School District Slammed as 'Racist' for Promoting Black-Only Events
The most unified thing about this school district might be its name.
The Val Verde Unified School District, in inland Southern California, south and east of Los Angeles, has been promoting a series of meetings for parents of a very specific group of students.
And that group doesn’t include white people or Hispanics.
According to a promotional flyer on the school district’s website, the Zoom meetings make no bones about who specifically is invited to attend:
“Black Parents: Use your voice & unique experience to create change,” the flyer states.
California School District Promotes Segregated ‘Black Parent’ Meeting https://t.co/R5TrMzNZK4 pic.twitter.com/uv2al15GkJ
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) February 24, 2021
The meetings were first publicized Wednesday by The Daily Wire. The Western Journal reached out to the school district on Thursday but received no response by publication.
It’s unclear exactly what kind of “change” the flyers are proposing. But what is clear is that other racial groups are not invited to attend.
It was also clear that the series of seven meetings – which started Jan. 25 and are scheduled through May 17 – are aimed at harvesting grievances.
“We want to hear about your experiences with the challenges you’ve faced being Black in America,” the blurb for the Jan. 25 meeting states. “Tell us how those obstacles have also resulted in disadvantages for your children, specifically in this district.”
Blurbs for the other meetings promote working aggressively with school district leaders – “Let’s not sugar coat what you need or want to see change,” the Feb. 8 promo stated.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with these meetings on their face. God knows the more parents are involved in their children’s education the better, for both the children and the parents. What rankles here is the blatantly exclusionary nature of the meetings – and the fact that they’re being promoted by a publicly financed school district.
Seems like there was a time when American liberals looked down on things like this.
In fact, it seems like there was a fairly important Supreme Court decision called Brown v. Board of Education that specifically outlawed segregation in public education in the United States almost 70 years ago now.
But somehow, it’s coming back. And considering this is coming from Democrat-dominated California, and considering the other initiatives going on in the Val Verde school district being reported by The Daily Wire — like rebranding a U.S. history course as “Race and Gender in U.S. History” — it’s not coming from the right end of the political spectrum.
Social media users noticed:
Lefties want segregation back and they don’t even realize it.
— Danny (@Danny1996Mart) February 24, 2021
Thank you Left for bringing back segregation. You don’t see the right doing that. All in the name of progressivism.
— Danny De Yeeto (@JoeyPocketHog) February 25, 2021
California has gone mad!
— MissDaisy (@DaisyRu74182424) February 24, 2021
And this one sums it up perfectly.
Seems racist to me….
— Name cannot be blank (@DerekCa96033168) February 24, 2021
Yes, “seems racist” sounds about right.
With every year that it’s controlled by progressives, American public education seems to be regressing instead of progressing (although this year it’s not doing much of anything — at least in states where teachers unions, rather than taxpayers, set the agenda).
Again, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with a meeting of like-minded individuals sharing mutual concerns. And there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with a meeting being exclusionary.
The First Amendment’s protection of freedom of association, recognized by the courts if not specifically written in the document, protects the right not to associate with others as well.
But there is something deeply, fundamentally wrong with a public school district openly promoting meetings that are inherently discriminatory against some of its own parents because of the color of their skin. Few things are more disturbing than oh-so-woke supposed educators disgracing themselves in the name of discrimination.
Any Val Verde administrator, or any intellectually honest public school administrator who supports ideas like this, need only substitute “white” for the word “black” in the promotional flyer. If that brings up stomach-churning associations with the bad old days of the Democratic Party’s Jim Crow South, then it’s a good bet that it’s not a good idea.
And that’s a conclusion that should unite everybody.
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