Opinion: Axing Diversity Day is 'white man's last stand'

QAnon enthusiast and Trump uber-sycophant Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is known for doubling down on her awfulness. Case in point: In 2021, when Rep. Marie Newman, who has a transgender child, spoke about the Equality Act on the floor of Congress, Greene tweeted an anti-transgender message. Following that, Newman displayed a transgender pride flag outside her office, just across the hall from Greene’s door. The latter responded by posting a large sign outside her own door that read: "There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE. Trust The Science!"

It seems to me that four of the Forest Hills School District board members have taken a cue from Greene by first postponing Diversity Day at Turpin High School, then canceling it altogether.

The four new board members are openly critical of schools using critical race theory in their curricula, despite the fact that it is not happening, as incumbent school board member Leslie Rasmussen stressed. The fact that so many school boards in the nation have been transformed into these fearmongering bodies is one of the most effective examples of political gaslighting I’ve ever witnessed.

I attended Forest Hills Schools from kindergarten through 12th grade and, at that time, the schools were close to 100% white. When I graduated from Turpin in 1991, there were 196 kids in my class and, if memory serves, I can count the number of non-white kids on one hand. According to state data, Turpin is now "only" 88.3% white. Whether or not the school board members want to believe or admit, Anderson Township is a white-flight neighborhood. The board and those who support them are – to use a Trumpian term – running a false flag operation; they are masking the fact that it’s the idea of diversity itself they fear, not CRT.

Again, whether the board members like it or not, the country is changing and the passion of the Turpin students who are fighting for the right to hold Diversity Day is an example of that. Hispanic and Asian populations in the U.S. are growing rapidly, which means that soon, white people will no longer be the majority. Unlike when I was growing up, gay and transgender celebrities, politicians and everyday people are able to live their lives openly and honestly.

I see harmful stunts like canceling Turpin’s Diversity Day as part and parcel of, as my friend calls it, "the white man’s last stand." It doesn’t matter how fiercely you oppose diversity, people of color and LGBTQ+ people exist and are vital members of our society. If your children do not stay in Anderson Township or move to another white-flight neighborhood, they will be surrounded by people of all colors and backgrounds.

I would ask each of the four school board members who seem to fear diversity to ask themselves if they’ve ever met a person of color or a non-binary person. Have they spent any time with people who look, believe or worship differently than they do? If not, why?

Last year, board member Sara Jonas expressed dismay that one of her daughter’s poetry assignments was "basically a social justice video." I wonder what Ms. Jonas thinks Mark Twain’s "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was supposed to teach us white kids about race, or what Arthur Miller’s "The Crucible" was meant to convey. Both were assigned reading at Turpin in my day and both helped me learn fundamental lessons that are not exclusively tied to the specific stories they tell.

Twain’s book underscored something my mother emphasized at home: My experience as a white kid raised in suburbia doesn’t necessarily reflect others’ experiences, and I should be cognizant of that and try to work toward equality for all. Arthur Miller’s masterpiece echoed messages I’d heard at home and learned from school lessons on the Holocaust: That jumping on bandwagons to point fingers at those who are different is, at the very least, dangerous and, at worst, deadly.

Should we start demanding teachers only teach that the Holocaust occurred, but not the things that led up to it or the fact that Hitler’s "Final Solution" eliminated two of every three European Jews? The "Never Again" slogan compels us to examine how hatred of not only Jews, but also Roma, gay and disabled people, led to one of history’s most devastating genocides. To this day, Germany lives with the consequences and they are open and honest about their history in public and in classrooms. You wouldn’t tell a Jewish friend that it’s OK to talk about the Holocaust, but nothing else – not the generational trauma that’s been proven by science, not the broken family trees with conspicuously empty limbs, not the discrimination their surviving family members suffered in the U.S. and Europe.

Jonas agreed that "the good, the bad and the ugly" of history should be taught, so she should be equally comfortable with students learning that history produces consequences that persist. In the case of race in the U.S., blatant discrimination, redlining and police brutality did not end with the abolishment of Jim Crow laws or the passage of the Civil Rights Act. And these aren’t CRT talking points; these are facts.

Diversity Day at Turpin should be reinstated immediately.

Colleen Sharkey, of South Bend, Ind., is an alumna of both Turpin High School and the University of Cincinnati and has worked in public relations for nonprofits for over 20 years.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Axing Diversity Day is 'white man's last stand'