Race Matters: NYC Schools Chancellor Calls Out White Parents On Twitter For Being Against Integration

April 28, 2018

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New NYC Schools Chancellor Calls Out White Parents On Twitter

NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza went in on Twitter on Friday, calling out white parents who are opposing efforts to integrate city schools–and he gave his most aggressive statement yet on this subject.

51-year-old Carranza is the child of Mexican immigrants and a veteran educator, and took the city’s top schools job only four weeks ago. He first addressed the subject on Twitter at 1 a.m. Friday, in a now-deleted tweet.

The chancellor tweeted a RawStory recap of an Upper West Side school meeting on Tuesday, where numerous white parents spoke out against plans to integrate multiple neighborhood middle schools.

“WATCH: Wealthy white Manhattan parents angrily rant against plan to bring more black kids to their schools,” Carranza tweeted, with a link to a video that originally appeared on NY1. The tweet linked to the RawStory write-up that began: “New effort to diversify schools in the Upper West Side of Manhattan – one of the richest neighborhoods in the city – has drawn an angry reaction from many parents…”

We continue to see example after example of how so many people who espouse a desire for equity only want it in the abstract. But when equity necessities that these people share the resources they’ve been given with others, they show their true colors.https://t.co/DxcKWr2wN1

— Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) April 27, 2018

During an unrelated school tour Friday morning in Harlem, Carranza further explained his tweet and his views on school segregation, which are way more militant than those of his predecessor Carman Fariña. “These important conversations about creating opportunities for all students are necessary,” Carranza stated. “Parents and staff … raise the issue of segregation in schools — and I’m glad we’re talking about it.”

When Mayor de Blasio was asked about his new chancellor’s spirited tweet during his weekly appearance on the Brian Lehrer show on Friday morning, he attempted to clarify Carrazna’s statements saying, “I don’t think he at all intends to vilify anyone — he’s not that type of person. This was his own personal voice … I might phrase it differently.”