Asra Nomani, who is the leader of a parent advocacy group, gave an impassioned speech on Thursday that eviscerated school board members for pushing Critical Race Theory and allowing anti-racist activism to take precedence over education in local Virginia schools.
Nomani is the vice president of Parents Defending Education and a prominent journalist who previously wrote for The Wall Street Journal. She is also a mother of a senior student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) in Virginia.
When she took the floor at the Fairfax School Board meeting, she roundly accused the members of forcing indoctrination on students using Critical Race Theory. She nailed them for labeling the “mostly minority students and parents” as racists and “toxic” for stating their objections. She also criticized the board’s vote to remove the “merit-based race-blind admissions test to TJ.”
“I sent a note to every single one of you, and I got not a single response,” Nomani proclaimed in reference to her June 2020 message to the board members. In that message, she informed them about a so-called “Occupy TJ” movement. “There was no concern about our students at that time.”
I spoke from my heart to the @fcpsnews school board. Watch board chair Ricardy Anderson rage at me. Didn’t she get the memo that watching the clock is “white supremacy”? She reveals the board’s true anti-Asian animus. @ricardy4Mason, YOUR time has expired. #recallFCPS pic.twitter.com/YSbrVWtO8N
— Asra Q. Nomani (@AsraNomani) May 7, 2021
“We pled with you, as Asians, as an immigrant. I came [to the U.S.] at the age of four,” Nomani remarked. “You didn’t listen to us. And now I sit here listening to these empty proclamations… about your great value of Asian-Americans.”
“Our students were told that if they do salsa dancing, it amounts to cultural appropriation and that they needed to check their racism. And that is our mostly minority, mostly Asian students,” Nomani commented. “So, your empty proclamations are just that.”
She went on to slam one board member over a comment concerning the removal of “the one policy that parents have to defend their students from indoctrination.” She appeared to be referring to the school board’s Controversial Issues Policy that mandates the presentation of both sides of a given issue when teaching controversial subjects.
“If you have to remove a policy like that, how can you possibly be doing anything good?” Nomani angrily asked.
Nomani was interrupted by the Board Chair Ricardy Anderson who loudly exclaimed, “your time has expired!”
“I spoke from my heart…watch board chair Ricardy Anderson rage at me. Didn’t she get the memo that watching the clock is ‘white supremacy’?” Nomani snarked on Twitter. “She reveals the board’s true anti-Asian animus.”
Nomani also objected to the district’s partnership with The Leadership Academy, which is a New York-based consulting firm that promotes “equity-focused leadership development” and “anti-racism.” The district signed a contract with the group back in March to ostensibly provide “leadership development training.” They have spent approximately $48,500 on the progressive messaging according to documents provided by the Parents Defending Education website.
“These public schools, they have our kids held hostage,” Nomani declared in an interview with National Review. She firmly believes that district leaders and activists are involved in a “multi-year strategy to capture the hearts and minds of every single person in this school district. That’s hundreds of thousands of people, and that’s so scary.”
She has fought Fairfax school leaders previously over their efforts to nix testing requirements for admission. District leaders determined that the school was not diverse enough. It should be noted that over seventy percent of the school in 2019-20 was Asian.
“We were the wrong kind of minority,” declared Nomani, who was born in India and moved to the United States with her family when she was four. “Their argument, like everywhere else, is unless you have outcomes proportionate to the demographics of the population, you’re racist.”
The school board agreed to eliminate the tests last fall. They are now being hit with at least two lawsuits alleging anti-Asian discrimination.
Commenters on Twitter shared this mother’s outrage:
Nicely done. No wonder the Board President shut you down.
— The Burger Law Firm (@johnvburger) May 7, 2021
My hat goes off to you. Just imagine if you were paying $50k per year like my wife and USED to for our daughter to be taught that garbage at private school in NYC. We were part of the flight from NYC and Covid wasn’t even the half of it.
— Wallztweet (@wallztweet) May 7, 2021
From the bottom of my heart I say thank you. I’ll fight my fights here in Seattle but you are what this country is all about. We as a country need more of you. Tremendous amounts of respect and admiration from me to you❤️💪🏼🔥
— Steve Dailey (@SteveDailey33) May 7, 2021
You made excellent points. I really hope that the board ADDRESSES your concerns. I think one of the most frustrating parts to these issues is that the well-considered & thoughtful counter does not come. Ignoring these issues will not solve them.
— Carlyn (@toleratefreedom) May 7, 2021
Bravo! pic.twitter.com/efiNn0GTaM
— Rogue Penguin (@Rogue_40) May 7, 2021
— Emergency Medical Hologram (@GTRDrake) May 7, 2021
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