New Trier High School student Celia Buckman has written a blog at the Huffington Post slamming the “haters” at Breitbart, as well as local parents, who criticized the school district’s plans for mandatory “racial identity” classes on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
She writes:
The student body and faculty has generally been supportive, but there’s a few haters out there, including Breitbart. The conservative news source lambasted the day, accusing New Trier of forcing students to attend guilt-inducing sessions. Much of the content came from anonymous concerned parents, who fear a “political agenda” at play….
New Trier is overwhelmingly white and affluent–over 80% of students are caucasian, and just 3% of the student body is low-income….
New Trier students live in a bubble that needs to be popped. We don’t need another day of school off to watch even more Netflix; we should honor Martin Luther King Junior’s legacy by forcing ourselves to have difficult conversations. If we feel guilt, so be it. That temporary feeling is nothing compared to the histories of inequality and current discrimination faced by many racial minorities–and avoiding these exchanges because of “guilt” only breeds ignorance that recreates oppression. Guilt will fade. Understanding social location and different perspectives on complex issues is lasting.
Read the rest here.
Note: typo fixed in first paragraph.