A school board candidate in Evanston, Illinois, ripped the city school district’s curriculum as harmful to her African-American children.
Ndona Muboyayi, the mother of two school-age children, told The Atlantic that aspects of the Evanston curriculum teach black children they “can’t get ahead” due to white supremacy. She also explained that other parents privately share her concerns but won’t speak up due to fear of social ostracism.
I interviewed Ndona Muboyayi. She worries that the public school system is teaching her Black children in ways that disempower them while prejudicially stereotyping whites.
Here is the piece:https://t.co/qwRDx9OHSP
I can share a few more things she told me, too.
— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) April 3, 2021
Muboyayi, who grew up in Evanston, said the city’s schools have changed since she attended them as a child. “Evanston to me was almost a utopia. Which is why I told my children, while we were living outside Toronto, ‘When we move back to the States, let’s move to Evanston,'” she said.
However, Muboyayi soon became disillusioned with her children’s classroom experience. “My children have always been so proud of who they are. Then all of a sudden they started to question themselves because of what they were taught after arriving here.”
She blamed the Evanston schools’ focus on systemic racism and white privilege for the shift. “My son has wanted to be a lawyer since he was 11. Then one day he came home and told me, ‘But Mommy, there are these systems put in place that prevent black people from accomplishing anything.’ That’s what they’re teaching black kids: that all of this time for the past 400 years, this is what [white people have] done to you and your people. The narrative is, ‘You can’t get ahead.'” (RELATED: ‘Exploring White Fragility’: Longtime School Teacher Explains How Critical Race Theory Is Hurting Multicultural Classrooms)
Muboyayi said many parents who privately agree with her views are afraid to speak out about the school curriculum. “Even if someone just poses a question, or expresses a conflicting view, you’re immediately labeled a part of the problem, a white supremacist, and people will say, ‘Find out where they work.'”
Evanston, which is 67% white, approved reparation payments for black residents on March 22. Any recipient must prove he or she is a victim or descendant of a victim who faced racial discrimination in housing between 1919 and 1969. The program will be funded through donations and a tax on recreational marijuana sales.