A year ago, my community was coming apart b/c the school board voted to change the racist mascot. Now, people are charging that the board is trying to indoctrinate students into leftist ideology (1/)

b/c the president of the board invited the local university's Chief Diversity Officer (a Black woman who's an expert in her field) to talk about microaggressions, privilege, and how to serve underrepresented communities (we're a majority white area). 2/

I feel like I'm in some kind of backward universe. Why is empathy and understanding considered so political? It doesn't help that a school board member pushed back on the presentation by defending the Confederate flag as a symbol of history and heritage 3/

after the presenter brought it up as an example of microaggression. And then he and another member (the two who voted FOR the racist mascot) kept trying to argue that this showed the presenter's bias, not their own 4/

The whole thing is horrifying to me--their blatant disrespect and lack of professionalism, and the lack of empathy in my community. I just don't get how people who profess to be Christian, many of whom share my religion, can be so mean-spirited. 5/

I mean, I do (white fragility is a big part of it), but come on. Can't we do better than this? I've written to the school board and am committed to doing what I can to change the local culture, but right now I'm just sad and discouraged.