NYC school principal sends parents “tool for action” suggesting they become “white traitors”

A New York City public school has called upon white parents to become “White Traitors” and “White Abolitionists,” documents show.

Christopher Rufo, a City Journal writer who has uncovered numerous scandals involving education and the imposition of Critical Race Theory in schools, writes that the principal of East Side Community School in New York issued an infographic detailing eight types of “whiteness” to white parents. According to the graphic, whiteness is divided on a scale of eight different “white identities” that range from good to bad. 

From good to bad, the white identities are as follows: White Abolitionist, White Traitor, White Critical, White Confessional, White Benefit, White Privilege, White Voyeurism and White Supremacist.

“There is a regime of whiteness, and there are action-oriented white identities. People who identify with whiteness are one of these. It’s about time we build an ethnography of whiteness, since white people have been the ones writing about and governing Others,” the graphic reads.

The graphic was accompanied by a corresponding document detailing each of the white identities. According to the document, a “White Supremacist” is someone who enjoys “a clearly marked white society that preserves names and values of white superiority.” According to the definition, anyone who opposes changing the names of military bases with Confederate soldiers’ names or historically problematic individuals like George Washington could be considered a White Supremacist. 

Under the definition of “White Voyeurism,” the individual is one who seeks to control the consumption and appropriation of non-whiteness. This definition would include any white person who listens to rap music or eats cuisine from another culture. According to the graphic, this is “consuming Black culture without the burden of Blackness.”

Someone who is identified as “White Privilege” is someone who claims to support diversity but benefits from existing white supremacy. 

The terms “White Benefit” and “White Confessional” refer to a white person who is sympathetic to a set of issues, but only in private. According to the infographic, people who refuse to speak out publicly do so because they “benefit” from whiteness. The graphic claims that non-whites can also be classified as “White Benefit,” presumably including Asians and Latinos.

The infographic states that a person who exhibits “White Confessional” is one who seeks validation from non-whites, and will be held accountable by people of color. 

According to Seattle Works, a self-described “white caucus for white people,” the purpose of its organization is for whites to take part in anti-oppression work. “We caucus to process feelings, retrain ourselves, and take action to dismantle racism and shift power to people who identify as BIPOC,” they claim. 

The identities that are placed on the green zone of the graphic are “White Critical,” “White Traitor,” and “White Abolitionist.” Each of these identities plays an active role in destroying whiteness. A “White Critical” is someone who takes the effort to expose “the regime.” An individual who is “White Critical” will expose other whites who fail to live up to white critical status. 

The classification of “White Traitor” refers to a white person who actively refuses to be complicit in the system of white supremacy. These individuals actively call out systemic racism with the intention to “subvert white authority, and tell the truth at whatever cost.” The purpose of the White Traitor is to “dismantle institutions.”

And finally, the “White Abolitionist” is described as the paragon of a white person who changes institutions, dismantles whiteness, and will not allow whiteness to “reassert itself” in society. 

The author of the graphic, Barnor Hesse, is an associate professor at Northwestern University in Illinois. 

Ian Miles Cheong

Contributor

Ian Miles Cheong is a freelance writer, graphic designer, journalist and videographer. He’s kind of a big deal on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/stillgray

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