A Cancer of Racism in Fishers, Indiana
Activists in Fishers, including two Board Members, are normalizing racism
There is a problem with racism in Fishers, Indiana. Historically, of course, the most severe and damaging forms of racism in our society have been directed against people of color, and especially black people. That’s still true. But, perhaps surprisingly, the racism that I’m talking about today is directed against white people. Much of this racism is being perpetuated by a small band of activists in our community. In a confusing display of Orwellian doublespeak, they claim to be anti-racist. But in reality they are spreading straightforwardly racist ideas (see below for plenty of examples), and pushing them on our children in public schools. They are well-organized and devoted to their racist cause, and they are supported by several of our political leaders, as well as hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars.
Background
A little over a year ago, I learned that the group hired by the city to teach on racial issues had put out a podcast that compared being white to having a dangerous virus.
Around that time, I also learned that several of the teachers for this “whiteness is a virus” group were also doing similar work for a second group called Child Advocates, and in particular they were being paid thousands of dollars to run trainings for HSE Schools. The Child Advocates website was also recommending, and still includes in their “curated list” of resources, materials that are explicitly racist, comparing whiteness to a “cult”, asking “when was whiteness good,” saying that whiteness is “evil” and “exploitative,” saying that “the power of domination and exclusion is central to the belief in being white,” and explicitly calling for race-based discrimination against whites.
A third group was under contract with the Fishers government to provide additional race-related trainings to city employees and the public. The leader of this third group said that “Giving White people the benefit of the doubt is the most deadly tool of #WhiteSupremacy.”
HSE Schools subsequently hired—and continues to regularly pay thousands of dollars to—a fourth group which claims that “whiteness” is a “social construct” that is used to achieve “maintenance and exertion of power and privilege over non-white individuals and communities.” And the Ethnic Studies course at Fishers High School teaches much the same thing.
Finally, the Principal of Fall Creek Intermediate, with Superintendent Yvonne Stokes’ consent, held a staff book study of a book which says “Being racist against white people is not a thing.” This book also endorses the idea that whiteness is a social construct that was created for domination and control of non-white people, among other ridiculous ideas.
This stuff is all racist. And by ‘racist’, I just mean the old-fashioned, simple idea of animosity toward a group of people because of their race. The above cases are clear examples of racism in this sense.
More Racism: The Fishers Democratic Club
Two of our current Board Members, Board President Julie Chambers and Board Member Janet Pritchett, are also involved in the leadership of the Fishers Democratic Club, along with several other political leaders in Fishers:
In 2020, this Club recommended an “anti-racism resource guide”:
This guide recommends all of the racist books I quoted above, and it also recommends a number of additional racist materials.
First example: it recommends the book I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown. In this book, Brown declares that “white people are exhausting” (p. 7) and talks about the “daily annoyances ... of whiteness” (p. 76). Brown also notes that “Whiteness wants us to be empty, malleable” (p. 79) and “Whiteness has never needed much of an excuse for our deaths” (p. 146). Elsewhere, Brown speaks approvingly of a woman who declared that “...white people are innately evil. You can’t help it. You steal and kill, you enslave and lynch. You are just evil” (p. 57). Brown also warns us that “The danger of letting whiteness walk off with our joy, our peace, our sense of dignity and self-love, is ever present” (p. 21) and states that “Whiteness likes a trickle of Blackness, but only that which can be controlled” (p. 71).
Second example: the resource guide recommends an article which says we should hire “therapists” who “specialize in … the undoing of Whiteness in education.”
Third example: the guide recommends the book What Does it Mean to be White? by Robin DiAngelo, which says that “white identity depends on the oppression of blacks” (p. 123) and constantly advocates for “questioning” and “challenging” whiteness.
Fourth example: the guide recommends the best-selling book White Fragility, also by DiAngelo. Here are some of its racist ideas:
“White identity is inherently racist; white people do not exist outside the system of white supremacy.” (p. 149)
“I strive to be ‘less white.’ To be less white is to be less racially oppressive.” (p. 150)
“To be less white is to be open to, interested in, and compassionate toward the racial realities of people of color.” (p. 150)
This book goes on and on in this way. As you can see, it teaches the racist idea that white people are inherently racist oppressors, and that whites should be ashamed of their race and try to be “less white.”
HEPL Book Study by Janet Pritchett
HSE School Board Member Janet Pritchett—who is running for re-election in November in District 2—thought that this last DiAngelo book was so important that she led a study of it at the Hamilton East Public Library back in the fall of 2019:
It is disappointing that a community leader like Ms. Pritchett would promote these ideas. Clearly, we need new leadership.
The Common Thread: Critical Race Theory
All of these racist materials and racist statements are unified by the same thing: Critical Race Theory. This is the theory which centrally claims that race is a social construct that was perpetuated by whites for the purpose of dominating everyone else. According to the theory, whites go so far as to actively adjust the definition of racial categories as needed to diabolically retain their place of privilege. Whites are by definition a dominating, evil force. As the teacher of Ethnic Studies at Fishers High School puts it, race was invented “about five-hundred years ago” by European whites to “justify” their oppression of other racial groups, and “race exists entirely and only because of a system of power built to create a hierarchy.” These claims are at the center of Critical Race Theory, and this theory explains all the animosity we see in the materials I quoted above. After all, if white people are by definition dominators and oppressors, it would make sense to want to be “less white,” and it would make sense to say all of the many objectionable things about white people and “whiteness” that we see in the above-quoted materials.
A Different Vision
Martin Luther King taught that only light can drive out darkness, and that love, not hate, was to be the salvation of our civilization. His vision was one of racial reconciliation and redemption rather than race-based hatred.
There are lots of ways to continue working toward this vision. I do believe that anti-racist trainers and instruction can be useful in our community. But I mean the real kind of anti-racism, not the false kind that claims to be anti-racist while teaching us to hate whites and discriminate on the basis of race. Additionally, I do believe that teachers should be encouraged to pay extra attention to making the classroom welcoming to all students, and to pay attention, in particular, to challenges that students of color face. We should also pay attention to racial disparities in academic performance and address them. I think that almost all of us agree with these points, and they are what we can unite on.
But as we work for these outcomes, we must remember King’s warning against growing bitter. For example, in one instance, there were some among his group who did not want to sing the line of the great song “We Shall Overcome” which speaks of “black and white together.” Of these discouraged few, he wrote:
I should have been reminded that disappointment produces despair and despair produces bitterness, and that the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness. Bitterness has not the capacity to make the distinction between some and all. When some members of the dominant group, particularly those in power, are racist in attitude and practice, bitterness accuses the whole group. (Where Do We Go From Here, p. 26)
This is what I see in some of the examples of objectionable materials that I provided above: a blindness, born of bitterness and disappointment, that accuses all white people.
Instead, Dr. King urges us:
We must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. (“Eulogy for the Martyred Children”)
He calls us to follow a more excellent path (forgive me for the long quote, but people should really read Dr. King instead of Robin DiAngelo):
We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization. There is still a voice crying out in terms that echo across the generations, saying: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven.
This love might well be the salvation of our civilization. This is why I am so impressed with our motto for the week, “Freedom and Justice through Love.” Not through violence; not through hate; no, not even through boycotts; but through love. It is true that as we struggle for freedom in America we will have to boycott at times. But we must remember as we boycott that a boycott is not an end within itself; it is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority. But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding good will that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men. (“Facing the Challenge of a New Age”)
It is not fathomable to me that Dr. King, who loved the white brothers and sisters who marched with him, and also even loved the white racists who hated him, would say the things about white people that are found in the allegedly anti-racist materials quoted above. I think he would regard these statements as harming the cause of reconciliation and redemption, and I think he would see them as obstructing the creation of the beloved community.
Join Us!
Please join us in trying to turn the community around. Most importantly, let’s get busy winning the election in November so that we send a clear message that this racism and hatred has no place in Fishers. Ben Orr is running against Ms. Chambers, and Juanita Albright is running against Ms. Pritchett. Neither Ben nor Juanita believes in the kind of racism on display above. Read about all of our four candidates here.
Join us in spreading the word to your friends and neighbors, and if you’d like to knock on doors or put up a yard sign, drop me an email (chadRcarmichael@gmail.com). I’d love to meet you and have your help getting the word out!