The school lesson plan is chaos
“[We] talk about race as if it was every race but whiteness. How can we support you, elevate your work around actually talking about white culture in our schools and how teachers can start doing this work of, like, unlearning whiteness.”
– Madison school board member Ananda Mirilli on the district’s Black Excellence Coalition, Madison Board of Education 1:58:52 into the meeting.
Once again, the Madison school board proved Monday that it cannot keep order at its own meetings. No wonder there is chaos in the classroom.
School board members had to huddle around president Gloria Reyes to be heard as the usual suspects stormed the stage of the Doyle administration building and chanted their slogans. “Don’t arrest us; arrest the police.”
This being Madison’s public schools, the disrupters were not arrested. As for the police, it was a close vote.
At issue was a $35,000 appropriation to continue policing special events such as athletic contests and dances. It barely passed, 4 to 3 (Ali Muldrow, Ananda Mirilli, and Nicki Vander Meulen voting no). Roll the tape, Lester:
Did you say ‘basketball’ white man?
The high school coordinator mentioned a basketball game between Madison Memorial and East high schools which drew a crowd of 1,200 students and adults. Now let’s pick up Ali Muldrow in action:
“I heard you mention a basketball game, there’s already a racialized connotation, right? You didn’t say we needed to have an officer for a swim meet. You said we needed police for basketball.”
High school coordinator Mike Hernandez responds, “You’re asking me if I am making a racial comment about basketball and swimming!?”
Muldrow objects, “No.”
Brown retorts, “Yes [you did]. Swimming has 20 to 40 people; basketball was a sell out. It was a great game. It had nothing to do with black or white.” Roll the tape, Lester:
Blaska’s Pop Quiz: Why would anyone put up with that kind of abuse? Answer: Fewer are.
David Blaska is a former Thompson Administration official, a Madison conservative, and the Lord of Stately Blaska Manor. Reposted from Blaska’s blog with permission.
