messenger (the NY Post) as being "inflammatory", when what is inflammatory is the content of the training, itself, as well as the actual stated attitude toward white students expressed by a Superintendent.

I could say more, but this isn't right.  And if this sort of thing is "justice" and "equality", then we've redefined those terms sub silentio, because the vast majority of America does not understand justice and equality in these terms, nor should they.

Oh, and the Jewish Superintendent who was rightfully offended wasn't offended that the training wasn't all about her and her family.  She was rightfully offended by a peer telling her to "check (herself)".  I'm sure that if I were to tell a colleague that during a training on my job, I'd be the subject of a workplace grievance, and rightly so.  I'm also sure that if the roles were reversed and the other superintendent was told to check themselves, there would be all sorts of cries of "racism" here.

I grew up during the Civil Rights era.  I was glad to see the end of Jim Crow segregation in the South.  More importantly, I was hopeful that racial discrimination in hiring and housing in the North would diminish, and black folks would become upwardly mobile to where their standing and position in American society would reflect their percentage of the whole population, and that we would be at a place where a person's race would someday be an afterthought.  This sort of thing causes me to believe that some people are working day and night to see that day never comes.

[Fuzzy Bear]

A teacher's hurt feelings because the workshop wasn't about her family history, which tragic as it was, has nothing to do with NYC schools, is not the center of this issue.

In any case, I agree. The NY Post mischaracterizing and scaremongering on attempts to deal with rampant bias in the school system is a factor that contributes to white fragility and activating white nationalism in voters.

I couldn't have said this better myself.

You could have made a more reasonable statement, but you didn't make the effort to.  As usual.

The NY Post did not mischaracterize the meeting; these people meant what they said.  And the superintendant that lashed out at the Jewish superintendant put their anti-Semitism on full display.  "Check yourself."  How many cries of "Racism!" would there be if the Jewish Superintendant said this to the Black Superintendant.

One of the realities of true equality in a democratic society is that the ideas, statements, and stated positions of minorities in positions of great responsibility ought to be open to the same criticism as statements made by other such persons without running to the "Racism" button when their bad ideas are scrutinized, or their bad behavior reprimanded.  The superintendent that said that it's not about being Jewish, it's about the black and brown students should have been reprimanded for that statement; it was vicious and uncalled for, and it was a vicious, uncalled for, anti-Semitic attack on a person who, quite frankly, had a legitimate criticism of the entire premise and tone of the workshop.

Let's go back to NY Post quote:

At a monthly superintendents meeting in the spring of 2018, shortly after Carranza’s arrival, members were asked to share answers to the question: “What lived experience inspires you as a leader to fight for equity?”

One Jewish superintendent shared stories about her grandmother Malka who told of bombs falling in Lodz, Poland, and running from the Nazis in the wee hours by packing up her four children and hiding in the forest, and her grandfather Naftali, who spent nearly six years in a labor and concentration camp, where he witnessed the brutal execution of his mother and sister.

“My grandparents taught me to understand the dangers of ‘targeted racism’ or the exclusion of any group, and the importance of equity for all people. This is my core value as an educator,” the superintendent told colleagues.

“At the break, I stood up and, to my surprise, I was verbally attacked by a black superintendent in front of my colleagues. She said ‘This is not about being Jewish! It’s about black and brown boys of color only. You better check yourself.’”

“I was traumatized,” the Jewish educator said. “ It was like 1939 all over again. I couldn’t believe this could happen to me in NYC!”

Here, you have a peer sharing an experience that was relevant to the exercise and the question asked, and that person was viciously attacked, verbally, at a break.  Think about it; the response this woman gave was relevant to the question asked. 

It's outrageous.

The issue of implicit biases that teachers have toward black students is a legitimate issue in public education, and there are legitimate issues that pertain specifically to black and Hispanic students in NYC that have to due with legitimate issues of being at a disadvantage.  But is this the way to solve the issues?  I doubt it, and I would not blame white parents of NYC schoolchildren for raising Hell, itself over tax money spent on a consultant that tells their teachers to pour their resources into students of color, only.  The appearance of such a statement alone is improper on its face.  Daniel Patrick Monyihan was criticized to his dying day for using the phrase "benign neglect" to describe his approach to anti-poverty programs in the early 1970s.  He never lived that down (and, perhaps, rightly so).  Yet "benign neglect" seems to be an improvement over what DeBlasio's minons have in store for white students in NYC Public Schools.