Conservatives furious as New York school asks parents to reflect on their ‘whiteness’

A public school in New York City has raised eyebrows among US conservatives after it handed out a survey to parents asking them to ‘reflect on their whiteness.’

The East Side Community School in Manhattan gave the handout titled ‘The 8 White Identities’ which features a colour coded meter that ranges from ‘white supremacist’ to ‘white abolitionist’ with the latter considered to be the best possible option on the scale.

Other options featured on the meter are ‘white privilege,’ ‘white benefit’ and ‘white traitor.’ The New York Post reports that the survey was distributed by school principal Mark Federman with the curriculum being written by Barnor Hesse, an associate professor of African American studies at Northwestern University, Illinois.

Hesse is quoted as writing in the literature: “There is a regime of whiteness, and there are action-oriented white identities. People who identify with whiteness are one of these. It’s about time we build an ethnography of whiteness, since white people have been the ones writing about and governing Others.”

An official from the New York City Department of Education reported that the material was first given to staff by some parents and then principal Federman then distributed it to every parent.

The NY Post quotes the DOE official as saying: “Anti-racism and the celebration of diversity is at the core of our work on behalf of the young people of New York City, and the East Side Community School’s students, parents and staff partner together to advance equity in their community.

“The document in question was shared with the school by parents as a part of ongoing anti-racist work in the school community and is one of many resources the schools utilizes.”

DOE and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza says the survey is being shared to eliminate what is being called the current administrators’ “white-supremacy culture.’’ The administration has made ‘anti-bias training’ amongst all staff mandatory.

However, the survey has not had the desired effect on those that have encountered it on social media. Christopher Rufo, director of the Discovery Institute called it the ‘new language of public education.’ His sentiments were echoed by others.

The DOE representative added that their staff have since become targets for abuse from those unhappy with the survey. They said, “Our staff are now being targeted with vile racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs and degrading language from people outside of their school and nothing justifies the abuse directed at our educators.”

The NY Post reports that Federman has declined to comment through the Education Department on the situation.

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