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| NYC Chancellor Richard Carranza |
Throughout the New York City public school system and all its' constituents is a progressively angry discussion about NYC Chancellor Richard Carranza's "race war" against 'Whites'. See my previous post, Carranza's Book For New Teachers and The Essay "Dear White Teacher"
Anyone who has had children in the public schools of NYC can see that schools are segregated.
I have been a teacher and parent advocate for more than 20 years, with 4 children going through the NYC DOE, and I have seen the gap between "good" schools and "bad" schools. My standards are: the level of safety for all students; school management of discipline; school administration of policies of respect for all; and rigorous teaching and creative learning opportunities. Full disclosure - two of my children went to Stuyvesant High School, another, La Guardia High School ("the FAME school"), and the fourth attended NEST+M - all of my children went to "good" schools as described above. But it took a lot of work, research, and creative thinking to find the right place for each of them.
In my opinion, the NYC DOE has not shown any ability or care in rolling out strategies for implementing policies of any kind. Everything the DOE does seems to be governed by politics and vendors selling the flavor-of-the-month textbooks or curricula which are purchased at fraudulent prices both above and below the table at DOE headquarters.
In blunt terms, NYC DOE policy is focused on political, and not educational, outcomes and Chancellor Carranza's focus is anything other than what is best for the children enrolled in NYC schools. He fits his policies to his needs (which seems to be a "children last" program) and not what the very diverse population of kids in NYC public schools want or need.
In the past year Chancellor Carranza has been attempting a minority-based coup where he replaces white DOE Deputies with people of minority backgrounds. He is being sued by several Superintendents.
Even if he claims he is not doing what is claimed in this lawsuit, the language of intent to discriminate is flowing through the DOE and the press is taking note, as can be seen in the article re-posted below published in the NY POST on October 1, 2019. Jackie Cody, a member of Community Education Council 22, seems to be buying into Carranza's poison.
Betsy Combier, betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
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Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials
Carranza accused of ‘pitting parents against each other’ along racial lines
by Selim Algar, NYPOST, September 30, 2019
An African American member of a volunteer schools advisory board referred to Asians as “yellow folks” during a group email exchange with more than 100 people — leading one recipient to blame the “toxic racial environment” created by Chancellor Richard Carranza.
“The tone comes from the top,” fumed Lucas Liu, a member of the Community Education Council 3, which covers the Upper West Side and part of Harlem.
“I think this is representative of the environment Carranza has created. It’s a toxic racial environment pitting parents against each other.”
He also said that Carranza “has successfully intimidated white families into not speaking up by playing the race card, but failed to achieve the same success with Asian families.”
Carranza has repeatedly stirred controversy through a series of moves intended to increase diversity in the city’s schools and change the curriculum in favor of “culturally responsive sustaining education.”
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| Jackie Cody |
Liu, who is Asian, saw red on Friday when Jackie Cody of Community Education Council 22 in southeast Brooklyn sent out a message in favor of eliminating the city’s specialized high school exams and “gifted and talented” programs.
“To be blunt, certain Whites and certain Yellow folks on this list serv continue to focus on a very narrow view and misunderstanding that what they’re advocating for is damaging to White and Yellow children as well!” wrote Cody, who is African American.
“You see, perhaps if we bring to the forefront that 90% of white and 85% of yellow children are not accepted into Specialized High Schools nor G&T Programs, there’d be a better acknowledgment and understanding of the need to gut this system.”
In response, Liu fired off a message expressing outrage at Cody’s choice of words.
“Thank you Jackie. Your use of a racial slur … speaks for itself,” he wrote.
The back-and-forth led the administrators of the “Yahoo Groups” list to announce on Saturday that they were changing its protocols so that only a handful of moderators would be able to send messages to the entire group.
“Some of the threads have become deeply offensive and toxic for many members,” wrote Shino Tanikawa and NeQuan McLean, both members of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group.
“While we asked that members reply only to the sender and NOT to the listserve, this rule has not been followed diligently.”
Liu said Monday that “the term ‘yellow’ is clearly a derogatory term.”
“I don’t know if she deliberately put this out there in that way,” he said.
“But I would say that there are some terms you don’t use no matter what, and ‘yellow’ is one of them.”
Cody insisted she meant no offense, saying, “I had no intent like that at all.”
“We are split up into colors these days. Black people are black, brown people are brown, white people are white,” she said.
“My only purpose was trying to get people to understand that every child is gifted and talented. Once you really authentically understand that, things will be seen in a different perspective.”
Department of Education spokesman Will Mantell said in an email, “This was an unacceptable comment made by one parent on a message board, and it has nothing to do with the Chancellor.”
Additional reporting by Bruce Golding
Additional reading:
$90 million lawsuit: 'Toxic' whiteness purge at NYCBombshell suit claims Carranza’s ‘toxic’ whiteness purge cost DOE execs their jobs