Ann Hsu, Alison Collins and anti-Blackness at SFUSD

Kayelani-Williams-Widya-Batin-Unique-Abram-Maya-Bonner-Alexis-Gutierrez-and-Johnny-Hall-outside-San-Francisco-City-Hall-by-Steve-Rhodes-022316, Ann Hsu, Alison Collins and anti-Blackness at SFUSD, Local News & Views News & Views
Then-Lowell High School students Kayelani Williams, Widya Batin, Unique Abram, Maya Bonner, Alexis Gutierrez and Johnny Hall outside San Francisco City Hall following a student walkout demanding more Black students and teachers at the SFUSD school on Feb. 23, 2016. Lowell has a history of anti-Black racism and maintains a majority white student body. – Photo: Steve Rhodes

by Kheven LaGrone

In response to a question on a school board candidate survey, San Francisco school board commissioner Ann Hsu wrote:

“From my very limited exposure in the past four months to the challenges of educating marginalized students especially in the black and brown community, I see one of the biggest challenges as being the lack of family support for those students. Unstable family environments caused by housing and food insecurity along with lack of parental encouragement to focus on learning cause children to not be able to focus on or value learning. That makes teachers’ work harder because they have to take care of emotional and behavioral issues of students before they can teach them. That is not fair to the teachers.”

Parents and community members were outraged. They called her racist and ignorant. They argued that her statement was inappropriate for a school board commissioner. 

Too many non-Black people speak about Black people with “very limited exposure” to Black people. They have little or no personal contact with African Americans. Still, they often speak about African Americans among themselves. They create images of Black people without directly knowing any – I’m speaking from my Black perspective; I assume a Latino perspective will be similar.

This mischaracterization of Black people happens in a variety of ways. For years, a white man had told me that he lived in a Black neighborhood in Oakland in the ‘90s and he had several bad experiences. He always said that he would never again live in a Black neighborhood. I’m sure he told many people his story. Only recently did he mention that when he lived in that Black neighborhood, that he was living between two crack houses. 

Based on this, he had generalized about Black people and living in Black neighborhoods. His friends were all white and Asian. I assume he told them about his “experiences” living among Black people without mentioning that he lived between crack houses.

Parents and community members were outraged – they called her racist and ignorant.

In his book “The Bell Curve,” East Indian immigrant Dinesh D’Souza stated that the violence of gangster rap reflected a pathological Black American culture. Apparently, D’Souza did not know that Black people protested gangster rap when it first came out. Black radio stations refused to play it. In fact, gangster rap reflected the tastes of its consumers. Its main customer was white American teens. 

When young Black individuals attacked Asian elders, Black people were appalled. In our culture, we respect elders. Yet, the mainstream media reported the attacks as they were the results of Black people hating Asians. 

Such mischaracterization and bias against Black teens can be dangerous to Black people. In 2012, George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin, an innocent Black teenager, after racializing and mischaracterizing him. When Zimmerman went to court, his jury was mainly white. His defense team played into their stereotypes of Black men. The jury acquitted Zimmerman.

Commissioner Hsu apologized for her response to the question, stating: “My statements reflected my own limited experiences and inherent biases.” If she is going to be a school board commissioner, she needs to be better prepared and informed. Black students can’t risk her “inherent biases.” 

Many Black students are aware that people are judging them with their “inherent biases.” It makes those Black students feel bad. It alienates them. This risks disconnecting them from school completely. Just as some of Hsu’s supporters have language accommodations and cultural understanding, Black students are entitled to cultural understanding and accommodations.

Commissioner Hsu has a lot of power over the education and possibly the lives of San Francisco’s Black students. It is important that she has more exposure to Black culture. For example, for years I have heard of Asian students harassing Black students at Lowell High School – Google “Black students at Lowell High School.” 

Former school board member Alison Collins had written about this harassment from her personal experience, but the board would not address it. Instead, she was recalled. 

Is Lowell’s reputation for harassing Black students discouraging Black students from applying to Lowell? Unlike the Black students that Hsu wrote about, these Lowell students value hard work and education. They do not fit her “inherent biases.” What would Ms. Hsu do for them?

Kheven LaGrone, investigative reporter, activist, writer, artist and curator, can be reached at kheven@aol.com. He is also a licensed civil engineer.