welcome back doesn't every parent want a
good education for their son
and daughter in every city in every
state regardless of their race
none of you asked the president of los
angeles teachers union who still refuses
to send
her teachers back into the classroom she
says there's one particular group
that's doing all the complaining watch
some voices are being allowed to speak
louder than others we have to call out
the privilege behind the largely white
wealthy parents driving the push for
a rushed return what
only white parents want their kids back
in school does she actually believe that
sure seems like it considering the
response one parent received from a
member
of the teachers union after she tried to
complain the union asked her to prove
that she wasn't a wealthy white woman
quote
could you tell me how you racially
self-identify
or point me to a citation on your
identity really
the mother who received this miriam
kudrap
joins me now for exclusive energy
interview miriam
did you actually receive this email
i was honestly shocked to be targeted
like that lawrence
i myself have been a teacher with the
los
angeles unified school district and i've
been an educator in the public education
system
and i never expected to have 1 thousand
indices to prove my last name and figure
out my first name
uh race and and uh profiling me that way
by my own my fellow colleagues my own
you know
teachers fellow teachers miriam i think
what most people
say is who cares what race you are i
don't care if you're white
or you're black or whatever brown the
fact is the kids belong
back in the school
well that's the whole point is that
their argument
is that if you're calling for a choice
and work
what i'm calling for is that you have
the choice to be able to return if you
wish
that that equates to your being racist
and i would like to challenge the utla
to give those wealthy white middle
eastern parents
a million dollar challenge
and see if they will put their money and
their labor
and volunteer and all their resources
into
the african-american and latino
communities to help those students come
to school
first and get everybody back in school
together
marion i've been following this this
issue all across the country
the effects on children and their mental
health
how are your children holding up
listen i my background is afghanistan
and i have seen firsthand
what it looks like to deprive a
generation of
education and the taliban would say
well we we we're just we're closing the
schools right now because of security
crisis
because of public crisis and now you
have the utla
even compton unified is going back and
the utla has help bends on
keeping our schools closed the kids are
suffering
they're being abused the the learning
losses
are are tremendous the african-american
and latino kids are going to suffer
potential for their incomes the united
states gdp is going to suffer in the
long run
and our competitiveness throughout the
globe is going to take a hit because of
this we have to stand up
to the utla we cannot continue to
uh follow with this racial war that
they're setting up
i got to ask you because you're an
immigrant does it disappoint you
that you come to the freest place in the
world
and they're not acting like it right now
this is this is very familiar to me
in terms of being able to reframe
what is complete injustice as
equity and equality and so
i i see it very clearly for what it is
and that's why i'm
unwilling to accept it and there's an
entire army of parents
just like me who will not any longer
accept the utla's decision to
hold these schools hostage the entire
country
is open the restaurants the banks the
the gas stations the malls everything is
open the schools are sitting at ghost
town in los angeles
and we cannot afford this any longer
mariam we'll continue to follow the
story uh we are with you
and there's a lot of people in this
audience that have been emailing me
all week about this story thank you so
much for coming on the program
thank you for giving the children we
should be ashamed we're being compared
to afghanistan now