In a front-page article in Monday’s print edition, the New York Times details the firestorm that erupted in Queen Anne’s County last year after the county school superintendent emailed parents a note about racism following the in-custody murder of George Floyd by a police officer.
“Racism is alive in our country, our state, in Queen Anne’s County, and our schools,” Dr. Andrea Kane, the county’s first black school superintendent, wrote in the June 5, 2020, letter.
The email led to the creation of a Facebook group seeking Kane’s ouster, the posting of racist comments, and the election of school board members opposed to Kane, the Times reported.
According to the report:
“Over the last year, the protests and reflection prompted by Mr. Floyd’s death reverberated in school districts throughout the country, as school boards and legislatures reconsidered how and what students should learn about race and racism, from the history of slavery and segregation to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“The debate has sometimes focused on K-12 curriculums after conservative activists began branding a range of topics including history lessons and diversity initiatives as ‘critical race theory,’ an academic framework that views racism as ingrained in law and other modern institutions. The term is now often deployed to attack any discussion of race and racism in American classrooms — pitting educators who feel obligated to teach the realities of racism against predominantly white parents and politicians who believe that schools are forcing white children to feel ashamed of their race and country.”
