Black educators at Blair push back on MCPS's ham-fisted antiracist PD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's outrageous that Central Office is wasting their time on these virtue-signaling productions instead of actually directing children's learning and education.

Focus on academics.

Racism will never go away, but it can be addressed and managed by decreasing poverty in target populations - which you do by increasing their level of education! Not the other way round.

Get your priorities straight, MCPS.

+1

+1 you know what's the great equalizer? Education. Focus on on that, and poverty. I fully support helping low income families. I come from a lower income household.

Imagine how much good could be done taking the money they spend on this stuff and buying school supplies, snacks, and other things for the low-income families. Pay for their field trips and school trips (our school-sponsored trip for a few days is almost $1K which prohibits many families). Or, rebuild the schools that desperately need replacing. Hire more teachers and school staff, especially reading and math specials for elementary school to get any kid struggling on target. More speech therapies, more special education teachers and paraprofessionals. And, free lunch for those borderline income kids whose parents don't qualify for free lunch but money/food is still an issue. Or, providing bus service to families whose kids have unsafe walks to school. Or, free or subsidized before/after school care for families that don't qualify for vouchers but again, that income that is just above benefits but not enough to live on.

Or, textbooks...

Amen to this. A lot of the high schools don't even have enough functioning toilets. I remember when I studied education policy 25-30 years ago, the focus was all on insufficient resources for schools serving communities of color, and the impact that has on society/equity. I think at some point people figured out how expensive it is to fix these real equity problems, and just decided to spend money on meaningless crap instead. I suspect they could fire at least half of central office staff, and actually *improve* the state of the system.

Equity would be providing all the schools with the same opportunities. Our school does not have a lot of classes the other schools have. Som if you are worried about students of color, who are at higher numbers at the lower tier schools, give them the same opportunities to achieve.

Perhaps that's what equity meant once upon a time but today it's more about removing opportunities from the top students to help reduce the achievement gap.

That would not be equity then. And, top students at other schools have it so different thing.

That's exactly what equity is...closing the gap. And if you can't raise the bottom, you must lower the top.

They are only lowering it at less wealthy schools. So that’s not closing the gap.

Unfortunately they are lowering it at the wealthy schools as well. The difference is, UMC parents simply pay for enrichment outside of school so it doesn't matter as much. Source: am a W school parent who pays for enrichment outside of school.

Many of us pay for or do our own enrichment. But, in hs you have more ap classes and other perks. You aren’t umc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised people are still using the term white passing. It implies the person is trying to pass themselves off as white. White presenting is a more neutral term that doesn't imply the person is trying to be something they are not.

To be fair, the SCO article used "white presenting" and they did so becuase Dr. Shalaby never did the sort of standard positionality statements that we would normally see in these sorts of presentations.

Normally, she would say something like "By way of positionality, I'm a cisgender, heterosexual, woman of European and Arab-American descent." That allows the other people in the discussion to better understand where she is coming from. Because Dr. Shalaby didn't do that, the SCO authors are hedging their bets and going with "white presenting" since they haven't heard from Dr. Shalaby herself on how she identifies.

Huh?

About 35 minutes into the video, Blair Black teacher Marshall Collier – a member of PISAB, a national antiracist alliance – stood up and critiqued the training’s lack of authenticity. He and many other teachers of color were aggravated since Shalaby, a White-passing woman, was teaching them about racism. “So I’m thinking to myself, 'What does she know about racism?' I found that illogical and it doesn’t flow well with what we’re actually seeing and experiencing outside of the school,” Collier says.

https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/content/county-wide-antiracism-professional-development-training-stirs-controversy-at-blair-36250/

I don't see anywhere where they said "white-presenting". "White-passing" is used twice. And her not using positionality statements is not an excuse to commit a microaggression which is what the "white-passing" statement clearly is.

The kind of equity that thinks someone having some "Arab" ancestry means they are qualified to speak about the experiences of someone who grew up poor and black outside of DC is laughable at best. But really it's much worse.

What kind of equity is it when you're reverting to a one drop rule? When you're making arguments that someone "passes" as white, but apparently isn't white so it's all okay then and they understand...

I would like to introduce you to genetics. I would like to introduce you to my five year old towheaded nephew, whose mother is Black, and whose grandparents are Black, but perhaps, not Black enough? I would like to point out that someone's cultural heritage is different than their skin color and your patone shades of oppression cataloguing is somewhat terrifying and reminds me of the 19th century. I expect you to tell us about the shape of their skulls next.

Skin color is a genetic crapshoot between recessive and dominant characteristics. In all populations there's a great deal of variation. When parents come from more than one region it's just a toss-up. The result doesn't entitle someone to be a spokesperson for all brown people--and it's remarkably offensive to me that you think it should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oof so Clara Shalaby is not black enough to talk about racism.

No, she's not credible enough to equate the bad behavior of an emotionally dysregulated child in the classroom with freedom fighter Rosa Parks.

If you watched that PD video and thought Dr. Shalaby emerged from it as credible on race, then I question your judgment and analytical skills.

+100 Also, in social justice circles and discussions, positionality is important. It is common for people to make positionality statements. Shalaby's positionality as a white or white-presenting person is absolutely relevant.

Interestingly, Shalaby's official portrait on her website would suggest a different positionality than her video: https://marsal.umich.edu/directory/faculty-staff/carla-shalaby

Can you use words that those of us not in “social justice circles” might know? Also, who gets to decide if she’s “white enough?” She possibly has Egyptian ancestry if I had to guess based on etymology her last name, which is the only info I have. Would you say that folks with Egyptian ancestry (or ancestry of adjacent nations) are not credible to enter the conversation? Particularly right now?

Assuming that Dr. Shalaby has Egyptian heritage, I'd love to hear her thoughts on anti-Arab sentiments and implicit bias in the classroom. But marginalization on one axis does not give you any particular insights into other groups.

But even that isn't really the point - the point is that she's made her career on the idea that discipline is a white supremacist construct and that children with behavioral challenges are basically civil rights heroes.

Someone who spent a grand total of maybe 5 years in a classroom has turned her grift into blaming educators for any number of factors outside their control. For whatever reason, MCPS Central Office eats it up, probably because it lets them make a case for being at the "cutting edge" of anti-racism training and because they don't have to deal with the fallout of these approaches in the classroom.

Does my Scandinavian ancestry give me extra insight on the relationship the Sami have with the rest of the population? I mean , I haven't studied the topic, but perhaps there's some ineffable insight stamped upon my genes.

These weird blood and soil assumptions are actually quite chilling. Think

[Anonymous]

I think you guys are overthinking it. The central office will buy whatever the cheapest training is. That is the only thing they prioritize. There was a documented increase in racist incidents being reported in MCPS, and buying a screen recording of someone reading a slideshow over Zoom is much, much cheaper than auditing and retraining staff for real. I guarantee you the buyers for this training didn't preview it ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's outrageous that Central Office is wasting their time on these virtue-signaling productions instead of actually directing children's learning and education.

Focus on academics.

Racism will never go away, but it can be addressed and managed by decreasing poverty in target populations - which you do by increasing their level of education! Not the other way round.

Get your priorities straight, MCPS.

+1

+1 you know what's the great equalizer? Education. Focus on on that, and poverty. I fully support helping low income families. I come from a lower income household.

Imagine how much good could be done taking the money they spend on this stuff and buying school supplies, snacks, and other things for the low-income families. Pay for their field trips and school trips (our school-sponsored trip for a few days is almost $1K which prohibits many families). Or, rebuild the schools that desperately need replacing. Hire more teachers and school staff, especially reading and math specials for elementary school to get any kid struggling on target. More speech therapies, more special education teachers and paraprofessionals. And, free lunch for those borderline income kids whose parents don't qualify for free lunch but money/food is still an issue. Or, providing bus service to families whose kids have unsafe walks to school. Or, free or subsidized before/after school care for families that don't qualify for vouchers but again, that income that is just above benefits but not enough to live on.

Or, textbooks...

Amen to this. A lot of the high schools don't even have enough functioning toilets. I remember when I studied education policy 25-30 years ago, the focus was all on insufficient resources for schools serving communities of color, and the impact that has on society/equity. I think at some point people figured out how expensive it is to fix these real equity problems, and just decided to spend money on meaningless crap instead. I suspect they could fire at least half of central office staff, and actually *improve* the state of the system.

Equity would be providing all the schools with the same opportunities. Our school does not have a lot of classes the other schools have. Som if you are worried about students of color, who are at higher numbers at the lower tier schools, give them the same opportunities to achieve.

Perhaps that's what equity meant once upon a time but today it's more about removing opportunities from the top students to help reduce the achievement gap.

That would not be equity then. And, top students at other schools have it so different thing.

Schools offer classes when there is sufficient demand. If your school has a very small cohort of kids who could function in AP classes, the school will not be able to offer the full range of AP classes. It has nothing to do with discrimination against your school. Talk to the principal about rotating the classes offered each year AND put pressure on MCPS to make better use of the elementary and middle school years to prepare kids for more advanced work in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised people are still using the term white passing. It implies the person is trying to pass themselves off as white. White presenting is a more neutral term that doesn't imply the person is trying to be something they are not.

To be fair, the SCO article used "white presenting" and they did so becuase Dr. Shalaby never did the sort of standard positionality statements that we would normally see in these sorts of presentations.

Normally, she would say something like "By way of positionality, I'm a cisgender, heterosexual, woman of European and Arab-American descent." That allows the other people in the discussion to better understand where she is coming from. Because Dr. Shalaby didn't do that, the SCO authors are hedging their bets and going with "white presenting" since they haven't heard from Dr. Shalaby herself on how she identifies.

Huh?

About 35 minutes into the video, Blair Black teacher Marshall Collier – a member of PISAB, a national antiracist alliance – stood up and critiqued the training’s lack of authenticity. He and many other teachers of color were aggravated since Shalaby, a White-passing woman, was teaching them about racism. “So I’m thinking to myself, 'What does she know about racism?' I found that illogical and it doesn’t flow well with what we’re actually seeing and experiencing outside of the school,” Collier says.

https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/content/county-wide-antiracism-professional-development-training-stirs-controversy-at-blair-36250/

I don't see anywhere where they said "white-presenting". "White-passing" is used twice. And her not using positionality statements is not an excuse to commit a microaggression which is what the "white-passing" statement clearly is.

The kind of equity that thinks someone having some "Arab" ancestry means they are qualified to speak about the experiences of someone who grew up poor and black outside of DC is laughable at best. But really it's much worse.

What kind of equity is it when you're reverting to a one drop rule? When you're making arguments that someone "passes" as white, but apparently isn't white so it's all okay then and they understand...

I would like to introduce you to genetics. I would like to introduce you to my five year old towheaded nephew, whose mother is Black, and whose grandparents are Black, but perhaps, not Black enough? I would like to point out that someone's cultural heritage is different than their skin color and your patone shades of oppression cataloguing is somewhat terrifying and reminds me of the 19th century. I expect you to tell us about the shape of their skulls next.

Skin color is a genetic crapshoot between recessive and dominant characteristics. In all populations there's a great deal of variation. When parents come from more than one region it's just a toss-up. The result doesn't entitle someone to be a spokesperson for all brown people--and it's remarkably offensive to me that you think it should.

Wow. Ftr you sound either insane or like a troll, but assuming you are not:

I never said any such thing. I was just talking about the term "white passing"" which I find inappropriate in this context.

But to your point, nobody can "be a spokesperson for all brown people" and the fact that you think anybody can be is "remarkably offensive to me".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's outrageous that Central Office is wasting their time on these virtue-signaling productions instead of actually directing children's learning and education.

Focus on academics.

Racism will never go away, but it can be addressed and managed by decreasing poverty in target populations - which you do by increasing their level of education! Not the other way round.

Get your priorities straight, MCPS.

+1

+1 you know what's the great equalizer? Education. Focus on on that, and poverty. I fully support helping low income families. I come from a lower income household.

Imagine how much good could be done taking the money they spend on this stuff and buying school supplies, snacks, and other things for the low-income families. Pay for their field trips and school trips (our school-sponsored trip for a few days is almost $1K which prohibits many families). Or, rebuild the schools that desperately need replacing. Hire more teachers and school staff, especially reading and math specials for elementary school to get any kid struggling on target. More speech therapies, more special education teachers and paraprofessionals. And, free lunch for those borderline income kids whose parents don't qualify for free lunch but money/food is still an issue. Or, providing bus service to families whose kids have unsafe walks to school. Or, free or subsidized before/after school care for families that don't qualify for vouchers but again, that income that is just above benefits but not enough to live on.

Or, textbooks...

Amen to this. A lot of the high schools don't even have enough functioning toilets. I remember when I studied education policy 25-30 years ago, the focus was all on insufficient resources for schools serving communities of color, and the impact that has on society/equity. I think at some point people figured out how expensive it is to fix these real equity problems, and just decided to spend money on meaningless crap instead. I suspect they could fire at least half of central office staff, and actually *improve* the state of the system.

Equity would be providing all the schools with the same opportunities. Our school does not have a lot of classes the other schools have. Som if you are worried about students of color, who are at higher numbers at the lower tier schools, give them the same opportunities to achieve.

Perhaps that's what equity meant once upon a time but today it's more about removing opportunities from the top students to help reduce the achievement gap.

That would not be equity then. And, top students at other schools have it so different thing.

That's exactly what equity is...closing the gap. And if you can't raise the bottom, you must lower the top.

They are only lowering it at less wealthy schools. So that’s not closing the gap.

Unfortunately they are lowering it at the wealthy schools as well. The difference is, UMC parents simply pay for enrichment outside of school so it doesn't matter as much. Source: am a W school parent who pays for enrichment outside of school.

Many of us pay for or do our own enrichment. But, in hs you have more ap classes and other perks. You aren’t umc.

What?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you guys are overthinking it. The central office will buy whatever the cheapest training is. That is the only thing they prioritize. There was a documented increase in racist incidents being reported in MCPS, and buying a screen recording of someone reading a slideshow over Zoom is much, much cheaper than auditing and retraining staff for real. I guarantee you the buyers for this training didn't preview it ahead of time.

I think you're attributing stupidity instead of malice. Given MCPS's push for racial equity and anti-racism, this training was chosen on purpose. It's time that actual liberals finally WOKE UP and started paying attention to what progressives (aka the far left) are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you guys are overthinking it. The central office will buy whatever the cheapest training is. That is the only thing they prioritize. There was a documented increase in racist incidents being reported in MCPS, and buying a screen recording of someone reading a slideshow over Zoom is much, much cheaper than auditing and retraining staff for real. I guarantee you the buyers for this training didn't preview it ahead of time.

I think you're attributing stupidity instead of malice. Given MCPS's push for racial equity and anti-racism, this training was chosen on purpose. It's time that actual liberals finally WOKE UP and started paying attention to what progressives (aka the far left) are doing.

I think the "far left" is a red herring here. The actual issue is market forces. DEI trainings are a service, provided by a vendor, and that means that the incentive is to appease people who have power because those are the people who engage the vendor. So, if you do a DEI training in a corporate environment, the vendor is never going to focus on the all-male C-suite team. Instead, they will transfer responsibility for DEI to rank-and-file employees.

So, a systemic problem is then turned into an individual one, with the people who have the least power given the most responsibility to "fix" racism/inequality.

The same thing is true for PD in an educational environment. The people with power (Central Office) hire a vendor (Shalaby) to transfer responsibility for inequality down to the people with the least power (teachers).

MCPS abolished the LAD program, shoving a bunch of kids with learning differences back into mainstream classrooms. They defunded and dismantled programs aimed at kids whose education had been disrupted. They tied educators hands when it came to classroom discipline.

Then, when kids act up because their needs aren't being met, or because they shouldn't be in a 10th grade classroom with only a 2nd grade education, MCPS takes zero responsibility for the predictable results of their own choices.

Instead, they hired Shalaby to "explain" to teachers that they are the problem. If kids are misbehaving, it's because teachers don't respect the troublemakers enough. All of the responsibility is transfered from those with power to those without it, and Shalaby is a willing collaborator in the grift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you guys are overthinking it. The central office will buy whatever the cheapest training is. That is the only thing they prioritize. There was a documented increase in racist incidents being reported in MCPS, and buying a screen recording of someone reading a slideshow over Zoom is much, much cheaper than auditing and retraining staff for real. I guarantee you the buyers for this training didn't preview it ahead of time.

I think you're attributing stupidity instead of malice. Given MCPS's push for racial equity and anti-racism, this training was chosen on purpose. It's time that actual liberals finally WOKE UP and started paying attention to what progressives (aka the far left) are doing.

Not a fan of this either but your conclusions seem a little nuts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised people are still using the term white passing. It implies the person is trying to pass themselves off as white. White presenting is a more neutral term that doesn't imply the person is trying to be something they are not.

To be fair, the SCO article used "white presenting" and they did so becuase Dr. Shalaby never did the sort of standard positionality statements that we would normally see in these sorts of presentations.

Normally, she would say something like "By way of positionality, I'm a cisgender, heterosexual, woman of European and Arab-American descent." That allows the other people in the discussion to better understand where she is coming from. Because Dr. Shalaby didn't do that, the SCO authors are hedging their bets and going with "white presenting" since they haven't heard from Dr. Shalaby herself on how she identifies.

Huh?

About 35 minutes into the video, Blair Black teacher Marshall Collier – a member of PISAB, a national antiracist alliance – stood up and critiqued the training’s lack of authenticity. He and many other teachers of color were aggravated since Shalaby, a White-passing woman, was teaching them about racism. “So I’m thinking to myself, 'What does she know about racism?' I found that illogical and it doesn’t flow well with what we’re actually seeing and experiencing outside of the school,” Collier says.

https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/content/county-wide-antiracism-professional-development-training-stirs-controversy-at-blair-36250/

I don't see anywhere where they said "white-presenting". "White-passing" is used twice. And her not using positionality statements is not an excuse to commit a microaggression which is what the "white-passing" statement clearly is.

The kind of equity that thinks someone having some "Arab" ancestry means they are qualified to speak about the experiences of someone who grew up poor and black outside of DC is laughable at best. But really it's much worse.

What kind of equity is it when you're reverting to a one drop rule? When you're making arguments that someone "passes" as white, but apparently isn't white so it's all okay then and they understand...

I would like to introduce you to genetics. I would like to introduce you to my five year old towheaded nephew, whose mother is Black, and whose grandparents are Black, but perhaps, not Black enough? I would like to point out that someone's cultural heritage is different than their skin color and your patone shades of oppression cataloguing is somewhat terrifying and reminds me of the 19th century. I expect you to tell us about the shape of their skulls next.

Skin color is a genetic crapshoot between recessive and dominant characteristics. In all populations there's a great deal of variation. When parents come from more than one region it's just a toss-up. The result doesn't entitle someone to be a spokesperson for all brown people--and it's remarkably offensive to me that you think it should.

Lots of cultures experience racism and to not understand that and make everything all about one race and culture is racist and why many just ignore all the mcps nonsense. And, for mcps to spend millions on this and not do anything to make other cultures and races feel safe speaks volumes.

[Anonymous]

Blair has become such a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you guys are overthinking it. The central office will buy whatever the cheapest training is. That is the only thing they prioritize. There was a documented increase in racist incidents being reported in MCPS, and buying a screen recording of someone reading a slideshow over Zoom is much, much cheaper than auditing and retraining staff for real. I guarantee you the buyers for this training didn't preview it ahead of time.

I think you're attributing stupidity instead of malice. Given MCPS's push for racial equity and anti-racism, this training was chosen on purpose. It's time that actual liberals finally WOKE UP and started paying attention to what progressives (aka the far left) are doing.

I think the "far left" is a red herring here. The actual issue is market forces. DEI trainings are a service, provided by a vendor, and that means that the incentive is to appease people who have power because those are the people who engage the vendor. So, if you do a DEI training in a corporate environment, the vendor is never going to focus on the all-male C-suite team. Instead, they will transfer responsibility for DEI to rank-and-file employees.

So, a systemic problem is then turned into an individual one, with the people who have the least power given the most responsibility to "fix" racism/inequality.

The same thing is true for PD in an educational environment. The people with power (Central Office) hire a vendor (Shalaby) to transfer responsibility for inequality down to the people with the least power (teachers).

MCPS abolished the LAD program, shoving a bunch of kids with learning differences back into mainstream classrooms. They defunded and dismantled programs aimed at kids whose education had been disrupted. They tied educators hands when it came to classroom discipline.

Then, when kids act up because their needs aren't being met, or because they shouldn't be in a 10th grade classroom with only a 2nd grade education, MCPS takes zero responsibility for the predictable results of their own choices.

Instead, they hired Shalaby to "explain" to teachers that they are the problem. If kids are misbehaving, it's because teachers don't respect the troublemakers enough. All of the responsibility is transfered from those with power to those without it, and Shalaby is a willing collaborator in the grift.

Children with learning disabilities often can be fine in the classroom and learning disabilities or special needs does not always mean behavior problem, which are two different things. There are some teachers that are a problem but you need to fire them, same with administrators and other staff. There are some parents that are the problem.

Kids are often failed at the elementary level. When kids cannot read parents are told to wait and see vs getting or being given help. Any kid not starting to read in K should be tested and given extra support. Kids not fully reading by the end of first grade should be given even more support till they catch up. Some kids misbehave because they don’t have the basic reading, writing and math skills to be successful. Tracking starts in middle school but it’s too late by then. MCPS needs to go back to basics and teach spelling, vocabulary, math facts and grammar to start with. And have the kids read more than one or two books a year.

The majority of kids who have special needs or behind are getting lots of support at home and private services. If mcps cannot provide the services at school they should take the money they waste on this stuff and pay for private help like they did with the tutoring the last free years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you guys are overthinking it. The central office will buy whatever the cheapest training is. That is the only thing they prioritize. There was a documented increase in racist incidents being reported in MCPS, and buying a screen recording of someone reading a slideshow over Zoom is much, much cheaper than auditing and retraining staff for real. I guarantee you the buyers for this training didn't preview it ahead of time.

I think you're attributing stupidity instead of malice. Given MCPS's push for racial equity and anti-racism, this training was chosen on purpose. It's time that actual liberals finally WOKE UP and started paying attention to what progressives (aka the far left) are doing.

Not a fan of this either but your conclusions seem a little nuts

They seem spot-on to me. A left-leaning organization that prefers virtue signaling to actually fixing problems that has equity and anti-racism as two of their top priorities hired a DEI company that does nothing to actually help people buy screams equity and anti-racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you guys are overthinking it. The central office will buy whatever the cheapest training is. That is the only thing they prioritize. There was a documented increase in racist incidents being reported in MCPS, and buying a screen recording of someone reading a slideshow over Zoom is much, much cheaper than auditing and retraining staff for real. I guarantee you the buyers for this training didn't preview it ahead of time.

I think you're attributing stupidity instead of malice. Given MCPS's push for racial equity and anti-racism, this training was chosen on purpose. It's time that actual liberals finally WOKE UP and started paying attention to what progressives (aka the far left) are doing.

I think the "far left" is a red herring here. The actual issue is market forces. DEI trainings are a service, provided by a vendor, and that means that the incentive is to appease people who have power because those are the people who engage the vendor. So, if you do a DEI training in a corporate environment, the vendor is never going to focus on the all-male C-suite team. Instead, they will transfer responsibility for DEI to rank-and-file employees.

So, a systemic problem is then turned into an individual one, with the people who have the least power given the most responsibility to "fix" racism/inequality.

The same thing is true for PD in an educational environment. The people with power (Central Office) hire a vendor (Shalaby) to transfer responsibility for inequality down to the people with the least power (teachers).

MCPS abolished the LAD program, shoving a bunch of kids with learning differences back into mainstream classrooms. They defunded and dismantled programs aimed at kids whose education had been disrupted. They tied educators hands when it came to classroom discipline.

Then, when kids act up because their needs aren't being met, or because they shouldn't be in a 10th grade classroom with only a 2nd grade education, MCPS takes zero responsibility for the predictable results of their own choices.

Instead, they hired Shalaby to "explain" to teachers that they are the problem. If kids are misbehaving, it's because teachers don't respect the troublemakers enough. All of the responsibility is transfered from those with power to those without it, and Shalaby is a willing collaborator in the grift.

An organization that has equity and anti-racism as part of its core values is far left.