CNN op-ed blames decades of racism for San Francisco school board recall

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Media top headlines February 17

In media news today, Twitter allows hacked info on Canadian Freedom Convoy donors, Ilhan Omar scolds journalists for promoting the harassment of said donors, and The Las Vegas Sun pins a BLM activist’s shooting of a mayoral candidate on ‘extremist Republicans.’

Asian parents in the deep blue city of San Francisco voted overwhelmingly to recall three progressive school board members, Tuesday, for prioritizing woke politics over education. Their successful effort drew national media attention and was supported by the Black Democrat mayor of the city. But the author of a CNN opinion piece is instead blaming right-wing racism for the parents’ victory.

The op-ed published Tuesday by Columbia research scholar Nicole Hemmer, warned the recall sent a "dangerous" message.

SAN FRANCISCO ORGANIZERS CELEBRATE RECALL OF WOKE SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS: ‘MESSAGE IS LOUD AND CLEAR’

(CBSN)

In her lengthy, 18-paragraph piece, the academic attempted to connect backlash to school desegregation in the 1960s South to Asian parents upset about radical progressive curriculum.

"This rhetoric of ‘parents' rights' is not new to the 2020s; conservatives in Colorado in the 1990s even sought to pass a 'parents' rights' amendment 'to direct and control the upbringing, education, values and discipline of their children.' Yet it is now being reworked to funnel all the discontents of the era into a set of right-wing school politics at the heart of the GOP's strategy for the coming midterm elections," she began.

"[T]he right successfully framed school politics as concerned parents having their rights infringed by politicians, bureaucrats and judges. This was the case with desegregation and busing, with Black parents constantly pressing for equal access to local schools and better education," Hemmer wrote, adding, "The notion that this was a parent-led, and specifically a mother-led, movement was key to the political appeal opponents of segregation were making."

DEFEATED SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER SAYS VOTERS WHO OUSTED HER ARE ‘ALIGNED WITH’ WHITE SUPREMACISTS

After equating San Francisco liberals to school segregationists from decades past and then the "ebonics panic" of the 1990s, Hemmer claimed again that the San Francisco election was spurred on by right-wing racists.

"The ebonics panic was just one of many instances where conservatives and moderates found common ground as the right spun moral panics into backlash politics, fostering a sense that something was wrong with schools, and anyone concerned about education quality and children's well-being should be wary of public schools and progressive politics. In places like Loudoun County and San Francisco, conservative activists are attempting to do the same today, refashioning a suite of school discontents into a wave of Republican victories."

But according to San Francisco’s Department of Elections, only 6.7% of voters are registered Republicans.

A pedestrian walks past a San Francisco Unified School District office building in San Francisco, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Earlier in the week, one of the defeated board members, San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education President Gabriela López, bitterly blamed White supremacists for her ouster. She also retweeted this CNN op-ed.

Recalled school board member Alison Collins, also once called Asian-American parents a racist slur and accused them of thinking like "white supremacists."