{"id":1479185,"date":"2022-05-18T08:16:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T12:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1479185"},"modified":"2022-05-18T08:17:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T12:17:06","slug":"how-shaming-my-school-boards-racism-cost-me-my-job-but-not-my-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-shaming-my-school-boards-racism-cost-me-my-job-but-not-my-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"How Shaming My School Board\u2019s Racism Cost Me My Job, But Not My Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-shaming-my-school-boards-racism-cost-me-my-job-but-not-my-stand%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1479185&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Asra-on-the-stand.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Fairfax County, Va. \u2014 When I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/school-board-defies-court-ruling-discrimination-against-asian-students-1687818\">stepped before<\/a> my local school board here in mid-March while on vacation, I knew I had a strong point to make. I just didn\u2019t know it would cost me my job.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past two years, I have witnessed a new racism by the 12-0 woke Democrats on the school board, directed against Asian Americans, like me, whose children\u2019s success in K-12 schools belie the notion that systemic racism oppresses all minorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As I turned to return to my seat after my impassioned two minutes, I couldn\u2019t have expected what came next. Security officials began walking toward me from multiple directions. Hyper-vigilance kicked in. I thought immediately of the immigrant moms before me, sitting in the front rows, supporting me. Norma. Suparna. Julia. Yuyan. And many others.<\/p>\n<p>Coming from nations where citizens are jailed, punished, and humiliated for challenging authority, they had overcome deep societal fears, cultural stereotypes, and language barriers to challenge school authorities over the past two years with courage, poise, and unapologetic fidelity to their children.<\/p>\n<p>The painful irony of progressive Democrats flashed before me. The school board that pontificates so often about \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d and creating a \u201ccaring culture\u201d had dispatched white security officials against me, an Asian immigrant Muslim single mom. <\/p>\n<p>I abhor identity politics. But that does not mean I do not see the hypocrisy of identity politics\u2014and I am not shy about calling it out. I put a mirror up to the school board, noting about each security official: \u201cYou\u2019re a white man! You\u2019re a white man! You\u2019re a white man!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The mothers understood my point, as did the white men and women who were watching, supporting us. Online, a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitchy.com\/samj-3930\/2022\/03\/11\/you-are-the-new-face-of-racism-fairfax-warrior-mom-asra-q-nomani-takes-on-the-fairfax-county-school-board-and-wins-watch\/\">blogger later wrote<\/a>: \u201cYAAAAS SLAAAAAY QWEEEEEN!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In that moment of defiance, the moms sprang to their feet, calling out the school board officials for what they are: \u201cRacist! Racist! Racist!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/fairfax-school-board-flees-meeting-as-asian-moms-chant-racist-at-them\">school board fled<\/a>, the chairwoman, Stella Pekarsky, calling a 15-minute recess.<\/p>\n<p>I stood strong, but confrontations like this shake me to the core, as they would anyone. Courage truly is acting even in the face of fear. I got a comfort meal across the road afterward at McDonald\u2019s as one of the moms, Julia, gave me a ride home, drowning my stress hormones in warm French fries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The next day, Friday, March 18, I got a phone call. It was my boss, the president of Parents Defending Education, which I helped start in early 2021 to help parents expose corruption in school boards, learn to advocate for themselves, and engage with policy makers.<\/p>\n<p>After writing in 2020 at The Federalist about the war on children, I brought with me a database of about 200 incidents of indoctrination I had culled from parent tips, the blueprint for a map to showcase those cases, and 35 years as an investigative reporter to make certain each case was vetted and a thorough process put in place for documenting the incidents that flooded in.<\/p>\n<p>I also brought the network of extraordinary parents who had become pioneers in the parents\u2019 movement with me when we became accidental activists starting in June 2020 in northern Virginia.  I brought our successful real-world experience and penned a field guide for parents across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past year, I was so proud to find and inspire kindred spirits who are moms, dads, grandparents, and community members from Oregon to the outskirts of Boston. In our efforts, the mama bear movement was born.<\/p>\n<p>That Friday, the director of outreach at Parents Defending Education had sent my boss a clip of my video from the night before. The president told me she didn\u2019t approve of me calling out the security officials for their race. \u201cThat was unacceptable,\u201d she scolded me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was being ironic,\u201d I said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What I said was not \u201cunacceptable,\u201d because what I said was clearly satire.<\/p>\n<p>For more than a year, I have carried with me a copy of the book, \u201cNot My Idea: A Book About Whiteness,\u201d to call out its troubling conclusion to children: \u201cWhiteness is a bad deal,\u201d showing a contract with the devil. Our school district, like many around the country, has barraged parents and \u201cbad white people\u201d with maxims about \u201cwhite privilege,\u201d \u201cwhiteness\u201d and \u201cwhite fragility,\u201d as evidenced by <a href=\"https:\/\/hayfieldss.fcps.edu\/Equity\">the \u201cresources\u201d<\/a> at Hayfield Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p>Our school board members defend a racist admissions policy just <a href=\"https:\/\/pacificlegal.org\/case\/coalition_for_tj\/\">struck down by a federal court<\/a> as \u201cpatently unconstitutional,\u201d anti-Asian, and discriminatory. They operate schools that indoctrinate children with the language of critical race theory, teaching white kids and even \u201cmilitary kids\u201d they are the oppressors in a game of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcwashington.com\/news\/local\/northern-virginia\/privilege-bingo-in-fairfax-co-class-meets-controversy-after-it-includes-being-a-military-kid\/2942443\/\">\u201cPrivilege Bingo,\u201d<\/a> while the black children are perpetual victims.<\/p>\n<p>I couldn\u2019t help but find it ironic that this same school board\u2014so full of itself for its avowed racial consciousness\u2014would be siccing white security officials on an Asian woman. Isn\u2019t that racist and systemic racism by their own definition? Doesn\u2019t it show their white fragility? I was revealing their hypocrisy, using their own politics.<\/p>\n<p>I learned irony has its costs.<\/p>\n<p>One week later, at 2:30 p.m., on Friday, March 25\u2014eight days after my school board speech\u2014I was fired unceremoniously from my job at Parents Defending Education for, well, being a parent defending education, as one friend put it.<\/p>\n<p>In a meeting a couple of days earlier, I had been told, \u201cYou chafe at authority.\u201d Isn\u2019t that what we\u2019re supposed to do as parent advocates? I was told that I had to stop working on school issues in Virginia. After we, the parents, had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fairfaxtimes.com\/articles\/fairfax_county\/hopping-mad-mama-and-papa-bears-elect-youngkin\/article_c675c506-3d8b-11ec-a454-1b6ff223b791.html\">elected the new Virginia governor<\/a>, Glenn Youngkin, establishing education as a cornerstone midterm election issue, we were supposed to walk away?\u00a0Parents Defending Education didn\u2019t return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>I was given 2.5-hour notice with that day, March 25, my last day, six more days on my son\u2019s and my health insurance and one last paycheck, college tuition payments looming overhead. Within minutes, I was booted from company messaging groups. My Gmail address was disabled without notice. I didn\u2019t get a chance to say goodbye to colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t spoken of this shock until now, as I processed what happened. I got a paltry severance and my health insurance reinstated after noting that it is illegal in Virginia to boot someone off health insurance. But, last week, a reporter for Mother Jones magazine asked why I left Parents Defending Education for a profile that she is set to publish later this week, and, believing in honesty, I told her.<\/p>\n<p>I expect the profile to chronicle my journey from hero to zero\u2014from politically correct activism as a Muslim feminist to a puppet master for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/critical-race-theory\/groups-irs-filing-reveals-nexus-right-wing-dark-money-and-critical-race-theory\">\u201cdark money,\u201d<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/transcripts\/transcript-all-chris-hayes-10-18-21-n1281828\">\u201cright-wing\u201d<\/a> parent advocates. Those are the kind of hits I got immersing in conservative politics over the past year, but it has never deterred me, because, as a fierce opponent of critical race theory, I am the same classic liberal I have been as a <a href=\"https:\/\/muslimreformmovement.org\/\">Muslim feminist<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>I believe in free speech, liberty, point of view diversity, and humanity. I do not believe in indoctrination, especially of children, and I reject any hierarchy of human value\u2014old or new.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I share the news with my friends and fellow mama bears and papa bears to also share an important lesson I have learned: when it comes to defending our children\u2014and America\u2019s children\u2014we cannot depend on anyone but ourselves. Not government, we know. Not also organizations that prop themselves up\u2014or we help prop up\u2014because they may also falter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cancel culture can come for any of us. We associate it mostly with leftist political correctness but conservatives can express it too, we know, as with the <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.org\/the-firing-of-amber-athey-cancel-culture-hits-wmal\/\">recent firing<\/a> of writer Amber Athey from conservative radio station WMAL for a joke about Vice President Kamala Harris. We must of course work within institutions, build networks and collaborate, but we cannot depend on anyone but ourselves in this noble and important mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And even in the face of disappointment, we can\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n<p>Only we can cancel ourselves. Only we can allow others to silence us. On April 12, with my beloved father, 88, beside me, I <a href=\"https:\/\/asrainvestigates.substack.com\/p\/grandparents-ask-supreme-court-for?s=w\">walked with<\/a> my fellow northern Virginia parents up the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to press our case, <a href=\"https:\/\/pacificlegal.org\/case\/coalition_for_tj\/\">Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board<\/a>, against the anti-Asian discrimination in the new admissions policy to my son\u2019s alma mater.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, it\u2019s each one of us\u2014alone\u2014who has to take that long march to the microphone to face the school board educrats and activists who feign authority over the lives of America\u2019s children. It\u2019s moms, dads, and grandparents alone, most often at Kiss-and-Ride drop off, wondering what \u201cPrivilege Matrix\u201d their children will have to leap through at school.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s we alone who embrace our children at morning\u2019s start and night\u2019s end. So remain steadfast with me, through thick and thin. We will persevere. We will win.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve marked next Thursday, May 26, to sign up and again speak to my school board.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Asra Nomani is a senior contributor at The Federalist. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, Nomani writes a regular newsletter, <a href=\"https:\/\/asrainvestigates.substack.com\/\">Asra Investigates<\/a>, with breaking news and analysis on the frontlines of culture and politics. She is cofounder of the Coalition for TJ, a grassroots parent group, and the Pearl Project, an investigative reporting initiative.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fairfax County, Va. \u2014 When I stepped before my local school board here in mid-March while on vacation, I knew I had a strong point to make. I just didn\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":723,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1479185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/723"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}