Sweeping racism under the rug while quoting Martin Luther King

I attended the Dartmouth Candidate Forum last night and took notes on the School Committee candidates. I have been following MAGA candidate Lynn Turner’s entry into the race and in a previous piece I summarized what we know about her views and what we still do not:

“If Lynne Turner is every bit the culture warrior she seems to be, electing her will mean: blocking diversity curriculum; censoring the teaching of actual history; handicapping schools’ ability to impose public health and safety mandates when necessary; undermining public schools in favor of charters; promoting privatization and vouchers; banning library books and textbooks; and refusing to play nice with the other kids. It’s also reasonable to assume that Mrs. Turner would do nothing positive for gay kids, trans kids, BIPOC kids, or sex education. These are all issues upon which she has so far refused to elaborate.”

While the forum shed some light on Lynne Turner’s views, there’s still a lot we don’t know. And the forum didn’t really illuminate much.

The forum was moderated Paul Santos, who has a show on New Bedford Guide. Present were Kate Robinson from WBSM and Chris Shea from Dartmouth Week, who put questions to the candidates.

Candidates John Nunes and Lynne Turner were present. Chris Oliver had a work commitment and could not attend the forum. Only two of the three candidates will be (re)elected when voters go to the polls on April 5th.

The hot topic was the Dartmouth mascot, which consumed much of the segment. Each candidate got a chance to demonstrate that his or her love for Dartmouth was deep and eternal and that his or her reverence for the mascot epitomized it. All were in favor of an agreement with the Aquinnah (to the exclusion of all other local tribes) in order to legitimize the town’s use of the mascot. Turner said the quiet part out loud: “I think we should not look any further than our local native tribe to find the answer that we need.”

Sure, because if you ask any other tribe, you won’t get the answer that you need.

Both candidates were asked if books should ever be banned in schools. Shockingly and without reservations, both Turner and Nunes said they had no problem with censorship. Both were asked about School Resource Officers and both replied that armed police playing social workers was great, pointing to how an SRO presence makes children view police more favorably.

Mainly, however, it was an evening for softball. There were no questions about: charters; health classes that dealt with sexual preference, identity, or contraception; what the candidates thought of trans kids on sports teams or in bathrooms; the District’s right to impose masking or vaccine mandates; and – despite questions raised by the MAGA candidate’s anti-CRT campaign – what the candidates understood of Critical Race Theory.

Instead, the question was: “Do you believe the School Committee should have a role in deciding whether to teach about race and identity, or should it be left up to the educators?”

This was a completely botched question. The first half should not have used the word “race” but instead “teaching American history involving racial injustices and struggles.” And the last half should have been “or should it be left up to parents with pitchforks?” A less open-ended question about specific curriculum materials like the 1619 Project or the 1776 Project might have kept candidates on-topic.

But even this wobbly softball seemed to shock Turner, who stammered, “Race and identity? And your question was, the School Board? Could you repeat that?”

After buying herself some time, Turner’s response was still non-responsive. “I believe that the School Committee is already involved in teaching and developing curriculum to address those issues through the Diversity and Equality Committee. They actually have charges that are about equity. There’s nothing in there about equality. But there’s a lot of discussion in them. I do watch them on the Zoom, and there’s a lot of discussion about race at those meetings. So it already exists. And, as far as how that is addressed I think we need to be careful and not to put so much focus on dividing people into boxes by race or identity. I think we need to take people as they come and to love all people however they come. I think that Martin Luther King had it right, that we should not be looking at the color of someone’s skin but the content of their character. I would like for our schools to focus more on….”

Anything but real American history. And since when do people who want to sweep racism under the rug get to quote King?!

Turner had also apparently not bothered to do her homework on school budget issues or the mandates that had irked the culture warrior enough to enter the race. Nunes at least knew his way around state and COVID funding, the schools’ aging infrastructure, and long-term planning, and he pointed out that many of the COVID-related mandates Turner hates so much came from DESE and the state Department of Health.

Both Nunes and Turner agreed with the Superintendent’s proposal to raise administrator salaries, but both managed to confuse salaried administrators with unionized teachers whose pay rates are determined by contract.

While Nunes and Turner share many views, Chris Oliver expressed concern for extremist views that Turner has expressed online and in emails to the Committee, calling them a “political agenda that is bad for our students.” Oliver asked voters to “dig a little deeper” to understand each candidate’s “true motivation for running for school committee.”

Sound advice.

Dartmouth voters go to the polls this year more motivated than ever. The hot-button issue that could easily quadruple voter turnout is a referendum on the town’s “Indian” mascot.

On one side of the issue are most Native American tribes and those who find mascots offensive, pointing to a large body of research showing that such imagery is harmful to Native children.

Those who want to preserve the mascot fall into a couple of categories. The majority are people who either went to Dartmouth schools themselves or have kids in sports or marching band. The Indian was a harmless tradition – or so they thought – and they probably don’t give a lot of thought to how offensive it really is.

But a minority, fiercely ideological and unmistakably MAGA Republicans, can be found waging their culture wars on social media and on right-wing talk radio. Retiring the mascot, like packing Confederate statuary off to museums or teaching kids about the Tulsa race massacre, threatens white dominance of “their” culture. Any reckoning with America’s ugly racial history is something they’re just not going to tolerate.

Dartmouth’s Town election on April 5th will return or replace various incumbents, including one member of the School Committee. Two committee seats are held by John Nunes and Chris Oliver, both die-hard mascot supporters. One of them could be unseated if voters are careless.

As in much of the nation, the Bristol County GOP has been overrun by the Tea Party. It doesn’t matter whether you visit the MassGOP website or MARA, the Massachusetts Republican Assembly. Both peddle a similar cocktail of mandate opposition, school privatization, vouchers, charters, parent vetoes on curriculum, and [white] Christian Nationalism. The MassGOP has become so extreme that it regularly disparages its own Republican governor.

“Critical Race Theory,” or CRT, is a post-graduate research methodology that has nothing to do with teaching history in public schools but – facts be damned – it has become the latest MAGA dog-whistle in dozens of states where Republicans have enacted Constitutionally-questionable laws to limit speech, control thought, and to have history written by legislators. With MAGA pedagogy, children can’t be permitted to learn about the colonialism, slavery and genocide that made America what it is today.

But if you can’t sanitize and weaponize school curriculum for culture wars, the next best thing is to create a beachhead in school boards across the country, fielding candidates on cautiously-worded anti-VAX, anti-mask, anti-CRT platforms – blowing all the right dog-whistles to MAGA World while trying not to let careless voters know who you really are.

It so happens we have one of these on the Dartmouth ballot for School Committee.

Lynne Turner told Dartmouth Week she was inspired to run for the School Committee after trying unsuccessfully to speak out against school mask mandates. Turner started her campaign on Facebook, telling a reporter that she wants to bring a “fresh view” to diversity issues which can be “very divisive.” Her new website is short on details, but clearly she has a problem with public health mandates, diversity education, talking about race, or teaching an honest account of history.

Here is candidate Turner in her own words:

Safety: I value helping our schools create and maintain a wholesome, safe, environment that challenges children to think and grow into responsible people who strive to reach their potential and develop great character.

What does safe and wholesome mean? Metal detectors? Drug testing? Abstinence vows instead of sex ed? Book bans? What are Turner’s views on School Resource Officers? If “safe” means preventing bullying, how does this square with promoting a mascot that offends non-white students? Turner’s vague formulations just raise more questions.

Mandates: Now that mask mandates have been lifted, I hope we can focus on supporting everyone’s choice on how they want to manage the risks the pandemic incurs. Children thrive in normal, predictable, and social learning environments, and the pandemic has cheated them of all of that. In addition, I oppose segregating and discriminating against individuals based on their “vaccine” status.

Mercy! Discrimination? Segregation? Who knew white Republicans were in such dire need of civil rights legislation to protect them? Here is MAGA victimology on full display. On Turner’s Facebook page the new challenger confirms she is “against all mandates,” including masks and vaccinations. Turner seems to be saying: why bother with public health experts and science when you can decide for yourself if COVID or anthrax is dangerous? “I believe where there is risk, there must be choice or you run the risk of having a dictatorship,” she says, dropping another MAGA vocab builder.

Character Counts: I would like Dartmouth to help our community get beyond race, and strive to help our students “judge not, by the color of one’s skin, but by the content of one’s character.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King

When MAGA Volk wrap themselves in the flag, scripture, or Martin Luther King, watch out! Fifty years ago the Kerner Commission discovered what everyone had known all along – Black and white Americans live in vastly different realities. Today this is still the case. MAGA Republicans may want to turn the page and “get beyond race,” but maybe we ought to do that after every race gets the same great deal that white folks have had for the last half millennium.

Curriculum: I think our children will be best served with curriculum that incorporates many learning styles, and if considering curriculum with an undercurrent theme, I would likely prefer one that it is uniting for our country, giving kids a sense of pride and unity, because in these very unique times, division has run rampant.

No argument about accommodating different learning styles, but talking about slavery or genocide of indigenous people sounds like it might not be quite “uniting” enough or engender sufficient national-patriotic pride for Mrs. Turner. But high-schoolers, old enough to drive to Montreal to drink, and old enough to head down to a military recruiting center, are also old enough to tackle tough subjects and confront the world as it is. Turner’s position on curriculum is in direct conflict with her next talking point – indoctrination. If a topic is too “divisive” for her taste, what’s the solution? Curriculum and book bans? Force-fed patriotic messaging? Compulsory flag-waving?

Indoctrination: I oppose indoctrinating children into trying to get them to think a certain way about controversial topics, and insinuating that if they think differently on a topic there is something is wrong with them. Our goal should be to support respectful, dissenting points of view, and I know many teachers and staff do a beautiful job of it, however, some do not. Older children will be interested in some of the current events but instead of saying this is the right way to think about the topic, I prefer an approach that lets them look at all sides and see what views resonate with them.

I wonder if Turner shares the sentiments of Gina Peddy, curriculum director for the Carroll (Texas) Independent School District, who actually used the Holocaust as an example of an event that required hearing from “the other side” (in her district). But sometimes facts are just facts and the “other side” died by suicide in a bunker. Does Turner really subscribe to the Kellyanne Conway School of Alternative Facts? – if something “resonates” with you, then it must be true? Reality carve-outs permitting “equal time” for conspiracy theories, creationism, and pseudo-science may appeal to MAGA World but they have no place in a real school.

Public Comments: I support public comments at our school board meetings and I feel they should be welcomed and considered valuable. For example, I do not want important comments to be lost, simply because it is not on the agenda.

I actually agree with Turner on this one. But my idea of permitting public comment would be to allow any topic to be added to the next agenda rather than permitting MAGA zealots to completely derail a scheduled school committee meeting like angry truckers circling the Capital.

School Logo: I am in support of keeping our beautiful and respectful Native American Logo. This issue will also be voted on at our town vote on April 5th, so mark your calendars and please get out, and vote!

Expressed just like you-know-who: “Our beautiful and respectful logo.” In this divided town Turner leans heavily on her pro-mascot position. On March 8th she attended the Equality and Diversity subcommittee hearings at the high school and used the opportunity to distribute campaign literature that avoided tough issues but made clear she was against “woke elites.” It’s a smart move: the buzz over the mascot can only work in her favor.

Turner also took pains to signal on Facebook that she’s a member of New England Homeschoolers and considers her platform a Kids First Agenda. It’s not clear if Turner had any connection with the group when she taught in the West, but “Kids First Agenda” is the slogan of a school privatization initiative first launched by the California Charter Schools Association, which promotes school vouchers and privatization, and throws great wads of cash at school board candidates who promote “fresh mandates.”

From Turner’s use of MAGA planks, themes and buzzwords, to her own slogan, to casually dropping her homeschooling bona fides, an attentive reader gets a none-too-subtle hint of how bright red and far right on an ideological litmus strip Lynne Turner is on any given educational issue.

I contacted the candidate to get her views on other matters of interest to voters. She declined a sit-down interview but agreed to answer written questions. After days had gone by with no response, Turner politely informed me she was too busy to answer but added, “I created a website over the weekend with more details about my campaign, […], if you want, you can refer to that in addition my campaign page on facebook.”

After looking at her website and finding few answers to my questions, I made one final attempt: “I am still hoping you will make clear your positions on SROs, charters, vouchers, teaching about race, book bans, and trans kids on sports teams and in bathrooms. Voters have a right to know. That offer to speak in person still stands. Any place of your choosing.”

Crickets.

If Lynne Turner is every bit the culture warrior she seems to be, electing her will mean: blocking diversity curriculum; censoring the teaching of actual history; handicapping schools’ ability to impose public health and safety mandates when necessary; undermining public schools in favor of charters; promoting privatization and vouchers; banning library books and textbooks; and refusing to play nice with the other kids. It’s also reasonable to assume that Mrs. Turner would do nothing positive for gay kids, trans kids, BIPOC kids, or sex education. These are all issues upon which she has so far refused to elaborate.

If voters can’t get a straight answer from a candidate on important issues, it would be wise to vote for someone else. But maybe there’s still one last chance to ask all the school candidates some hard questions.

A Dartmouth Candidates Forum will take place virtually and in person at Dartmouth Town Hall (Room 305) on Wednesday, March 16th at 5:30 pm.

Have your questions ready.