In an effort to combat perceived discrimination, one Portland school seems to have gone off the deep end by suggesting peanut butter and jelly sandwiches carry racist connotations, Twitchy reported Monday.
According to the Portland Tribune, Verenice Gutierrez, principal of Harvey Scott K-8 School, "picks up on the subtle language of racism" on a daily basis.
"Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year," the Tribune said.
“What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” Gutierrez asked. “Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.”
"Insert flabbergasted face," the Twitchy staff wrote.
One person asked on Twitter: "[W]hat's the verdict on grilled cheese? Racist? Sexist?"
"The food at my kids' schools hates everyone," tweeted Melissa Clouthier.
With the suggestion that a sandwich is racist, Twitchy said the discussion on race "has moved beyond slack-jawed incredulity into total self-parody territory."
"What is racist about a child’s lunch, one might ask? Peanut butter and jelly, of course! You racists probably even use black currant jelly sometimes. On white bread," Twitchy added.
The Tribune noted that the school started the new year with "intensive staff trainings, frequent staff meetings, classroom observations and other initiatives," to help educators understand their own “white privilege,” in order to "change their teaching practices to boost minority students’ performance."
"Last Wednesday, the first day of the school year for staff, for example, the first item of business for teachers at Scott School was to have a Courageous Conversation — to examine a news article and discuss the 'white privilege' it conveys," the Tribune added.
Gutierrez completed a week-long seminar called “Coaching for Educational Equity,” a program the Tribune says focuses "on race and how it affects life." She also serves on an administrative committee that focuses on systematic racism.
“Our focus school and our Superintendent’s mandate that we improve education for students of color, particularly Black and Brown boys, will provide us with many opportunities to use the protocols of Courageous Conversations in data teams, team meetings, staff meetings, and conversations amongst one another,” she said in a letter to staff.
One commenter at the Tribune observed that the phrase "as American as apple pie" could also be seen as racist if "people of color don't eat it."
"Guess what? When everything is racist, then nothing actually is," Twitchy said.
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