Considering how rapidly the right’s “war on woke” is expanding, it was perhaps inevitable: Self-identified “mama bears” on a Texas school board are angry that a classroom had a poster showing people of different races holding hands. Last week, the school board in Conroe, Texas, a small city north of Houston, turned the right-wing mania for censorship into a dark parody of itself. At issue? A poster that seemed to imply that interracial friendship is possible.
According to ABC 13 Eyewitness News in Houston, things started when school trustee Melissa Dungan declared that she had spoken to parents who were upset about “displays of personal ideologies in classrooms.” When pressed for an example, according to the news report, “Dungan referred to a first grade student whose parent claimed they were so upset by a poster showing hands of people of different races, that they transferred classrooms.”
“I wish I was shocked,” Dungan said of the poster. “I am aware these trends have been happening for many years.”
My mom’s anti-racism was very liberal white savior but I will always thank her for the fact that she actively encouraged me to make friends with our black neighbors when I was like 4. I unfortunately still lived mostly in white dominated areas growing up and had very few black acquittances and no close black friends. Though I did have a few close asain friends in highschool I guess. But still, I went to a highschool with like a grand total of two black people, and the one I was friendly with had been adopted by a white family. So while my mom did instill that racism is wrong, i still lacked necessary perspective for a long time. Pretty much didnt really get interested and involved in race issues until I was on tumblr when Mike Brown happened. And I still haven’t really had as many one on one conversations and friendships with black people as I would like.
Idk, maybe I’m being weird about race even with this post. I just kind of regret the fact that being in white dominated areas meant I didnt get to have the kind of experiences that would help me have been better on race earlier. I did at least have no open racists in my family growing up, which was good. And in addition to my mom my paternal grandma has always been proactively anti-racist. Both in a liberal way, but better than the upbringing a lot of white Americans have.
Sorry for the info dump lol.
ETA: OH I should mention that one positive experience with racial diversity in my life has been working with POC children in my past jobs with kids. Thats been beneficial I think. For example I specifically remember viscerally feeling the anxiety my latine students had during the rise of Trump.