| [Hans Bader] -- "The
school system in my county, Arlington, Virginia, certainly knows how to waste taxpayers'
money. Like several school districts, they've hired an infamous, race-baiting
"diversity consultant," Glenn Singleton, whose racist theories
drew criticism from four Supreme Court justices this year in the landmark court case of
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. [LINK to Summary of the Seattle Supreme Court decision. Editor]
"...Glenn Singleton of Pacific
Educational Group has gotten rich promoting racism, racial division, and scapegoating
in the schools. School systems hire him for hundreds of thousands of dollars to stereotype
and scapegoat people based on their race under the guise of 'diversity training.'
"In 2002, the Seattle Schools hired him to 'educate' their students and staff about
racism. Singleton promotes the crudest imaginable racial stereotypes, such as claiming
that "white talk is 'verbal, impersonal, intellectual' and 'task-oriented,'
while 'color commentary' is 'nonverbal, personal, emotional' and 'process - oriented.'
" He incessantly complains about "the ubiquity of white privilege and
racism."
|
"To illustrate how white people should behave, he points to an ashamed, self-hating
white teacher who said that "although I often try to seek counsel of
colleagues of color, it is inevitable that times arise where it's only after the fact that
one of them points out some flaw in my reasoning. The flaws are often the result of my
ingrained Whiteness and my own blindness to its perpetual presence." |
|
"Under Singleton's influence, the Seattle Schools defined "individualism"
as a form of "cultural racism," said that only whites can be racist, and claimed
that planning ahead ("future time orientation") is a white
characteristic that it is racist to expect minorities to exhibit. |
| Keep in mind that this kind
of racialist, divisive drivel is exactly what Mr. Singleton has been hired to promote in
the Arlington schools. Editor. |
|
"In June 2007, the Supreme Court struck down the Seattle Schools' use of race in
student assignment, and 4 of the 9 justices cited Seattle's wacky, Singleton-influenced,
definitions of racism in the course of their opinions. Justice Thomas, for example, cited
those definitions in footnote 30 of his opinion to explain why the courts should not defer
to school districts when they use race. Likewise, Chief Justice Roberts cited those
definitions in footnote 14 of his opinion for the Court.
"(In most cases, as in the Seattle case itself, the courts had upheld the use of race
in student assignment based on the concept of "deference" to school officials.
In a number of other cases, though, the lower courts struck down the use of race in
student assignment as being too extreme. One such case involved the Arlington County
schools, which were barred from using race by the federal courts in Tuttle v.
Arlington County Public Schools (1999))". [LINK to background about
Arlington County's use of race. Editor.]
"...If Singleton inflicts his racist insults on a captive audience of teachers at a
training seminar, they may well have a Section 1981 or Section 1983 claim against him for
racial harassment. As cases such as Markham v. White (1999) and Ascolese v. SEPTA (1996)
show, the amount of repeated abuse required for a hostile training environment claim by a
public employee is much lower than for a hostile work environment claim, where isolated
racist remarks are not actionable.
"Moreover, he may be subject to individual liability for aiding and abetting
discrimination under 42 U.S.C. 1981. Contrary to Singleton's racist belief, racism is not
a white monopoly, as the federal appeals courts have recognized in holding institutions
liable for harassing or mistreating their white employees. See, e.g., Bowen v. Missouri
Department of Social Services (2002) (racial harassment of white employee by black
co-worker); Taxman v. Board of Education (1996) (school board liable for termination of
white teacher). [LINK to background on the Taxman
case. Editor]
Arlington County and Singleton should keep in mind that "diversity" training
seminars that denigrate people based on their race or gender can give rise to successful
harassment lawsuits, such as Hartman v. Pena (1995), which allowed a white male to sue for
sexual harassment over an insulting gender-awareness seminar, and Robinson v. Reed (1978),
which allowed a woman to sue for invasive questions in a race-relations seminar.
Singleton's bizarre racial theories have been criticized by many commentators, such as
Rocky Mountain News editor Vincent Carroll; legal commentator John Rosenberg; education
writer Joanne Jacobs; and legal commentator Walter Olson (creator of the world's first law
blog, the widely-read Overlawyered.Com),
among many others. Yet he continues to profit from the ignorance of the school officials,
who hire him and give him a platform in which to promote racial division and racism in the
schools.
-- Hans Bader, Competitive
Enterprise Institute
(reprinted with permission) |
