Let me say this upfront: Not all the residents of Colleyville, Texas (profile here), are ignorant hicks. Only some of them are. (More about that below.)
Dr. James Whitfield was Colleyville Heritage High School’s first black principal. He didn’t teach “critical race theory,” which NBC News describes (here) as a “decades-old graduate-level study that examines the relationship between the law and racial inequality.” In fact, it isn’t taught to K-12 students in any school in America. But he was sacked for that after ignorant hicks mobbed the school board. They have to pay his salary through August 2023, when his contract expires.
The term has become a rightwing pejorative for schools teaching students that America has treated black people unequally and sometimes badly. Conservatives don’t like that, even though it’s true, because they’re afraid it might hurt white kids’ feelings. Or something like that.
If Colleyville is the kind of place where ignorant hicks scream at school board meetings about white kids being “indoctrinated” with “critical race theory,” and it just proved it is, they’re going to have trouble attracting good teachers and school administrators in the future. Feel sorry for the kids.
Given that Colleyville is that kind of town, how an intelligent black educator ended up there is a mystery. He shouldn’t feel bad about leaving. Colleyville doesn’t deserve him. Given is talents, he’ll find work somewhere better.
Not all of the town’s parents, to their credit, agreed with running him out of town. For example, one said “This is white Christian nationalism. That’s what I think is happening here.” Whether she’s aware of it or not, the terms “white Christian nationalism” and “Christian identity” are often associated with Hitler worshipping neo-Nazi groups. Another parent said he thinks what happened to Dr. Whitfield “paints a horrible picture of our town.” Yes, it does. One of the high school’s graduates called it “racism.” Yep, it sure looks like that.
So there are some decent people in Colleyville. But they’re not running the show. What seems to really be bothering the ignorant hicks who are is this: “After Whitfield was named principal, some parents issued unspecified complaints about photos of him and his white wife celebrating their anniversary that were kept in album on his Facebook page” (photo at left). To racists, mixed-race marriages spell the end of the all-white gene pool. So what? It’s not like theirs was all that great to begin with.