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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/pricey-private-schools-to-teach-black-lives-matter-classes

Elite private schools are being pressured by Black Lives Matter supporters to include materials on “institutional racism” in curriculum and student life programs.

Black Lives Matter has driven protests against police brutality and earned donations from brand name corporations eager to avoid becoming targets of activists themselves. Prep schools are their next target, a move given momentum through mass protests following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died while a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest.

Swaths of private secondary schools have since pronounced support for Black Lives Matter, or at least its principles. That includes the Brearly School, the Chapin School, Collegiate School, the Dalton School, Emma Willard, Gilman, the Groton School, the Loomis Chaffee School, Miss Porters School, Phillips Academy Andover, Phillips Exeter Academy, Sidwell Friends, the Spence School, Tabor Academy, the Taft School, and Westover School.

Many came out with “anti-racism” statements last month, following accusations from some alumni of color on “Blackat[name of school]” Instagram accounts, claiming they experienced instances of racism during their time as students at the institutions.

 

Schools then apologized to black former or current students who experienced “systemic racism” and described actions to eliminate “white supremacy.” All the while expanding initiatives related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and promoting “social justice.”

“To our Black Ancients and other Ancients of Color: I see you, and I see your pain. I hear and believe you, and I am so sorry for what you must be going through. I am committed to supporting you,” Katherine Windsor, the Miss Porter’s head of school, wrote in her message, ”George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the countless other Black people who have lost their lives deserved better.”

The Dalton School released a similar statement after alumnae raised concerns.

“Dalton fully supports community members who are engaging in ongoing dialogue to highlight injustices and encourages students, alumni, faculty, and staff to report any acts of racist, inequitable or bigoted conduct to the Administration,” the Upper East Side prep school said. “We will continue to have real and actionable conversations about what Black people and other people of color have experienced at Dalton.”

The apologies and statements were not enough for some, however, and activists demanded more.

“If schools are really serious about addressing anti-Black racism beyond this mainstream moment then there will have to be a much greater investment in different policies, practices, and beliefs when the fervor dissipates,” UCLA education professor and social justice advocate Tyrone C. Howard wrote at Edsource.org. “When the marches stop, schools will need to look at themselves hard in the mirror and ask, how can we say Black Lives Matter when we are complicit in Black student failure?”

The private schools, however, include various programs and initiatives throughout their curriculum and student life activities involving anti-racism education workshops. The schools have gone as far as urging their own alumni to ask themselves if they have engaged in racist behavior in their own lives.

Not everyone associated or formerly associated with these schools is pleased. Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson excoriated the Manhattan school, Spence, in a 2017 letter for what he called an “alarming pattern” of “anti-white indoctrination” in its curriculum, the New York Post reported.

“In recent years we have reached out on several occasions to discuss a disturbing trend in one area of the curriculum that we believe is having a negative impact on our daughters’ education. As we’ve noted before, there appears to be an anti-white indoctrination that permeates many parts of the Spence curriculum,” Paulson wrote.

One recent alum of St. George’s School pondered how valuable the anti-racism programs really are.

“They are telling parents to spend $50K a year so their kids can be taught to hate them,” the alumnus told the Washington Examiner.

The Fieldston School in Riverdale, New York, previously implemented anti-racism initiatives through their Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Department. By last February, the New York Postreported, angry parents were trying to pull their kids out of the school.

Donors refused to give money frustrated teachers were quitting after accusations the school environment had become filled with “rampant, systemic anti-Semitism” and was fixated over identity politics.

“I’ve fought for LGBT issues,” one Fieldston parent said, “but this is indicative of the weird things happening around the school which are rooted around intersectionality and an obsession about identity politics and race.”