A city DOE-sponsored panel designed to combat racism told parents that Asian American students “benefit from white supremacy” and “proximity to white privilege,” an outraged mom told The Post.
The comments drew backlash from some parents and Asian activists, but not the Department of Education, which neither denied nor denounced them.
The panel was helmed by the Center for Racial Justice in Education, a group being paid about $400,000 by the DOE, led by Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, to conduct near-weekly training sessions throughout the city to address what it believes is rampant racism infecting schools.
Two CRJE presenters at the February meeting — which included about 30 District 3 parents from the Upper West Side and Harlem in Manhattan — outlined a racial-advantage hierarchy, with African Americans at the bottom and whites at the top, according to attendee Ingrid Flinn.
Flinn, who has an adopted Asian child, noted that Asians were never mentioned in the presentation and said that she felt compelled to ask about their status.
The presenters told the room that Asians were on the upper rungs, enough in “proximity to white privilege” to “benefit from white supremacy,” Flinn recalled.
Flinn said it suggested Asians didn’t need to be separately acknowledged in the hierarchy.
“I was offended,” she told The Post. “It was like Asians were just invisible. [But] they have their own problems, their own issues they have to deal with.”
Wai Wah Chin of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York fumed, “This is racist and divisive.”
Vanessa Leung, a member of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and of City Hall’s School Diversity Advisory Group, said she supports integration efforts but also blasted the panel’s categorization of Asians.
“When folks lump us with whites, we are being erased,” she said. “Our challenges and the struggles that our community has faced and is facing becomes invisible.”
But another Asian member of the School Diversity Advisory Group, who declined to give her name, said Asians don’t face the same societal hurdles as black and Latino people.
“This is a reality,” she said.
The CRJE, meanwhile, said its instruction reflects social realities.
“In our trainings, we define racism as a system that is based on a false racial hierarchy of categorizing people,” the group said in a statement to The Post. “This classification system provides or denies access, safety, resources and power, based on racial categories.
“Our goal is that participants will reflect on their own racial identity and the diverse ways the system of racism has impacted their lives.”
The DOE stressed that the session was voluntary and not part of its larger anti-bias “re-education” sessions, which are mandatory.
“Anti-bias training is about creating high expectations and improving outcomes for all of our students,” said department spokesman Will Mantell.
“DOE-developed and -sponsored trainings include content and encourage dialogue about all of our students’, staff’s, and families’ experiences, including those of Asian Americans.”
Institutional biases create obstacles for black and Latino children, according to Carranza.
Efforts to combat such biases have led to administrators being advised to favor black children regardless of their socioeconomic status, sources told Sunday’s Post.
Likewise, Carranza has pushed to scrap the single-admissions test for entry into the city’s elite schools, which are predominantly attended by Asian and white students.