The battle over “Diversity” curricula is raging across the country, and with each passing week, more parents come out of the woodwork to testify against political activism in schools. In recent weeks, parents have written to me from Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Utah, and Virginia reporting that their local meetings have become so packed that parents are forced to watch proceedings from screens in lobbies and hallways.
As I’ve covered this phenomenon over some months, I’ve observed how parent testimonies have evolved into almost an art form. As dire as the situation seems to be, and sometimes it does feel dire, I can’t help but think this is a shining moment in history for the salt-of-the-earth Americans who can smell BS from a mile away and are willing to say so.
That was never more true than for one wholesome, middle-aged mother of two in Beachwood, Ohio. On March 9th, she ripped the Beachwood school board to shreds over their obsession with race and pompous need to control black families like hers, as well as what she perceives to be the sexual grooming of children. Her eloquent comments were met with admonishment by the president of the all white school board, who ultimately attempted to drone out her voice with robotic platitudes about “equity.” It was a stunning exchange.
Below is her poignant speech, which, being so chock full of wisdom, was difficult to edit down (video below).
She began by discussing her experience as a black mother of two grown children, both now successful doctors, who, she argues, were able to thrive in Beachwood because the school united families around a quest for excellence for all students.
Years and decades prior, students made friends based on personalities, similarities and differences, and interests in academics, sports, music, clubs, associations, etc. They studied together, carpooled together, went on trips together, went to each other’s houses together, went out to eat together, planned school activities together. Athletes, cheerleaders, and band members rolled together on school buses to games all over northeast Ohio together. They laughed and cried, win or lose together. Band members went to band camp together, they ran bake sales together, parents took turns running the concession stands during games together, sat together at games and cheered on the team members. They took pictures at homecoming prom and other events and went to restaurants and home parties after together, and they congratulated each other when they were receiving their acceptance letters to universities that they applied to and consoled each other when they didn’t get into the school of their choice. They were never surprised when the Beachwood school system was either in first, second, or third place consistently year after year in northeast Ohio, or top within the state of Ohio for academic achievement. For vocational and college prep there was a high percentage of students who took the honors and AP classes and graduated from high school with college credits already under their belt. The students were polite and respectful to adults and law enforcement. The administration, teachers, and staff were invested in everyone’s success, Beachwood excellence, and Beachwood pride. There was no extra time for any other focus.
Contrast that with today’s school system, superintendent, school board, school administration, the decision-makers. Let’s start with the website beachwoodschools.org. Here you have the curriculum page and the educational equity page. The website has a menu item for the curriculum that doesn’t mention anything about curriculum, why? Because if a lot more residents knew about the mess that you’ve made in this school system via the curriculum and policy you all would probably lose your positions in the district.
Many school districts in Ohio are now hiding their curriculum from residents because they’re teaching students to become bigots toward their peers, adults, and law enforcement. Many school districts within this congressional district are on board with advocating funding and teaching young students the how-to about changing their gender, child pornography, and pedophelia, and where to find those websites, what sex toys to purchase, and how to use that which has been purchased. Parents are not being told that their child is being taught that, and the teachers and librarians are being exempted from criminal prosecution.
Regarding the educational equity piece, it appears that the superintendent and you, the school board members, grew up so white that you don’t even know the damage that your decisions have caused previous, current and future generations of Beachwood students whose parents just wanted them to qualify to attend some great universities. Instead you convince yourselves that blacks are oppressed and that it is your job to stop that oppression. How have you not looked at the results to realize what you did was immoral and had the opposite effect? Within Beachwood schools black kids are turning against white people of all ages, and white kids are hating their parents and their success and their heritage and calling them racist. Only because you don’t understand the black race you attempted to fix something that for all intents and purposes years ago was in reality not even broken. You just convinced yourself that it was broken. It was never your job. You got out of your lane. Your job was to provide students with the environment to be well rounded and educationally successful. Now the residents with kids who did find out about your deviant curriculum pulled their kids out as fast as they could. More and more are withdrawing their kids because the school system has lost control of the classroom environment.
In the document for Critical Race Theory, your stated goal is to make children advocates – I mean activists – in their own home. What does that mean? You are creating an atmosphere, trying to create an adversarial relationship between parents and child, when that relationship needs to be strengthened… [You’re] intrinsically advocating the kids to just be adversarial to their parents, it’s nuts. This is nuts!
At this point in the speech, she went off script and really ripped into the board in a visceral, personal, way. Animated and speaking more boldly, she continued:
I’m a professional as well, I grew up in corporate America, I’ve met people like you all every day. You all know nothing about black people, but you still think you can make rules for black people, black kids. In Beachwood schools when [my kids] were growing up, all these decades until you came along, they didn’t look at race or gender. [These are] very successful black people, very successful, but what did you do? You decided instead of looking at Beachwood data you decided to put us lumped-in with George Floyd and everybody else that got killed. They had nothing to do with Beachwood, nothing! So what do you do? You put in stuff like Critical Race Theory and other garbage like that.
Now you have kids not liking their own parents, you have black kids that are now racist against their peers, we never saw that! You went down a road because of what you see nationally that had nothing to do with Beachwood. Now you’ve got school systems in this congressional district telling them how to have anal sex and this is what your sex education… (gets cut off)
It was at this point that the president of the school board interjected to let her know that her time was up. After a brief back and forth exchange in which the mom tried to get in a last comment about the “gender unicorn,” the school board president cut her off, speaking over her on the mic. He can be heard saying, voice full of contempt, “I take extreme exception with almost everything you’ve said because your premise is wrong.”
At this point the black mom had left the podium and was now standing about 10 feet in front of him, facing him, shaking her head no, her voice drowned out by his, as he stammered on, “this..this..administration and this board is..is…committed to equity for every student in this district.”
Now addressing the group he continued, “You can shake your heads no, you’re free to disagree (becomes inaudible),” at which point his voice is drowned out by applause and cheering in the background. Like a robot, the school board president can be heard again, droning over the hostile crowd, “Our administration is committed to equity for every student.”
The exchange is astonishing to watch (begins around 7:43 mark):
The indignant reaction this woman elicited from the board president, evident in his tone of utter contempt, is familiar to many black conservatives, and anyone else who dares to focus the spotlight too brightly and effectively on the deeply disturbing elements of the white progressive agenda. As many successful, independent black Americans have experienced, there are people who are viscerally threatened by the bold assertion that black Americans can succeed on their own steam, and that they can integrate fully and joyfully into the fabric of American life. In the case of white progressives, that message threatens their sense of benevolent superiority, their feelings of righteous sanctification, and most importantly, it obstructs their avenue to societal control and the remaking of mankind in their own image. Self sufficient black Americans can’t be controlled, and thus they must be silenced.
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Is your community speaking up to the schools? Send videos from your community to [email protected] or contact me on IG @georgiamaehowe
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.