California parents are furious at a school district after four teenage girls posted a TikTok in blackface last month.
asserted
girls → post → blackface
The girls were disciplined, but parents claimed their conduct is part of a pattern at Santa Barbara Unified School District.
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conduct → discipline → District
Parents sat with signs decrying racism at a school board meeting on Tuesday night.
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Parents → sit → night
Signs read things like, “Don’t be a bystander, stop ignoring racism,” and “What was the reason it took two weeks and some to notify parents?” and “racism doesn’t disappear when it’s swept under the rug.”
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it → read → rug
Most of the signs were made because of an organized protest in favor of black students and demanded action from the district.
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Most → make → district
Most of the discourse surrounded the girls’ TikTok video in which the girls are seen mimicking an AI-generated image of four young black boys in various poses.
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girls → surround → poses
“Meet the gc🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷…,” the post is captioned.
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post → meet → gc🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷
The ninja emoji is known to be used as a reference to the N-word.
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emoji → know → word
San Marcos High School Principal Dare Holdren previously said the students “portrayed blackface” in the post and noted the school “instituted consequences” for the girls.
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school → say → girls
Parents wondered why it took Holdren two weeks to notify them of the incident.
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it → wonder → incident
“Parents deserve to know,” Leticia Forney Resch, an executive director for Healing Justice Santa Barbara, said.
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Resch → deserve → Justice
“They had pictures and images going out to students for a week-and-a-half…
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pictures → have → week
Y’all didn’t do your job.”
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Y’all → do → job
The girls posed for the picture in an African American studies classroom.
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girls → pose → classroom
The teacher who uses the room as his classroom expressed outrage at the racism in the school.
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who → use → school
“When black students are harmed, every student is harmed,” Abel Gonzalez, the ethnic studies teacher at San Marcos High School, said.
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Gonzalez → harm → School
“Black and brown students are very upset and trying to heal.
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students → try → ?
Other racist incidents have rattled the school district in the past.
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incidents → rattle → past
According to the Santa Barbara Independent, a San Marcos High School substitute teacher read the N-word out loud during a reading of “Of Mice and Men” last year after being told not to.
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teacher → accord → Mice
The substitute was then removed from campus.
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substitute → remove → campus
A parent said the district has just watched racism escalate.
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racism → say → ?
“When a nation refuses to confront institutional and structural racism, the harm does not stay contained, it escalates,” Charlotte Gullap-Moore said.
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Moore → refuse → racism
“Santa Barbara Unified has watched that escalation in its own schools.”
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Unified → watch → schools
The local NAACP previously criticized the school for failing to establish protocols to respond to incidents of racism.
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NAACP → criticize → racism
“SBUSD has struggled to establish protocols to respond to racial incidents and execute them with humanity.
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SBUSD → struggle → humanity
Principals need clear guidance; parents and students need accessible information about district investigations and potential disciplinary actions for racist incidents,” NAACP Santa Barbara President Connie Alexander wrote in an op-ed for the Santa Barbara Independent.
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Alexander → need → Independent
Even teachers say the only way the school district can remedy the situation is action.
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district → say → situation
“Doing nothing tells this community that anti-Black bias and racism is woven into the fabric of Santa Barbara schools,” Moore, speaking on behalf of Santa Barbara Unified teacher Tahnia Mark, said.
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Moore → do → Mark
“So be honest, do you really care about black students?
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you → care → students
If you don’t, just say it…
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you → do → it
The Aporia
