Here’s a good litmus test for where Chicago’s two mayoral candidates stand on K-12 education: Do they support Chicago Public Schools featuring the “How Can We Win? video on its official webpage?
The video is one of the “Tools” on the Office of Equity page and it involves an impassioned tirade from activist Kimberly Jones – speaking a few days after George Floyd’s murder – about rising up and burning down communities.
It’s an outright, unapologetic defense of rioting and looting as an entitlement and a straight up endorsement of victimization. That blacks have no hope, that they “can’t win” and there is nothing left to do but burn and loot.
“How can you win? You can’t win, the game is fixed. So when they say ‘why do you burn down the community, why do you burn down your own neighborhood?’ It’s not ours. We don’t own anything. We don’t own anything there is.”
“There’s a social contract that we all have but if you steal or if I steal then the person who is the authority comes in and they fix the situation. But the person who fixes the situation is killing us so the social contract is broken. And If the social contract is broken why the f*ck do I give a sh*t about burning the f*cking Football Hall of Fame, and burning the f*cking Target…f*ck your Target, f*ck your Hall of Fame. As far as I’m concerned they can burn this b*tch to the ground. And it still wouldn’t be enough.”
Her emotion is raw and real, but the message is nihilistic. And worse, it’s an extremely dangerous message to anybody in a vulnerable state, especially Chicago’s struggling black students. Inner city life is tough enough, but the schools are leaving just 1 in 10 black students reading at grade level. Add Jones’ rhetoric to the mix and that leaves nothing but despair.
The problem with the video goes even deeper. Argue all you want over whether Critical Race Theory is specifically taught in classrooms or not, but what this video does is give teachers implicit permission to push the same destructive ideas in their classrooms.
You can agree with Jones’ message or not. That’s not the issue. The real issue is whether it’s appropriate for the video to be on CPS’ website. Posted by the Office of Equity. Positioned as an “equity tool.” For teachers to spread and for any student to see.
We strongly oppose it. Schools are meant to be a place of hope and inspiration. Where learning is a ticket to a better life.
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