Thread by @AliMCollins

TY @DrIbram for your letter. SFUSD voted last Tuesday to suspend the regular admissions policy based on essay, exam and GPA due to similar concerns for COVID. Yet unlike BPS we will allow any student to apply via the general lottery.

https://twitter.com/globeopinion/status/1319612965780336640

As you can imagine, this was met with controversy and online harassment and targeting of me and @lopez4schools the Black and a Latinx female Commissioners and a Black female representative to the Board who is also a Lowell student.

https://twitter.com/idamoj/status/1319839197557997568

I would welcome conversation with other Black educators on selective enrollment public schools. Like Boston Latin, Lowell has a long fraught history with underrepresentation and racism. Does anyone remember #BlackatBSU?

https://twitter.com/AliMCollins/status/704691795427364865

Black students and alumni at Lowell have consistently called on @SFUnified to address the toxic culture at the school. Four years ago student held a walk out and demanded change. sfpsmom.com/lowell-bsu-stu…

Lowell alumni and students state the narratives espoused by a “specific, vocal faction of adults, some parents of prospective and current students and some alumni” fighting to maintain the current admission policy “smack of elitism and racism”.

link.medium.com/0iwwHzzGQab

So, while I’m glad folks are now speaking up. The fact that many of these same people DID NOT SPEAK UP during previous Board meetings when parents shouted down a Black Lowell student and Board Representative as she spoke about the racism she experiences each day.

https://twitter.com/AliMCollins/status/1320032730873098240

They also interrupted the Chair of the meeting VP @lopez4schools. Who is also a Latina. The day after we were all trolled by MAGA bots and DM threats. While many of our views are also supported by our colleagues, it is not a coincidence that the three of us have been targeted.

We saw this before when our district removed racially biased tracking in math classes. In fact some of the very same people (Lowell parents) began sharing similar views on parent email threads. This was the first time I was exposed to this type of hate. sfpsmom.com/fear-and-loath…

All this may be shocking, but unfortunately it is not surprising. It’s part and parcel of our Am. education system (public, private, etc.) for Black parents and children. Just as Jim Crow laws recreated slavery, “gifted” tracks and selective enrollment have recreated segregation.

https://twitter.com/alimcollins/status/1318714143344480258

I will never forget what one child said during public comment at our meeting last Tuesday. He said, temporarily Suspending Lowell HS‘s selective enrollment policy wasn’t fair because it would “take away his advantage.”

Adults may want to feign willful ignorance about what education research says about “merit”-based education. But our children know who these programs and our larger education system are designed for.

https://twitter.com/alimcollins/status/1315788031257796608