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| Carranza and the "Wakanda Salute" (Raphael Epinal, far right) photo: Twitter, Meisha Porter |
Chancellor Richard Carranza has been labelled the worst Chancellor in New York City Department of Education's history of terrible leadership. That's pretty damaging for his future career as an educator, but it is hard to disagree.
His destructive policies included firing white senior staff in favor of people with more diverse backgrounds, in a pledge to drain the swamp of white leaders even if it meant more disengagement of parents and students.
This strategy could be called a "Cancel Whiteness Culture".
Who benefits? No one.
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Who is Richard Carranza? DoE Chancellor steps down after shocking ‘Wakanda’ controversy and $90 million lawsuit
A Bronx educator has claimed she was fired partly as a result of her refusal to imitate a salute to Black power from the 2018 film 'Black Panther'
A veteran educator from the Bronx recently claimed she was fired after she denied mimicking a salute to Black power from the 2018 film, 'Black Panther', during her superintendent meetings. Another veteran also made serious claims and said she was also targeted by Department of Education, Chancellor Richard Carranza. Both of them have sued him.
The Department of Education Chancellor is now stepping down after three controversial years, city officials said in a surprise announcement Friday, February 26, 2021. According to the DoE, his last day will be March 15 — and he will be replaced by current Bronx Executive Superintendent Meisha Ross-Porter. “It’s been an honor of a lifetime to serve as a chancellor and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you and my children,” Carranza said at a press briefing with Mayor Bill de Blasio.
At the official get-together of the top heads of the Department of Education, then-Bronx superintendent Porter frequently asked the group to do the arms-across-the-chest gesture of solidarity from the mythical African nation of Wakanda. The salute is recognized as a symbol of empowerment.
But Rafaela Espinal, an Afro-Latina origin lady, a Dominican-American refused to join in, she “was admonished and told that it was inappropriate for her not to participate,” according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed on February 3, 2021, against the city Department of Education, Chancellor Richard Carranza and some of his top-ranking officers.
Espinal was one year away from receiving a lifetime DOE pension when she was abruptly fired from her job as a head of Community School District 12 in the Bronx without any reason given. This happened after she repeatedly declined to do the 'Wakanda Forever' salute, according to the lawsuit.
She blames her firing partly on this reason. Espinal, who recently earned a doctorate, wanted to keep her retirement bonuses and health insurance, ultimately accepted the demotion to school investigator, a role which requires only a high school diploma and which left her with no permanent desk or phone.
Porter, who was later elevated by Carranza to the post of “executive superintendent,” a promotion she celebrated with a lavish gala, has a Twitter timeline packed with group shots of DOE staff doing the 'Wakanda Forever' salute. One-shot shows Carranza who is not able to perform the gesture correctly.
The image showed Carranza, Porter, Espinal and others during the chancellor’s tour of the five boroughs, according to a source.
In another story covered by The NY Post, another educator made serious claims against Carranza. Karen Ames, a 30-year Department of Education employee, stated that she was targeted by Carranza’s 'Disrupt and Dismantle' campaign to remove or marginalize longtime employees because she is over 40, and Jewish. “The agenda of Chancellor Carranza and his senior leadership team were euphemistically touted as an ‘equity platform’ but in reality, it was a platform used to create gender, age, racial and ethnic divisions in the NYC School system,” she contends in her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Friday, February 19. Just like Espinal, Ames also declined requests at the superintendents' meetings to take part in the comic book movie-inspired “Wakanda Forever” salute to “black power,” she charges in the legal filing.
It is not the first time that Carranza made news for his racial stand. Back in 2019, the Special Commissioner of Investigation probed a complaint that Carranza hired two former out-of-state colleagues for the posts with the help of waivers. He was questioned for creating a new position of “senior executive director of continuous improvement” — for associate Abram Jimenez at a salary of $205,416. Asked about the controversy, Carranza said he was being targeted “as a man of color.”
In 2019, three senior white educators charged a whopping $90 million lawsuit against Carranza stating that they were demoted in favor of less-qualified minority educators as part of a crusade to make the agency’s top management reflect the ethnic makeup of students.
The suit filed by Lois Herrera, Jaye Murray and Laura Feijoo, three white women and senior administrators said that they were left by the wayside in Carranza’s push to make sure his top staff reflected the fact that 70 percent of city students are a minority.
“If you draw a paycheck from DOE,” you will either “get on board with (his) equity platform or leave,” Carranza is charged with saying. When asked if he said that and if so what was meant by it, Carranza said, “I did not say that, absolutely did not say that. I give pep talks to the employees of the DOE all the time,” adding, “It’s critically important that we remain focused on our mission. Let me be really clear: our mission is to serve every one of the 1.1 million students under our care. That’s our mission. And if your agenda is not to serve our students, if your agenda is an adult agenda and not a student agenda then perhaps the Department of Education is not the right department for you to work in.”
According to NYC Govt's official website, "During Carranza’s over 30 years in education, he has served in virtually every role. Prior to New York City, he was the superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, the largest school district in Texas, and the seventh-largest in the United States. Before that, he served the San Francisco Unified School District, first as deputy superintendent and then as superintendent.
Before moving to San Francisco, Carranza was the Northwest Region superintendent for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas. He began his career as a high school, bilingual social studies and music teacher, and then as a principal, both in Tucson, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada."
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A Racist Autocracy at the New York City Department of Education?
Veteran Bronx educator claims she was fired after refusing ‘Black Panther’ salute
Pledge your allegiance to “Wakanda Forever” — or else.
A veteran Bronx educator claims she was fired in part because she refused to mimic a salute to Black power from the 2018 comic-book movie “Black Panther” during superintendent meetings.
At official gatherings of high-level Department of Education bosses, then-Bronx superintendent Meisha Ross Porter often asked the group to do the arms-across-the-chest gesture of solidarity from the mythical African nation of Wakanda. The salute is considered a symbol of empowerment.
When Rafaela Espinal (pictured at left) — a Dominican-American who describes herself as Afro-Latina — declined to join in, she “was admonished and told that it was inappropriate for her not to participate,” according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Feb. 3 against the city DOE, Chancellor Richard Carranza and some of his top-ranking lieutenants.
Espinal was one year shy of earning a lifetime DOE pension when she was abruptly fired from her role as head of Community School District 12 in Bronx without explanation, after repeatedly refusing to do the “Wakanda Forever” salute, according to the lawsuit.
Desperate to keep her retirement benefits and health insurance, the single mom — who recently earned a doctorate — eventually accepted a humiliating demotion to school investigator, a role which requires only a high school diploma and which left her with no permanent desk or phone.
Porter, who was later elevated by Carranza to the post of “executive superintendent,” a promotion she celebrated with a lavish gala, has a Twitter timeline packed with group shots of DOE staff doing the “Wakanda Forever” salute. One shot features Carranza — who couldn’t manage to perform the gesture correctly in the pose — and Espinal.
The image showed Carranza, Porter, Espinal and others during the chancellor’s tour of the five boroughs, according to a source.
But when repeatedly asked to salute “Wakanda” at other professional meetings, Espinal felt the gesture “introduced a racial divide where there should be none,” said her lawyers, Israel Goldberg, Helen Setton, and Domenic Recchia.
Porter would often talk about the militant civil rights group the Black Panthers when asking superintendents to do the “Wakanda” salute, noting her father was a member, the attorneys said.
But the symbolic gesture associated with the group is the iconic single raised fist, as made famous by American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics, not the cross-armed greeting popularized by the record-breaking superhero flick, which grossed more than $1.34 billion at the box office.
Forcing colleagues to do the “Wakanda” salute “corrupted” it, Goldberg said.
“The gesture was hijacked,” he noted.
The DOE insists the famous cross-arm gesture doesn’t refer to “Black power,” but is instead “a symbol used to represent the Bronx.”
Fellow DOE administrators also allegedly told Espinal she wasn’t “Black enough” and she should “just learn to be quiet and look pretty,” she claims in the $40 million suit.
Espinal, 50, claims racial fissures began to emerge in superintendent meetings in the fall of 2017, when some Black administrators would meet separately after the larger group’s monthly gatherings.
Soon, only the birthdays of Black superintendents were recognized at official meetings, she claims.
The racial tensions bubbled up just as the controversial Carranza was appointed chancellor of city schools in April 2018, and began pushing a platform of racial “equity” that critics have blasted as divisive and educationally problematic.
Espinal alleges Jose Ruiz, an advisor to then-first deputy chancellor Cheryl Watson-Harris, degraded her race and gender, saying, “You are so pretty but then you enter the room open your mouth and intimidate men and people.”
Watson-Harris, who has since jumped ship from the DOE to take charge of schools in DeKalb County, Georgia, didn’t even get Espinal’s district correct in her August 2018 termination letter, writing “you will not longer serve in District 8.”
Espinal was told the DOE was moving “in a new direction” and that she “did not fit into that agenda,” according to the legal filing.
She was forced to clean out her office on a Sunday and district staffers were forbidden to communicate with her, Espinal charges in court papers.
Porter and Watson-Harris declined to comment.
A DOE spokeswoman said the department is “committed to fostering a safe, inclusive work environment and strongly dispute any claims of discrimination or improper treatment.”