Sheeesh whatta nutcase! lol If you have ever had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, you are no better than the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Sounds silly, right? Not according to Verenice Gutierrez, a Portland, Ore K-8 principal. You see, she is super-in-tune with the subtleties of racism and uses the peanut butter sandwich as an example. “What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” said Gutierrez. Ok, so far I’m not picking up on the racist aspects of the sandwich. Hopefully she can explain it better. “Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita,” she continued. I thought she was going to say that because peanut butter is “brown” and it is placed between “white” pieces of bread that the sandwich represented Latino subservience to Caucasian masters. I guess it’s just because some cultures don’t eat sandwiches. I’m starting to think Ms. Gutierrez doesn’t know what racism is. Actually she does know what racism is, but she doesn’t care. At her school there is a program that is available only to black and Latino boys. The lunchtime drum corps excludes whites, Asians, Native Americans, and all girls from participating. Gutierrez denies that the drum corps is discriminatory in any way with this explanation: “When white people do it, it is not a problem, but if it’s for kids of color, then it’s a problem? Break it down for me. That’s your white privilege, and your whiteness.” How dare she blame my whiteness on anything other than a need for a sunscreen with a high SPF. I take it back; she doesn’t know what racism is, or equality. It’s kind of scary considering she heads up a district-wide equity-training program called “Courageous Conversations.” The stated goals of this strange initiative is: Through intensive staff trainings, frequent staff meetings, classroom observations and other initiatives, the premise is that if educators can understand their own “white privilege,” then they can change their teaching practices to boost minority students’ performance. And according to Gutierrez in a letter to her staff: Our focus school and our Superintendent’s mandate that we improve education for students of color, particularly Black and Brown boys, will provide us with many opportunities to use the protocols of Courageous Conversations in data teams, team meetings, staff meetings, and conversations amongst one another. Gutierrez’ position is sadly not unique among liberal educators. They see minorities performing poorly in school and treat them differently in an effort to help them. This is a disservice to her black and brown students and it fails to prepare them for real life. The only way to achieve equality is to treat everyone the same and to hold them all to the same set of standards. Getting back to the sandwich argument, I disagree that it is racist. In fact, I think it promotes racial harmony. Peanut butter and jelly (let’s say strawberry) represents an understanding between Latinos and Native Americans. A Nutella and marshmallow fluff sandwich is a metaphor for the brotherhood between blacks and whites. Throw some honey on that sucker and bring the Asians into the fold. Heck, make that sandwich on a a nice marbled rye and you have multi-cultural culinary delight. Now a taco; that’s racist. Think about it: brown meat in a brown shell. Unless you put some cheese and sour cream in it, you’re looking at a symbol of Latino supremacy.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 05:07:58 +0000