This video is a MUST WATCH for *every* community & school district in the US who faced attacks on public ed via school board elections in ’22.

We won our fight here in Carmel. Barely. Against an impossibly well-resourced campaign backed by local hate group #M4LHamCo...

1/ …our community managed to elect two board members who support public education, and who care about ensuring that it’s accessible to and welcoming for ALL kids.

(The third, **amazing**, pro-public ed candidate lost, by a mere 90 votes. 💔😢)

2/

I'm sure there's a better to have shared all of this, but here are all the posts in my "CCS School Board DEI Trilogy":

Part I: Why CCS needed DEI & how it's going now
Part II: The hate group backlash
Part III: Decoding the anti-DEI rhetoric

(Links in replies) Part I: Why CCS needed DEI & how it's going now:

https://twitter.com/dianeshanef/status/1573337833468825601?s=20&t=Hgvm6P2wPToKn9FGI6yhew

LAST🧵re: CCS’s School Board race and the “DEI Question”

Locals please read!

Part III: Decoding the Rhetoric

Because now that we know WHAT is at stake, we need to be clear about how it’s being obscured.

(Hint: w/ faux outrage about test scores and “academic excellence”)

1/ As I’ve said before:

The vast majority of Carmel-folk are ON BOARD and HERE FOR the DEI initiatives and prioritizing inclusivity.

2/

🧵re: CCS’s School Board race and the “DEI Question”

Locals please read!

Part II: The Backlash
(Or, “How Carmel’s Stakes Got Lost in National Noise & Nonsense”)

(~Part III coming soon~)

1/ So now back to the history…

When the DEI coordinator position was announced, the response was *overwhelmingly* positive.

Remember: Carmel folks, by and large, KNOW our city’s difficult history, and we want to be better than we have been.

2/

🧵re: CCS’s School Board race and the “DEI Question”

Locals pls read!

B/c the stakes are *high* in this election.

We need to be clear about exactly what those stakes are.

Part I: Where we were/Where we are
(Parts 2 and 3 coming soon)

1/ So…

Carmel (like many other ‘burbs) doesn’t have a great history of inclusion. In particular, anti-Black racism has long had a home here.

We, like other Indy suburbs, were a big destination for white flight after 1949...

tinyurl.com/mtkm2e94

2/

🧵Re: Carmel's school board race. Local folx, pls read!

There's been a lot of lies/gossip lately re: “secret partisanship” being practiced by Keep Carmel Clay Schools Inclusive (@CarmelINKCCSI).

1/ It’s a FB group of ~1700 people, mostly Carmel voters, who want our schools to be inclusive and who think DEI + SEL are essential for that.

I'm one of 4 admins there.

2/

To every TT faculty member out there: you can help make (something like this) a reality (at least for PhD grads):

Create a “Visiting Research Associate” position in your department. 1/4

https://twitter.com/alexhumes5/status/1564466143552757761

VRAs get no $$ and are not asked to do any work; instead they receive institutional affiliation and library access in exchange for participating in the intellectual life of your dept. 2/4

So very, very pleased & excited to share:

My book is OUT and available to buy, for delivery on or after August 12!!!!

tinyurl.com/tkr3z3yb

🧵 1/15 For anyone interested in purchasing the book (or, because $$$, asking your institutions to purchase it!), see this flyer for a 20% off discount:

2/15

What bothers me most about #momsforliberty in HamCo is not that they posed proudly in front of a flag reminiscent of the Confederate Stars & Bars. No.

Ignorance is not a vice, on its own.

What bothers me is that, even after being informed that a reasonable observer 1/ could interpret the flag as a hate symbol (and that many of their HamCo neighbors took their message to be exactly that!), they have not made a single apology and have not made any attempt to reach out to the communities they alienated.

This callous insensitivity 2/