Ann Arbor schools teaching institutional racism, 'whiteness', ban white students from field trip as a result - Part 3

This is the 3rd in an ongoing series regarding outright apartheid in Ann Arbor schools in Michigan where white children were banned from a field trip to see a NASA astronaut. In part 1 (Ann Arbor elementary school bans white students from field trip, principal defends discrimination), I simply laid out the facts of this sad episode. The principal of the elementary school that spearheaded the discrimination defended it saying, in part:

“as I reflect upon the look of excitement, enthusiasm and energy that I saw in these children’s eyes as they stood in the presence of a renowned African American rocket scientist in a very successful position, it gave the kids an opportunity to see this type of achievement is possible for even them.

“It was not a wasted venture for I know one day they might want to aspire to be the first astronaut or scientist standing on the Planet Mars.

White students apparently wouldn't get the same inspiration?

“The intent of our field trip was not to segregate or exclude students as has been reported, but rather to address the societal issues, roadblocks and challenges that our African American children will face as they pursue a successful academic education here in our community.”

Yet he did exactly that. Worse yet, when the black children came back to school the other students booed them, and instead of seeing the racist error of his way, Madison scolded the booing children for more than an hour bringing some to tears, including a Muslim girl who said she had experienced discrimination. In part 2 (Ann Arbor elementary school bans white students from field trip, principal defends discrimination - Part 2), I pointed out that Michigan passed proposal 2 in 2006 that barred school districts from discriminating on the basis of race, gender, or other factors. Now, it turns out that the effort to install racism in the curriculum started in 2004 with the hiring of a consultant - Pacific Educational Group. Turns out, there is a lot of info on the PEG out there and none of it good. From Ann Arbor.com: Ann Arbor school district looking into legality and principal's actions in black-only field trip

District administrators said the intent of the program was to work in a mentoring relationship with black students to help boost their achievement. They said it was part of the district’s work to combat the achievement gap, which in Ann Arbor is commonly referred to in terms of the difference in test scores, grade-point average, discipline and graduation rates between white and black students.

Much of that work is being led by a consultant, Glenn Singleton, and his Pacific Educational Group. The district has been employing the company since the 2004-05 school year and has paid it $341,000 so far, Roberts said.

The PEG is a racist organization and Glenn Singleton is a racist bigot. I dug around and there is no shortage of information on this group, or on Singleton. From Open Market back in 2007: Embarrass Your Employer, While Getting Rich Off of “Diversity” Scams

Glenn Singleton of Pacific Educational Group has become a rich man by preaching racism, hate, and scapegoating. School systems hire him for hundreds of thousands of dollars to insult and scapegoat teachers and students based on their race under the guise of “diversity training.” That embarrasses the school systems that hire him in high-profile legal cases. Yet foolish school superintendents continue to hire him at exorbitant rates, as the Discriminations blog notes, citing a recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Previously, Singleton embarrassed the Seattle Schools. In 2002, they hired him to indoctrinate their students and staff about racism. As a result, they redefined racism consistent with Singleton’s extreme and radical beliefs. The Seattle Schools defined “individualism” as a form of “cultural racism,” said that only whites can be racist, and claimed that planning ahead (”future time orientation”) is a white characteristic that it is racist to expect minorities to exhibit.

Singleton promotes the basest racial stereotypes, such as claiming that “’white talk’ is ‘verbal, impersonal, intellectual’ and ‘task-oriented,’ while ‘color commentary’ is ‘nonverbal, personal, emotional’ and ‘process-oriented.’” He also blathers about “the ubiquity of white privilege and racism,” and depicts Asian students as being “majority students” just like whites because they have the temerity to succeed academically in a predominantly white society. But although he views minority culture as not being “intellectual” and “task-oriented,” it is white teachers whom he blames for the underperformance of many minority students, since he claims it would be a “racist statement” to place any responsibility for minority underperformance on minorities themselves.

Singleton’s rantings would have passed unnoticed had it not been for the legal challenge to the Seattle Schools’ use of race in student assignment. Lower courts had upheld their use of race, and the case was pending before the Supreme Court, which had the option of declining to review the case without comment, as it had more than a dozen prior cases involving the use of race by public schools in student assignment.

But then Seattle’s bizarre and racist definitions of racism, closely tracking Singleton’s own extreme beliefs, came to my attention. At my suggestion, the widely-read Volokh Conspiracy law blog, which has been cited in federal appellate court opinions, and is read by Supreme Court clerks, publicized those definitions on May 17, 2006 (citing me), and shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court, which had previously held over the case for discussion, decided to review it. The Seattle Schools, embarrassed by public ridicule, took down the Singleton-influenced definitions of racism, which I used to urge the Supreme Court to hear the case.

In June 2007, the Supreme Court struck down Seattle’s use of race, and 4 of the 9 justices cited Seattle’s wacky, Singleton-influenced, definitions of racism in the course of their opinions. Justice Thomas, for example, cited those definitions as an object lesson in why not to defer to school districts when they use race. I filed the brief that brought those wacky definitions to the Supreme Court’s attention; it was one of the few amicus briefs filed in the case that opposed Seattle’s use of race. As a result of losing the case, Seattle is expected to pay more than a million dollars in attorneys fees to the lawyers who challenged its use of race.

Despite greatly embarrassing the Seattle School District, which hired him, Singleton continues to be hired by school superintendents to preach his weird message of racism and scapegoating. The Greenwich, Connecticut schools have hired him as a diversity consultant. So, too, has Jack O’Connell, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, who has hired Singleton and given him the opportunity to scapegoat white teachers for the poor performance of some minority students. And so has a Colorado school district that gave Singleton a “six-figure consulting contract.” Singleton has received hundreds of thousands of dollars to barrage a captive audience with racism and hate. Yet he thinks he’s oppressed!

That's a pretty good roundup. Here another snippet regarding yet another CA school district: Good riddance, Pacific Educational Group — now let's be choosy about a replacement

The Lodi Unified School District's decision not to renew the Pacific Educational Group's consulting contract is the correct one.

The two columns I wrote about the organization's accusatory, guilt-laden approach to what the Pacific Educational Group calls "equity" might have had some influence. Many district teachers told me that my critical articles expressed their own disgruntled feelings toward the consultants. And I know too that since interim superintendent Len Casanega announced that LUSD "will have a different approach," no teacher I know has expressed any regrets about the change of direction. Their collective sentiment is "good riddance."

That's a pretty common sentiment out there in the blogosphere. Local radio personally Frank Beckmann of 760 AM Detroit interviewed Todd Roberts, the Ann Arbor School Superintendent, who ended up obfuscated and dodging Frank's questions regarding the black-only field trio and the PEG:

Previously:
Ann Arbor elementary school bans white students from field trip, principal defends discrimination - Part 2
Ann Arbor elementary school bans white students from field trip, principal defends discrimination
Cal School District Segregating Students By Race! Call it "Heritage Assemblies"
"Disproportionate Representation" in Special Ed?
Teaching racism