Over the last few days, I have written on numerous occasions that the school board is all-white and have expressed concern about the board being tone deaf on their appointment process. What I did not know was that Alan Fernandes is in fact Filipino.
I made a mistake in so labelling Alan Fernandes and it represents an important learning point to which everyone can point. I should in fact know better. Our 16-year-old Malachi—many reading this have met him, if you didn’t know better, you would not know that he is in fact part Latino and part African American.
First let me say that I made a mistake and I need to own it and, to the extent that my mistake hurt Alan Fernandes, a man I deeply respect, I apologize.
Whether you agree or disagree with him, he has been a real leader on the board, especially with regard to getting the parcel tax passed. He has pushed his colleagues several times to ask the community for more funding and helped guide that decision, along with his colleague Joe DiNunzio.
On the other hand, it really does not change my overall assessment of the school board situation.
We have reached a pivotal point in our nation’s history. For a long time following the civil rights movement that culminated in the end of legalized discrimination, we have backslid in this nation—we have allowed for pockets of concentrated poverty in communities of color, we have allowed for mass incarceration to become the New Jim Crow, and in the last few years we have seen a resurgence of white supremacy and racial polarization.
But we are in a moment where we have opportunities to change that and this opportunity can become a blip on the radar or it could could become a moment when we can really push the process forward.
I was disappointed in the decision by the board because they had a rare moment where they had several very qualified women of color, on a board that had gained and lost two powerful women of color previously and a board that is otherwise composed of males.
Commenters had rightly suggested that, in previous times, the board really hasn’t had the opportunity to do what they could have done this week. I regret that they have passed up that opportunity. I have the same belief as before, but I should have framed my point slightly differently.
I want to make something clear and it is a point that Cindy Pickett made in our interview. This isn’t about Joy Klineberg—she is extremely qualified and will be an excellent board member. We should all be grateful that she has offered her services to this community.
Moreover, this isn’t about the other board members who have good intentions and are excellent people.
Cindy Pickett said her now-former colleagues “are doing their best.”
But we also need people who bring to the table different experiences. We are no longer merely a white district. The current demographics show that students are nearly evenly split between white and people of color.
So I think the quote from Maya Angelou is perfect: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
“There’s no blame or ill-will,” Cindy Pickett told me. “It should be a learning experience.”
That goes for me too. I will try to do better in the future. And I apologize to Alan Fernandes for missing the bigger picture.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Maganda omaga Alan, I never would have guessed, my bad.
Still I think you made a bad decision by not going with the woman who wanted to tackle black flight from the district. With declining enrollment DJUSD should be looking at how you attract and retain marginalized groups who are committed to this community but have abandoned the local public schools. By passing over the person who actually wanted to address this issue and understood how to go about it the board missed a huge opportunity to reach out on this vexing, long standing, problem.
I don’t think that if you or others had never guessed that fact, that the school district would have been any the worse. But apparently now it’s necessary to know how the percentage of non-white students aligns with the percentage of non-white board members, so please government officials of color, make your proper race-identity known. Or don’t — and make Davis look even worse!
I assume you mean the collective you, as this wasn’t his decision alone, and ‘black flight’ may not have been his only qualifying parameter.
And . . . I’d really like to know what this ‘black flight’ from the school district is. I’m not saying I believe it or don’t believe it — but all I’ve heard is allusions to it, and I really don’t understand what it’s about or how widespread it is. People just saying, “It’s true, and therefore you should believe it, and lots of people did it” doesn’t do it for me.
I can believe there are race issues at Davis public schools, and I can believe people of any race who could afford to would take their kids out of public schools for many reasons (and I know many that have). What I don’t understand is what the issues are, if people-of-color removed students in great numbers, if it is still happening today because of issues of race, if Davis is just as bad, or much worse, than other neighboring districts, and why.
Please, don’t patronize me with “well, you haven’t been paying attention”. I haven’t, OK, I don’t know if I’m the only person who hasn’t, but I’ll admit I was not aware of the issue. So now I just have implications and no facts.
This would be worth an article.
I had asked that as well (in the other article), and was told that it (somehow) involved the Trayvon Martin incident.
That part didn’t make much sense to me (e.g., removing a student from DJUSD, to send them to a presumably “white” private school).
Then again, I’m white, and probably in denial or too dense to understand something. Even worse, I’m male.
This reminds me of Brettleegate awhile back, when commenters were surprised to learn that Brett was, apparently (I’ve had no confirmation nor denial nor DNA proof), Asian. Personally, I couldn’t care less and never considered someone’s race in voting for them. Now we have Alanfernandesgate, again where ‘we’ assumed a public official was white when apparently they were not.
That pesky race thing . . .
Your ‘mistake’ was calling him white? Is that something that would hurt or insult someone who is, apparently (I’ve had no confirmation nor denial nor DNA proof), not? I have been asked if I’m Indian, Native, Mexican, Persian . . . I’ve taken none of these as an insult. It’s almost always been by people who are of those lineages, and I assume people are simply looking for others to whom they can relate, members of a shared ‘tribe’, if you will, a very human behavior. I am much more often asked if I’m Jewish, which would be correct, and I often ask people if they are Jewish, with about an 80% correct rate (though I probably miss many more who are — a ‘false negative’ if you will).
Anyway, since you are someone who seems to see most everything through the lens of race, I guess identifying someone as ‘white’ — who is not — would be some sort of mortal sin. Anyway, it’s great to share a good can-be-a-Jewish name with a local elected official . . . who is apparently not white, I have learned today. So now we know the following: our school board was 40% not white (just 8 percentage points away from white/not-white race statistical perfection), and is now 20% not white.
And . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . so . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Oi! How the mighty town of Davis has slid!
Being that we find Latinx is now part of the white population for reporting demographics that puts the DJUSD overall white student population at 72.5% and the Asian population at 17.6%.
Much more in line with the current makeup of the School Board.
Probably need to apologize to everyone, for missing the “bigger picture”.
Glad that Alan M. posted here, or I would have missed this article.
OH MY GAWD!!!!
You didn’t call him “WHITE” did you?
David, how are you ever going to live that down?
All of this said tongue in cheek because as we all know there’s always a certain few commenters that don’t have a sense of humor.
Now, if they could only do “something” about all of them being “male”, except for Cindy’s replacement.
(Oh, wait . . .)
Barring an election, there is ‘something’ ‘they’ could do, but last I checked it was still an elective procedure.
“Exactly”, possibly involving an “Exacto-knife”.
“And . . . I’d really like to know what this ‘black flight’ from the school district is. I’m not saying I believe it or don’t believe it — but all I’ve heard is allusions to it, and I really don’t understand what it’s about or how widespread it is”
Fulp-Cook one of the semi-finalists for the school board opening talked about it. I have been aware of it for more than five years going back to when George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2014. I made some posts about it yesterday in the July 4 article Voters Could Put Board Appointment To A Vote at 2:40pm, 4:23pm and 7:38pm.
I read your posts, but I don’t know what it’s about, how widespread it is, or what George Zimmerman has to do with people taking kids out of Davis schools. I could also use some confirmation, besides ‘people talked about it’. I believe you believe it, but . . .
“I had asked that as well (in the other article), and was told that it (somehow) involved the Trayvon Martin incident.”
Do you have reading comprehension issues? I wrote it, Don explained it, then I explained it again. Yet somehow you still don’t understand. Perhaps you don’t want to understand.
This really doesn’t help. I read the same thing, and I don’t understand either. I know when something is super important to a person and they believe something to their soul, that it’s hard to understand that others aren’t involved at all and don’t know what you are talking about. I believe you believe this and the facts are clear to you . . . but I’m asking for some way to understand the issue and confirm the assertion.
I think that’s what RO is doing as well, not speaking for . . . so guessing.
Okay I’ll try again. Fulp-Cook explained how she knows African American faculty at UCD who she described as committed to being here but have placed their kids in private schools instead of DJUSD. She offered some insight about how to reach out to these people.
Six years earlier I was at a community meeting of local African Americans after George Zimmerman was acquitted where people expressed fears about the safety of their own kids. I then became aware that a number of these families had left DJUSD for private school because they felt that their kids weren’t well served in our schools.
So I have been aware that this has been going on for at least 6 years and from Fulp-Cook’s response to a question on diversity issues during the selection process it became apparent to me that this is an ongoing problem in this community.
I can’t quantify it for you but maybe someone should try to do that.
Yes, that’s right.
There’s still something missing from this explanation (which would still be missing regardless of skin color). Perhaps because the story is being relayed, rather than being a first-person account.
But, I don’t think I’ll be the one to ask any further questions, as it went off the rails last time.
I thought about sharing a story that I recall related to a disabled child at DJUSD, but I’m starting to think it’s not really worth getting into on here. (Also, wasn’t there a significant controversy regarding a child who couldn’t be accommodated at DJUSD, and who ended up dying at another facility?)
“I assume you mean the collective you, as this wasn’t his decision alone, and ‘black flight’ may not have been his only qualifying parameter.”
Yes and no. It took three votes but without Alan’s there would have only been two.
Black flight is a term I came up with yesterday to succinctly describe the phenomenon. I like it because of its contrast with white flight, a phenomenon that is well understood, going back many years as an unintended consequence to Brown v Board of Education.
I don’t think so, or at least you’re not the only one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_flight