The Dalton School, one of the most prestigious private schools in Manhattan, is in the throes of a full-on racial meltdown.
As The Naked Dollar blog details, the precursor of this, as first reported by Bloomberg News, was the school refusing to reopen even while most other public and private schools in New York did. (This despite the lack of any scientific evidence suggesting schools were significant vectors for COVID 19.) Parents signed an angry letter, saying that the $54,000 annual tuition, none of which was being rebated, should buy something more than Zoom classes.
Possibly relenting under the pressure, Dalton has announced plans to reopen, but this has ignited another firestorm, this time from the faculty.
Apparently, reopening is racist.
In a detailed twitter thread, Quillette Managing Editor Colin Wright reports:
The Dalton School in Manhattan is having a race meltdown. It’s absolutely insane. Teachers are holding the school for ransom with demands, but they’re so extreme the school will crumble if they give in. But they’ll crumble if they don’t, too!
Here are some of the demands:
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The hiring of twelve (!) full time diversity officers
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An additional full time employee whose “entire role is to support Black students who come forward with complaints.”
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Hiring of multiple psychologists with “specialization on the psychological issues affecting ethnic minority populations.”
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Pay off student debt of incoming black faculty
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Re-route 50% of all donations to NYC public schools
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Elimination of AP courses if black students don’t score as high as white
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Required courses on “Black liberation”
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Reduced tuition for black students whose photographs appear in school promotional materials
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Public “anti-racism” statements required from all employees
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Mandatory “Community and Diversity Days” to be held “throughout the year”
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Required anti-bias training to be conducted every year for all staff and parent volunteers
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Mandatory minority representation in (otherwise elective) student leadership roles
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Mandatory diversity plot lines in school plays
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Overhaul of entire curriculum to reflect diversity narratives
But, as TargetLiberty.com’s Robert Wenzel writes, this list of demands is only the short version. There are actually 24 much more expansive demands that span 8 full pages.
Wright correctly notes:
Giving in to this ideology is not a winning strategy. Hiring diversity officers will not improve your situation. Diversity officers are good at one thing: finding reasons to justify hiring more diversity officers.
You eventually reach a tipping point where there are so many diversity officers fighting to uncover ever-more nuanced forms of racism and perceived oppression that a school’s probability of boiling over in a moral panic for no apparent reason approaches 1.
But it is deeper than that.
“Parents are terrified to speak up for fear of retribution. Parents are acting like spineless wimps,” an insider told the New York Post.
Dalton is now proudly featuring this on its homepage:
From the Board of Trustees Racial Vision Statement and Progress Report:
All Dalton students will have a deep historical understanding of racial and structural inequities in the U.S., and particularly the history of anti-black racism
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Restructure all volunteer groups (e.g., Parents Association, Alumni Council) to best align with Dalton’s vision and anti-racism and inclusion goals
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Create anti-racist website that includes metrics to measure progress and hold us accountable
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Develop a racial literacy curriculum for grades K-8
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Implement English and History curricular changes for more diverse representation and richer understanding of culture and history of BIPOC people
The Naked Dollar notes that what you may not know is that Dalton has long been one of the most progressive schools in the country. They have actively encouraged the sort of thinking that is now biting them in the ass. And the obvious irony is that if Dalton is “systemically racist,” a belief they themselves promote, it is progressives who bear the responsibility.
When progressive institutions embrace revolutionary ideologies, as Dalton has done, they fail to appreciate that the revolution comes for them first. The scaffolding is being built on East 89th street.
“My ancestors experienced white supremacy by being slaughtered,” a Jewish parent told The Post.
“The idea that being white automatically means you are privileged or a white supremacist is ridiculous. My child comes from people who had to fight for everything they got.
“It’s just about skin color now.”
A Dalton parent who spoke to The Post predicted that 30 to 40 percent of parents of kids in the Class of 2025 will pull them out of the school and transfer them as a result of the manifesto.
The Dalton student population (K-12) is 1,322 and the annual tuition is $44,640.
