Over the past several years, certain Denver school board members have weaponized race as a tool of political intimidation and to stifle debate on important topics.
This has to stop. At a time when the country is run by a president and administration who are demonstrably racist, savaging people on racial grounds with whom you have minor differences is self-destructive in the extreme.
In early June, board member Xóchitl Gaytán, who is Latina, criticized a policy proposed by her colleague Kimberlee Sia, a white woman, that would allow the school board, under certain conditions, to retain its own legal counsel rather than relying on the district’s general counsel.
It’s an interesting proposal that merits discussion, but that’s for another time. What caught my attention was how Gaytán, amid a series of legitimate questions she asked about the proposal, strongly implied that Sia was only putting forward the policy because Aaron Thompson, the general counsel, and other lawyers on his staff are people of color.
She said the policy, if enacted, would “displace two black attorneys and one Latina.”
Gaytán said she attends Colorado Association of School Boards conferences every year, and has heard of no other instances where a school board routinely retains its own legal counsel. She said DPS risks “reputational harm,” if it deviates from this practice.
“Most of these school board members (from other districts) mind you…are white,” Gaytán said. “And most of them govern and supervise white superintendents. It’s really interesting to me that DPS, one of the largest urban school board districts in the state of Colorado, whose superintendent is Afro Latino and is bilingual in Spanish, now has a white board member wanting to introduce this policy.”
Gaytán began her remarks by asking Sia, in a pointed tone, whether board member John Youngquist helped her draft the policy. Sia said no. Gaytán is one of the leaders of a board faction that seems more than ready to convict Youngquist without due process of being a racist who questions some of Superintendent Alex Marrero’s policies only because Marrero is a man of color. Marrero has been an active participant in this campaign.
I find Gaytán’s words ill-considered for a number of reasons, but primarily for the reason I stated at the outset: We live in times when bonafide racists wield power. Crying wolf at every opportunity will backfire. It has become part of the far-left’s playbook, and it partially explains why this political faction finds itself so deep in the political wilderness, except in progressive bastions like Denver.
It’s also a blatantly manipulative attempt to intimidate and silence a white elected official. This is nothing new on the DPS board. Auon’tai Anderson elevated it to an art form during his four-year tenure on the board, and Gaytán regularly operates from the same script.
Yes, over the course of U.S. history white people have repressed the voices of people of color, up to the point of killing them for speaking out. Yes, racial prejudice still pervades our society. Those are established facts and important context.
These facts, however, do not excuse the cynically manipulative attempt to stifle debate by crying racism whenever it suits a perceived political purpose.
It’s a boneheaded strategy that can only backfire.
