Hello cawacko,
Diversity of viewpoints. People with different ethnic backgrounds have quite diversified outlooks and experiences. We need their input to understand how it is for them and others. We have to be a nation for all Americans, not just the privileged. We need as many different lives as possible to make America great. The more, the better. If everyone has the same experiences and views, we lack vision.
Here's a good one for you and it's not from the Onion. The SF School Board rejected a person who was attempting to volunteer to join a parental committee that advises the Board. He's a gay white man with multi-racial children. He was rejected because he didn't bring enough diversity to the group. (This is a group with all women, no men on the board). Again, you can't make this up. (the author is a progressive woman)
San Francisco school board's antics would be funny if the consequences weren't so serious
A gay dad volunteers for one of eight open slots on a parent committee that advises the school board. All of the 10 current members are straight moms. Three are white. Three are Latina. Two are Black. One is Tongan. They all want the dad to join them.
The seven school board members talk for two hours about whether the dad brings enough diversity. Yes, he’d be the only man. And the only LGBTQ representative. But he’d be the fourth white person in a district where 15% of students are white.
The gay dad never utters a single word. The board members do not ask the dad a single question before declining to approve him for the committee. They say they’ll consider allowing him to volunteer if he comes back with a slate of more diverse candidates, ideally including an Arab parent, a Native American parent, a Vietnamese parent and a Chinese parent who doesn’t speak English.
Was this an episode of “Portlandia,” the TV satire about liberalism gone to ludicrous extremes? No, it was just another Tuesday night at the San Francisco Board of Education, a group that would provide great entertainment if the consequences weren’t so serious.
Parents teach their children to treat everyone fairly. To not be rude. To listen more than speak. To do research before forming opinions. To not waste other people’s time. To focus on what’s important. To acknowledge mistakes. It’s too bad school board members haven’t learned these lessons over the past dreadful year of distance learning for the more than 52,000 children in their charge.
“What’s wrong with these people? They’re committing political malpractice and educational malpractice seemingly at every meeting,” said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who represents the Castro and said he’s heard repeatedly about gay students in city schools facing bullying and discrimination. “But we don’t want someone queer with an actual seat at the table?”
The Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club on Friday slammed the board for its “misguided fumbling towards a goal of diversity.”
The person who was perhaps the most stunned was Seth Brenzel, the gay dad whose daughter is a fourth-grader at Glen Park Elementary. “At any moment, I expected a commissioner to address me,” he said, “because there I was.”
Knowing his face was beamed live across the city on Zoom, Brenzel kept a neutral expression as the board discussed his race, gender and sexual orientation — and whether they were a worthy mix for the Parent Advisory Council.
“I thought maybe somebody would ask me a question. Like, ‘Hey, Seth, why do you want to be a member of the PAC?’ Or, ‘Hey, Seth, can you tell me about your volunteering in the district?’” he said. “None of that happened.”
Seth Brenzel is executive director of the Walden School, a nonprofit that runs music education camps, and is co-president of the parent-teacher organization at his daughter's school. But the S.F. Board of Education turned him down as a volunteer member of the school board's Parent Advisory Council.
Brenzel, 48, lives in Bernal Heights with his husband, a child psychologist, and their daughter. He’s the executive director of the Walden School, a nonprofit that runs music education camps, and he sings tenor for the San Francisco Symphony. He’s the co-president of the parent-teacher organization at his daughter’s school.
Seems like a top-notch candidate for a volunteer position. Especially since, as PAC coordinator Michelle Jacques-Menegaz explained, recruiting parents during the pandemic has been next to impossible. She’s asked the school board repeatedly to help her find parents from underrepresented backgrounds, and they haven’t.
She knew Brenzel’s advocacy for reopening schools safely might be an issue. But any normal board would have at least tabled the appointment, quietly, rather than publicly humiliate him for two hours, said PAC chair Naomi Laguana. After all, hundreds of parents were waiting to speak about opening schools, a topic that, as usual, didn’t come up for seven hours.
“There were 500 parents along for this roller-coaster ride of insanity, and I felt responsible,” said Laguana, who had recruited Brenzel.
But the confounding move was just the latest by a school board that seems to specialize in them. I’d like to get their side of the story, but Commissioners Gabriela Lopez, Alison Collins, Mark Sanchez, Matt Alexander and Kevine Boggess didn’t return requests for interviews. Commissioner Faauuga Moliga couldn’t be reached.
Asked whether she regretted what happened Tuesday, Commissioner Jenny Lam said, “It’s more about recognizing that I’m clearly stating my support for Seth as a candidate. The next step is bringing together his candidacy along with additional candidates for the slate for the PAC. I’m focused on those next steps.”
She acknowledged that the meetings need to be better structured and that the board needs to be clearer that safely opening schools is its top priority.
That has not always been evident over the past year.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea...o-school-board-s-antics-would-be-15948058.php
