BOARD MEMBER: Welcome, welcome, welcome. I want to warmly welcome you to our Parent University section. In March of 2019, our board of education unanimously approved our equity policy. This policy also seeks to disrupt societal and historical inequities arising from institutional racism and white supremacy in our schools. TAKYRICA KOKOSZKA: What will that message gain us? What type of inspiration are we expecting people to get from this? From critical race theory? TEACHER: The social justice standards are a roadmap for anti-bias education at every stage of kindergarten through eighth grade instruction. Are our kids, are they half-repressor, half-victim? How does that work? And when they come home, who do they see? Do they see their mom and-- and their dad? Or do they see an oppressor and the oppressed? TEACHER: Development elite, we know, they can be activists, but we must build their capacity or seeing injustice first. And do they see me as the person who is losing out on all of this because I'm Black and the system has been stacked against me? ACTIVIST: All schools are rooted in white supremacy. Racism is really systematized. So it's in the air we breathe, it's in the water we drink, it is truly all around us. Because of our skin color, now we're different people than the people that are raising them, the people who love them? The people who are supporting them? VOLUNTEER: Most importantly, this work is just foundational to who and what Oak Park is. [MUSIC PLAYING] MARTIN KOKOSZKA: I was like, who is this? And-- and-- and the way I feel about her, she thinks I'm crazy, but I'm like, I love you-- I love you more today than I did when I first met you. And all the stuff that I saw about her, you know, and I told my family and friends, I'm dating somebody from Chicago, and they're like, why-- you know, you can meet girls around here. I'm like, I have never met anybody like her. The way I admired her at the time, I admire her even more because I'm like, wow, she's a single mom in high school, she graduated high school, got her LPN, got a double major from DePaul University with-- working full-time, full-time student. And once I found-- I found out about her, I was like, oh my gosh. I was like-- I already thought she was special and just-- you know, and-- See, he's crazy. [LAUGHTER] MARTIN KOKOSZKA: I'm from Connecticut and I grew up in a very diverse community, but there's something about Oak Park where we have a block party twice a year, every block. And you get to know your neighbors. Being Black and from the West Side, you know, it's-- you don't always know, you know, that you-- that-- that White people are, like, safe. You don't always feel like that. And so, you know, in Oak Park, you just felt like you could come and be around everyone and nobody would look at you like you didn't belong. MARTIN KOKOSZKA: We walk into Chicago and we're holding hands and people stare at us. And in Oak Park, we feel normal. [SINGING] When that white flight happened, Oak Park was the first community in the Chicago area where the white community didn't leave and started having members of the Black community moving into a park. NARRATOR: In 1964, Oak Park started an uncharted journey. The goal? To eliminate discriminatory barriers to integrate Oak Park. Oak Park All-American city means to me. That it really exemplifies the spirit of people living together of all different kinds of races, professions. BOBBIE RAYMOND: Well it was, you know, one of these huge campaigns. It was sort of like anything else that you want to have happen in society where you're working for social change. We had very active committees. We were working to attract more Black residents to the community. So we did a lot of outreach with open houses, potluck suppers. NARRATOR: On the Eve of May 6, the village board, with a vote of five in favor, two opposed, passed the Fair Housing ordinance, making it illegal to use race as a basis to discriminate against anyone seeking to rent or buy real estate. When I first purchased the home, and then after I sold my home, I bought a building. And a few months ago I purchased a second building. And I hope to purchase another building. Because the property values are all going up. TAKYRICA KOKOSZKA: Our school that our kids go to, there's a lot of questions coming from the community about why not more Black students are on grade level, but I think we are looking to explain it away using racial-- using critical race theory. So instead of us actually digging deep and looking into all the nuances that are involved with school achievement, we have-- we watered it down, we've dumbed down the reason now to, it's because the system is racist. MARTIN KOKOSZKA: And I asked one of the district coordinators for diversity, what are we taking away in order to teach us social justice? She's like, oh, it's not taking away from anything. And I'm saying, well, unless we're extending the school day, this is taking minutes from something. Is it taken away from math or English? TAKYRICA KOKOSZKA: They have like a regular, you know, standard math class that they offer at the middle school. And, like, you know, an advanced math class, and then like the honors-level math class. They get rid of the-- you know, the level in between, because there weren't enough kids of color in those classes. And so they just said, you know, instead of us trying to support students so that we can have more students of color in that class, so yes, we eliminated the disparity by eliminating the class? Like, that's not how we get rid of disparities. MARTIN KOKOSZKA: We believe that it hurts our Black and brown community the most. That the message is, you're a victim, you can never make it until we tear down all these systems and structures. And we know the history, that Black people overcame slavery and Reconstruction and Jim Crow. And even during those times, there were Black people who were successful, and all of a sudden Black people cannot succeed? When I hear the ideas of critical race theory, they don't remind me of my experience here in Chicago at all. They don't remind me of myself. Born and raised on the West Side of Chicago, you did see the neighborhood decline. You're seeing people move out or like people didn't take care of their homes in our neighborhood as much. And so you could definitely see more people around outside, more people on drugs. And my parents were the hardest-working people I-- I had known. And so that's all I knew. I never had anyone tell me that I can't do something because I'm Black. I went to college, went to Malcolm X. I met a really phenomenal math teacher, Dr. Williams. He was into math as well as like building character and like helping to develop good people. And thank goodness, but he-- he changed the course of my life. I got transferred to DePaul. Education is what got me to where I am here today. It wasn't activism. When I wanted to go back to school to be a teacher, I knew exactly where I want to teach. Right on the West Side where I'm from. My students are so smart. Like, so-- such good people. What I'm noticing is, we are setting up good kids to fail. We have lots of kids who are resilient, who are pushing through all kinds of bad circumstances, including homelessness, violence, problems out in their neighborhood. They're pushing through those things, but then they come to school and feel like, oh, you know, we feel so sorry for you, you have it so hard. The message being sent is, if we expect bare minimum, that's what you're going to get. And the kids know that. And the other thing that a lot of people don't know, especially in public schools, is that administrators, they pressure teachers the pass kids. Both the Chicago public schools I worked at, Al Raby and Garfield Park, Disney to where I'm at now in the North Side, administrators bring in teachers into their office. The more kids they have graduating, the more money the school gets. TAKYRICA KOKOSZKA: This is, in some cases, life or death. There are literally-- like literally lives on the line with education. Education is the key to living a life that is not filled with crime, and I'm pressured to pass kids and give them better grades. It feels like I'm letting them down. It feels like I'm failing them. It feels like I'm now a part of the problem when I have kids who are counting 7 plus 2 on their fingers in sixth grade. When I moved here, I thought that people would just judge me because of me, and it is really ironic that this community, a community that's opened us with open arms is now saying that my skin color prevents me from living my full capacity when in no way, shape, or form is that true about us. And so it's been bizarre to hear people think so poorly of Black people after more or less making sure that the community we live in is a community for all, not just for White people. MARTIN KOKOSZKA: But with this critical race theory stuff now, it's going to take it to new heights where we're going to see bigotry of low expectations, where-- I don't want any teacher thinking that of our kids, that because of the way they look, they can't meet a deadline? TAKYRICA KOKOSZKA: By using critical race theory to explain all this stuff, we are putting a giant emphasis on whiteness. But if you have high expectations, kids and people will rise to that-- Rise to the occasion. It will rise to that. No matter where they come from, no matter what color skin, no matter what level of class they come from, if you-- if you believe in kids and make them believe in themselves, they can do anything. So now-- now what do we have to do as parents and teachers? To fight back against critical race theory, we have to rise to the occasion, too. And that's what we're doing. Rising to the occasion. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Fair play.
Everyone should fight it - whites have to stop kowtowing to this left-wing 'you can only have an opinion on racial talking points if you are a minority' dogma. Let the majority have a voice for a change.