In a Chatham News & Record online story about Monday evening’s Chatham County School Board meeting, their reporter Hannah McClelland noted the following:
“Board policies allow each speaker three minutes to talk; 16 people signed up to speak Monday. Led primarily by moms of students, those against the mask mandate cited social and emotional harm to children, difficulty breathing — several speakers seeming to allude to the “I Can’t Breathe” refrain used to protest police brutality following George Floyd’s murder — and the “handicapping of our children” due to required mask wearing.
Most speakers on Monday were white — reflecting national trends regarding mostly white anti-mask protests. (A July Rand Corp. survey found that two-thirds or more of Black, Hispanic and Asian parents said they needed school mask mandates to feel safe sending their children to school, compared to a third of white parents.)”
We asked for comments from the community on the Chatham Chatlist and the Chatham County NC community Facebook pages.
Here are some of the comments we saw posted:
I’m getting tired of that stupid paper. When they were bought out by Bill Horner, they started becoming obnoxiously woke. They use “latinx” frequently, even though that term is whitewashing another culture to fit the virtue signaling savior sensibilities of the “white left” and the vast majority of Hispanic people that weren’t indoctrinated into using that fake term in the past few years as children find it offensive. I look forward to that paper and its agenda shutting down forever. No one likes this “we noticed you are white so you don’t matter now” nonsense and I will loudly and publicly tell anyone that pushes such blatant racism to go fuck themselves with a racially sensitive, inclusive, responsibly sourced rusty rake.
You’ll also notice that they capitalize “black” when referring to a skin color grouping but not “white.” I shouldn’t have to explain; it is abundantly clear that they are not concerned with the truth, but with the narrative. It’s not an issue for Asian and Hispanic because they are references to locations with proper nouns (Asia and Hispañola). How’s that for a thought from the community? – JB
A July 2021 survey of parents on their children wearing masks is totally useless. Even the CDC has changed their stance on masks since then. The ‘reporter’ seems to have a problem with white parents’ concerns. I would like to know how many black and brown parents are active on the Chatham Chatlist and what type of efforts were made to inform black and brown parents of the board meeting. What is the ratio of White to Black to Brown citizens willing to confront issues at previous open county meetings? We have liberal biased media promoting the liberal biased County board, dismissing white citizens concerns because black and brown citizens didn’t attend the meeting? Based on a survey on masking children from July 2021? And you actually think anyone will take you seriously? I believe it is time to take your ridiculous spin on this story around to black and brown churches in Siler City and inform them of your assessment. Then perhaps you may find that the majority of parents, don’t care about colors like you do. They care that you are forcing unscientific mandates on our children. Your job does not give you power over the decisions we make for our children. Leave our kids alone! – SW
As long as people in the US believe masks are pushed because of health and safety of kids, nothing will stop. IT IS NOT ABOUT HEALTH AND SAFETY. Every US school district accepted millions in ESSER and GEER Cvd relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (aka THE CARROT). The STICK is the requirement from the Education Dept in DC to universally mask, quarantine, isolate, contact trace, and vx children, teachers, and staff. And each school has to prove they are doing these things with a report every six months. Our states SOLD our kids to the fed for billions $$$. Putting bacteria riddden cloths over kids faces for 8+ hours a day IS CHILD ABUSE! – MM
Maybe Ms. McClelland failed to do enough research to find that ALL school children have been harmed by the disruptions, especially minority children. Trying to paint one group of parents as villains is just juvenile and unjustified.
Black and Hispanic students have been particularly hard hit by education disruptions, having stayed in remote classrooms longer on average than their white peers according to federal data. Since the pandemic, the share of 1st graders on track in reading by midyear fell from 51 percent to 37 percent of Black students, 54 percent to 42 percent of Hispanic students, and from 65 percent to 58 percent of white students. – CC
Black people in particular are also most skeptical and hesitant regarding masking and vaccines. Of course, they don’t stick their necks out to protest because woke rich white leftists like the people at CN+R will go out of their way to use their power to shut the “poor minorities who don’t know what’s good for them” up. – JB
I really think if people are so afraid of the kids that do not want to mask. They should keep kids at home for remote learning. What did they think all of the people unmasked at the super bowl? If they had been offered a ticket would they have gone? – KC
Ratio of race by July Rand Corp. ?? – DA
Notation in the survey – Although we surveyed more than 3,000 parents in July 2021 and more than 2,000 parents in May 2021, the number of parents who responded at each point could have been as small as a few hundred in some parent subgroups—namely, Asian parents and Black parents. This relatively small sample size makes it hard to detect statistically significant differences across parent subgroups. With numbers this small, even when there might be substantially large, true differences across parent subgroups or over time—for example, the potential 13-percentage-point increase from May to July among Black parents who reported planning to get their child vaccinated—we were not always able to determine whether those changes are real and statistically significant
This “reporter” obviously did not take note that one parent, who wanted to keep the mandate in place, was also white. One of the kids who spoke is mixed race. This has absolutely nothing to do with race and it is nauseating that it was even brought into the mix. Why is it always about race? No one even mentioned Floyd or used the phrase, “ I can’t breathe!” Masks do make it difficult to breathe. This reporter is an embarrassment to the profession, which happens more and more often these days. Find something better to do Hannah. You’re a disgrace. – SA
well said. Not a reporter. ACTIVIST! – IS
Census data has Chatham county at 82 percent white. I wonder if that lines up with the percentage of white people she’s saying spoke at the meeting?? Stirring the pot. And what good is a July survey? It’s February, a lot has changed since July – BB