This is a two-part series reflecting on the 2019 HCPSS redistricting process.
In Part I of my series on redistricting, I explained my position on the 2019 HCPSS redistricting process, and I stated that I while I supported the plan, I understood much of the opposition to it. Today, I’m going to discuss opposition that had a different, distinctly malignant flavor. This opposition was at best disingenuous and at worst covertly racist, characterized by vitriol filled with half-truths, stereotypes, and coded racist language. When given a platform by local Facebook group administrators, such inflammatory opposition drowned out the voices of those with more practical objections.
First, a bit of historical context. Redistricting is not new or unusual in Howard County, and it is often fraught with controversy. Some of the fiercest resistance to redistricting tends to come from families who perceive themselves as being moved from a “good school” to a “bad school.” How one defines “good” and “bad” schools is often based on local lore as well as questionable GreatSchools or Niche ratings, which are largely based on standardized test scores and often serve as a proxy for racial demographics. Invariably, redistricting reveals stark disparities in how schools are perceived.
The 2017 Attendance Area Committee survey results bear this out. Folks living in the Centennial school district were angrily critical of the proposed move to the “under-achieving,” “less academically-focused,” “massively inferior,” “horrible school” Wilde Lake. Their complaints were stunning in their rancor as they claimed entitlement to Centennial schools based on their high home prices; one comment even suggested that apartment renters should be redistricted out of Centennial instead of property-tax-paying homeowners. River Hill parents were incensed at the proposal to bring students from “poorly performing” Wilde Lake into their high school, thus decimating both their property values and River Hill’s national ranking. Two especially deplorable comments claimed Long Reach High School had a “violent reputation” and “Long Reach is a loser school because of section 8 and because of people with poor character living around.”
Yeesh.
In 2019, when HCPSS Superintendent Michael Martirano presented his bold redistricting plan to balance utilization and reduce the concentration of poverty in the schools, the acrimony was predictable and intense. There were over 7,000 students potentially being redistricted, many moving from sought-after schools to those that are perceived negatively, such as Wilde Lake. Ground zero for folks opposing this redistricting plan was the public Facebook group Howard County Neighbors United, formerly known as Howard County School Redistricting Opposition. It was in this group that people came together to mobilize, organize, strategize, and express their objections, which varied widely from reasonable to repugnant.
Plenty of the conversation in HCNU revolved around benign and legitimate objections to redistricting. Small feeds, special needs children, and other such understandable objections were common threads. It was not unusual to see pretentious diatribes about property value decreases and entitlement to certain schools based on home prices and property taxes. While the moderators were careful to remove content that was overtly racist or offensive, there was plenty of conversation in HCNU that veered into the grayer areas of covert white supremacy and coded racist language.
If the graphic above were a bingo card, I’d hit the jackpot after a quick scan through HCNU’s archives. Failed BOE candidate Saif Rehman trotting out bootstrap theory. District 4 Board of Education candidate and anti-redistricting heroine Sezin Palmer referring to white privilege as “nonsense”. Ms. Palmer disputing the experiences of people of color by refusing to believe that redlining occurs in Howard County and arrogantly implying that a Black woman doesn’t know what the word “segregation” means. Ms. Palmer showing off her white savior complex, suggesting charity work as a means of avoiding redistricting. Also, “but what about me?”, claims of reverse racism (applauded by Ms. Palmer), denying the existence of systemic racism, and believing we are post-racial. This comment thread on Black Lives Matter is a hell of a read. Infamous BOE candidate Gian Alfeo, who withdrew from the race after I exposed his racist and bigoted memes, was a regular participant in the group. There are countless examples of the dog-whistle phrases “social experiment” and “social engineering.”
Then, we have other examples that are just horrible. Ms. Palmer making jokes about Baltimore City crime. Others perpetuating stereotypes about sanctuary cities, Hispanic immigrants, and gang violence. Then there are the stereotypes that associate Section 8 and affordable housing with crime and blight. Not to mention the stereotypes associating poverty with violence, and the assertion that those living in poverty are responsible for their own plight. Model minority tropes are pervasive in HCNU and are used deftly to reject the notion of systemic anti-black racism and dismiss the concept of equity as pure folly.
Lastly, there are distinct parallels in the rhetoric surrounding the 2019 redistricting and the busing controversies from the 1960s and 1970s. Variants of dog-whistle phrases such as “forced busing” and “neighborhood schools,” used in opposition to desegregation half a century ago, were proudly displayed in 2019 on protest signs and BOE candidate campaign websites. The “Improve Don’t Move” slogan was reminiscent of “separate but equal.” Sezin Palmer’s letter to the editor in the Baltimore Sun rejected redistricting as “busing;” her campaign website uses the coded term “choice” as a tenet of her platform. Whether Howard County parents’ use of the word “busing” is motivated by racism or opposition to longer commutes is unclear, given how prolifically the term continued to be used despite suggestions to avoid it due to its historical connotation. Many claimed that parents simply want their kids at the closest school, ignoring the fact that historically, Howard County families will gladly send their kids to faraway schools if their neighborhood schools’ test scores fall.
I will state readily that not everyone who opposed the 2019 redistricting was motivated by racism. Far from it. However, we cannot ignore the fact that there was a palpable undercurrent of racism in the discourse. Some of the more blatant invectives were swiftly whisked away by Facebook group moderators, and rightfully so. But we must remember that over the past few decades, racism has not gone away; it has simply learned to be more inconspicuous. We must learn to spot it in all its covert forms and shine a light on it. Many of HCNU’s 6,000 members brought valuable insight and noble intentions to the conversation; additionally, there were several folks, including my friend the late Jonathan England, who regularly pushed back on covert racism when they saw it. We must stop tolerating it and avoid giving it a platform, so that we can debate the merits of any future redistricting processes in good faith.