OPINION:
Some friends of mine recently read the following announcement in their children’s school newsletter: “Training Opportunity Alert for White Parents.” The notice continued, “If you’re white and want to raise anti-racist children, please attend!” Now,I I am not a parent myself, but I understand my friends’ astonishment and anger upon seeing this.
The notice — which went on to say that participating in the “opportunity” was the best way to be a constructive participant in achieving the mission of a more equitable, just future — implies that all white people are racist or that only white people can be racist. Both assumptions are themselves axiomatically racist. The response from parents? Silence in public and whispering around kitchen tables. “I don’t want to be called a racist for saying something,” said one parent.
I struggle to imagine a similar reaction had this invitation read “Training Opportunity Alert for Black Parents.” The implication would be that black families were somehow missing the mark in raising their own children. Public outrage? School officials publicly shamed and terminated? Media trucks lined up outside the school playground to use the incident to fan the flames of dogmatized racism?
It’s good to know that most parents simply want their children educated, not indoctrinated. After running this ad in the newsletter for two weeks, the school got only two program participants. Yet mainstream media outlets continue to claim that events like this one don’t happen or are being exaggerated for political reasons.
You can’t stop racism with racism. How did this ad get approved by the school administration — and moreover, how do numerous ads just like it in other newsletters across the country get approved? Such “training opportunities” ignore the sacrifices made by all people of different cultures so that everyone can have equal access to education.
If the goal is to eliminate racial disparities, we have seen success on that score for over 50 years simply by following the lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders. So parents don’t need these events. They’re just insulting and racist.
GREG RALEIGH
Washington, D.C.
