More on the diversity of the Seattle Public Schools

Continuing the conversation about race and "white privilege," there are a couple of noteworthy pieces in today's Seattle Times. First, op-ed columnist Lynne Varner weighs in on what she describes as well-meaning but "ham-fisted" educators and school officials: "The city school system's laudable advocacy of racial and economic diversity suffers at the hands of people my grandmother would have written off as 'educated fools.' Steeped in the pedagogy of equity, race relations and cultural competencies, these folks open their mouths and the entire city cringes." And Crosscut contributor Matt Rosenberg, in a Times guest column, says the Seattle Public Schools have a problem not with institutional racism but with "an institutional evasion of personal responsibility." "By promoting the 'white privilege' canard and by designing a student indoctrination plan," Rosenberg writes, "the Seattle School District is putting retrograde, leftist politics ahead of academics, while the perpetrators of "white privilege" are minimizing the capabilities of minorities."