The effort of a public school in New York to build an antibias, anti-racist community includes implementing what appears to be a BIPOC-exclusive affinity group, according to a school-wide email provided to National Review by advocacy group Defending Education.
Battery Park City School advertises a “BIPOC/Person of the Global Majority Parent/Caregiver Affinity Group” to families who are interested “in engaging in [anti-racist] work and identify as a Black, Indigenous or Person of Color/Person of the Global Majority,” according to a sign-up form for the group.
In December, administrators sent an email that invited “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (POC) families to join a conversation” as part of its goal to create an anti-racist school community.
“This school decided it was a good idea to create a group for parents and caregivers to discus to join but to limit participation to people of a certain race or skin color,” the senior director of communications for Defending Education, Erika Sanzi, said. “The best part? They are describing it as a space to discuss bias and hate that will help to build a positive culture.”
Battery Park City School recently also released a statement on “Building an Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist School Community” that describes hate speech as “demeaning speech, imagery, gestures, or conduct regarding a person’s perceived or actual race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, physical or intellectual disability, sexual orientation, or body size,” and clarifying that “hate speech can also target those who associate with individuals or groups in these categories.”
The school is working toward a culture of “dignity, belonging, and the proactive disruption of bias and hate speech,” the school said in the statement.
“Maybe they could start their discussion by answering why they think discrimination on the basis of race is an acceptable form of bias that helps build a positive culture,” Sanzi said. “I mean, call me crazy, but it seems that one way to create a more positive culture is to stop including and excluding people on the basis of race.”
Defending Education and other parental-rights groups have challenged race-based affinity groups under civil rights law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The Trump administration has, additionally, threatened the funding of public schools that offer race-based programming.