White Parents Rallied to Chase a Black Educator Out of Town. Then, They Followed Her to the Next One

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Jessica Valenti
@JessicaValenti
This is an incredible, comprehensive, and absolutely *terrifying* look at what racist white parents are doing to education - and how they're succeeding

propublica.org
White Parents Rallied to Chase a Black Educator Out of Town. Then, They Followed Her to the Next...
Cecelia Lewis was asked to apply for a Georgia school district’s first-ever administrator job devoted to diversity, equity and inclusion. A group of parents — coached by local and national anti-CRT...
8:10 AM · Jun 16, 2022

https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-dei-crt-schools-parents

In April of 2021, Cecelia Lewis had just returned to Maryland from a house-hunting trip in Georgia when she received the first red flag about her new job.

The trip itself had gone well. Lewis and her husband had settled on a rental home in Woodstock, a small city with a charming downtown and a regular presence on best places to live lists. It was a short drive to her soon-to-be office at the Cherokee County School District and less than a half hour to her husband’s new corporate assignment. While the north Georgia county was new to the couple, the Atlanta area was not. They’d visited several times in recent years to see their son, who attended Georgia Tech.

Lewis, a middle school principal, initially applied for a position that would bring her closer to the classroom as a coach for teachers. But district leaders were so impressed by her interview that they encouraged her to apply instead for a new opening they’d created: their first administrator focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

DEI-focused positions were becoming more common in districts across the country, following the 2020 protests over the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. The purpose of such jobs typically is to provide a more direct path for addressing disparities stemming from race, economics, disabilities and other factors.

*snip*

[llashram]

1. American racists

have finally shown their true colours, hatefully yellow and cowardly yellow. d.trump did us a favour by bringing the fascists from underneath their Klan robes.

[Seeking Serenity]

2. It's time to start arresting these "people"

And their R[acist] Party enablers and influencers

[Brenda]

3. Very fucking scary

I'm glad that Propublica covered this story. These creepy, usually fundy nut types, people have been infiltrating the country in this way for decades. School boards, town councils, etc.

And of course, thanks to the TFG's encouragement they've exploded like a pestilence across this country.

How can any American agree to this fucking backwards, racist, hateful, assault on what our country is supposed to be about?

Why do so many Americans hate America?????

Wait, don't answer that. I know. Propaganda works.

This is sad:

“These are our neighbors,” said Leanne Etienne, a Black mother of two Cherokee County students, one of whom served on the superintendent’s ad hoc committee that led to the creation of the DEI position. “These are people who are the parents of the children my kids go to school with. It’s a very uncomfortable feeling. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t feel safe.”

[Nevilledog]

6. Video

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

philip lewis
@Phil_Lewis_
Cecelia Lewis, a Black educator, was asked to apply for a Georgia school district’s first-ever administrator job devoted to diversity, equity and inclusion.

White parents rallied to chase her out of town. Then, they followed her to the next one. https://propublica.org/article/georgia-dei-crt-schools-parents…


Watch on Twitter
8:21 AM · Jun 16, 2022

These people are dangerous in their delusions.

[Brenda]

7. Yes

I was going to post that vid, glad you did.

It's really so hard to believe that these nut jobs get away with this shit. Accusing her of doing, saying and literally being something or some where she is not.

Leading to a bad place.

[SunImp]

9. Fuck these psychopathic racists

Cecelia Lewis deserves better

[gratuitous]

4. When you're concerned about an incident like this

There always seems to be a coterie of folks who wonder why you think this is so important? It's just one small town in Georgia. This talented woman will get a job somewhere else. Don't make a big stink about it, because you'll alienate the good people who live there, who aren't like the baying hyenas. You'll only make things worse if you rock the boat. So maybe you back off.

Then it somehow gets worse, all on its own.

[Brenda]

5. I can't believe how fucking paranoid

these people have become!

“My husband swears he saw Ms. Lewis at Ace yesterday afternoon!” one woman wrote, adding, “He saw the Maryland plates and the driver looked just like her.”

But Lewis was still in Maryland. She hadn’t returned to Georgia since the house-hunting trip.



Rod Serling tried to warn us 62 years ago with "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street." We have seriously devolved.

[ReluctanceTango]

8. We haven't devolved

This is what America has always been.