I was surprised when the president of the local NAACP recently accused the Allentown school board of racism. The last two superintendents were Black, as is the newly hired interim one.
However outlandish as that accusation seemed to me, the women of the local NAACP (W.I.N) go further, and complain that a white board woman is masquerading as Hispanic, by using her husband's name. Further yet, they complain that black children are oppressed by the board, because a committee is composed of only white members.
ALLENTOWN NAACP: Jennifer Lynn Ortiz (AKA) Jennifer-Hartnett-Ortiz is an Allentown School District Board Member. And we, the Women in the NAACP Allentown Branch (W.I.N.), believe she intentionally allowed the community of the Allentown School District to think that she was a person of color through the use of her married name in a recent Allentown School District Board election.
On Thursday, December 1, 2022, at the Allentown School District Board meeting election, ASD Board members voted 5 to 4 against Lisa Conover continuing her role as VP of the Allentown School District Board. The white members voted for Nancy Wilt to step down from the board's presidential position to take the VP position away from a Black woman. It’s a diverse school district. Now the executive committee has no Black member. Why wouldn’t they want a diverse executive committee? We have received numerous phone calls complaining about Lisa Conover’s being voted out of office by the rest of the board, who happen to be all white, believing that Ortiz’s vote, as a Latino, would most likely have been cast in Conover’s favor. The public is demoralized because they credited Jennifer Ortiz as Latino, who actually voted for an all-white ASD Executive Board that has oppressed our Black and Brown children. The high volume of complaints caused by Jennifer Ortiz’s misleading identity must be publicly expressed. Jennifer Hartnett-Ortiz is not a Latino. Jennifer Ortiz is a white woman who married a Latino male and is sporting his last name, “Ortiz.” We believe Jennifer Hartnett-Ortiz won her seat on the board largely because the community thought she was Latino and anticipated a diverse board because of that. Jennifer Hartnett-Ortiz (AKA) Jennifer Ortiz joined the board in 2021 and has Brown children in the district. She claimed she ran for the board to make ASD a better place for everyone. Our children do not benefit from her votes. They are actually harmed by them. For instance, she voted against Dr. Stanford without providing any reason. She voted against a diverse board, turning it into an all-white executive board, and is in the process of voting against a 30-year forensic audit, which could have helped the school system identify problem areas. Jennifer Ortiz also sits on several committees which have not been beneficial to our children. At the same Allentown School Board meeting, Jennifer confessed that she has been, and continues to be, coached under the leadership of Audrey Mathison, the third-time elected ASD Board president. This is the same Audrey Mathison, an Allentown resident who ignored the opportunity to teach in the Allentown School District, which had and still has, a shortage of teachers, to teach privileged Parkland School District students for 40 years before retiring. Throughout those 40 years, we are not aware of Parkland experiencing a similar shortage of teachers. For the last six years, Mathison has retreated to Allentown's underprivileged district to make decisions that resumed the oppression of our children. The Allentown School District, Mathison's home district, wasn’t acceptable for her to educate our children, so why is Mathison here now making decisions for our Black and Brown children? She fought like hell for the Parkland School teachers’ union. Why is she not fighting like hell for a 30-year forensic audit to position the Allentown district in a more positive direction? The Women in the NAACP (W.I.N.) want to know the rationale behind the board members’ votes. They seem to make a great effort to avoid explaining. The Women in the NAACP (W.I.N.)
Their current statement led a reader on facebook to think that the board had no minority members, when in fact four members are Black. The NAACP women (W.I.N) apparently only see color, not one word about student success or failure.
Perhaps they feel that the school district will improve when the board is purged of all pale faces. What is really necessary for the school district's improvement is an obsession with success, not race.
You will not find many, if any, articles elsewhere critical of the local NAACP. Between living in the Valley of Sacred Cows, and the growing Minority Majority population, such articles would be deemed off limits by other publications. However, this blog is not monetized, but rather a labor of compulsion, by an independent, graying and outspoken blogger.
oh , is the era of white guilt ever going to run out of credibility. I sometimes think there is a course offered in some colleges. "How to use white guilt to further your own feathered nest".
ReplyDeleteBefore the civil rights movement, Americans of African-heritage wanted to be treated equally with all other Americans, no matter what their heritages and places of origin were. Dr. Martin Luther King's philosophy was equal opportunity for every American, irrespective of heritage or any other type of cultural identity.
ReplyDeleteNow, it seems that philosophy has been flushed down the toilet by the current generation of African-heritage Americans, who view skin pigmentation as overriding all other factors to demand their quota of representation, irrespective of anything else.
In other words, prior discrimination and only be addressed by more discrimination. As long as the former victims of discrimination are now themselves the discriminators.
I'm sure the person mentioned in the article worked hard and diligently for those 40 years at Parkland, teaching all students equally no matter what their skin pigmentation or cultural heritage. Where she chose to live is a matter of personal choice, one of the freedoms we all enjoy. However it seems that those who wish to discriminate today, also want to dictate that as well.
Also to be noted is that those individuals who wish to dictate and discriminate prefer to remain candid behind an organizational name, and not to stand up for their beliefs publicly.
This anonymous demand needs to be simply thrown in the garbage... Along with discrimination of all types.
Frankly the authors of this screed sound like the racists to me, labeling and judging people by race and ethnicity. A sad spectacle to witness and a very bad example being set here for the children.
ReplyDeleteWow, where do I start with this post? Here are my top three reactions:
ReplyDelete1) I think it's time we all recognize that ANY organization based on race is a racist organization and not for the good of the community as a whole. If this letter were penned by a group of White women, this would be a front-page story in the Morning Call. Yet somehow, we allow these race-baiting groups like the NAACP to spew their hate without question or scrutiny. The NAACP and other such groups may have started with good intentions, but they have served their purpose and have morphed into that which they were created to stand against.
2) It's hard to feel sorry for anyone in this story, other than ASD students who are only used as pawns by the race-baiters who penned the letter. Should I feel sorry for the liberal White members of the board, who are now being eaten by the diversity monster they helped create? Nope. Should I feel sorry for the Black board members, who apparently hold four out of nine seats on the school board despite only comprising about 15% of the population? Nope (BTW, I'm sure that OVER-representation is never acknowledged or discussed as a problem). Maybe I should feel sorry for the White woman who apparently thought that being married to a Latino and using her married name was allowed in today's world? No again. In the end, the board members are all democrats, doing what democrats do best - dividing us along racial lines and distracting from the actual performance of the school district.
3) Anyone who thinks the school district needs a 30-year forensic audit to find out where the problems are needs to be removed from the Board. All the information is available in the current budget. I suspect few have really looked at it, and those that have probably don't understand it anyway. It's the result of the Board (past and present) not watching spending and failing to focus on having the basics taught in the classroom. No need to waste money going back 30 years to find that out.
I agree with Molovinsky that an obsession with success is needed in the ASD. It is apparent that we will not be getting that from either the Board or the NAACP.
Wow..The W.I.N. Sounds like the intolerant racists to me! I can't believe I'm sticking up for a far left wing union activist, but Audrey Mathison is a female member of a racial minority (white) in Allentown and they are vilifying her??? Shouldn't W.I.N be exposing the blatant desegregation of public schools in Lehigh County as opposed to mean spirited attacks against white people in Allentown, many of whom are liberal minded, tolerant people who want to live in a diverse community???
ReplyDelete