I want to hear someone try to defend this.
The Daily Caller reports that the Albany Unified School District in California hosted a trip to Virginia for “young men and women of color.” They visited Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while discussing “social justice,” according to documents obtained by parental rights group Defending Education. The local Board of Education trip approved the trip at a cost of $42,845.
“This unique mentoring program encourages Albany High School young men and women of color to develop social, personal, and academic success skills,” the Board’s statement announced. “Students gather in a safe, supportive, and empowering environment to voice their needs and challenges. The students engage in enriching discussions on social justice, education, leadership, mental well-being, and self-awareness. This mentoring program is transforming the lives of young men and women of color to make a significant global impact in society.”
The favored students also visited the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial and the Black Heritage Trail. But wait! There’s more…
“AUSD’s 2025-2026 Local Control and Accountability Plan names “Young Men of Color and Young Women of Color Programs” that aim to “provide social emotional supports to most underserved students.” The programs are part of a $1,257,234 “social emotional/mental health” support effort.
“The same plan details the district’s intention to provide staff with “professional development” programs centered on “culturally responsive/anti-racist pedagogy.” These teaching practices are necessary to support “student groups who are persistently and historically underserved,” the document states.
“Another document from 2026 includes a goal of “Recruit[ing] and Retain[ing] a Diverse, High Quality Staff,” DE found. The Superintendent Report detailed plans to “strengthen inclusive hiring,” expand “equitable recruitment pipelines,” and implement “affinity-based supports.” The report mentioned a “Black Teacher Project” to help in these race-based hiring and retention efforts and suggested the district would track staff demographics as an indicator of success.”
Questions:
- How can a school district get away with flagrant racial discrimination like that in the 21st Century?
- Are there no white families at all in that district? If there are, what the hell is the matter with them? Why would they permit such biased treatment of their children…in a program they are paying for?
- Are there no “parents of color” in that district with the integrity to protest a policy that is divisive, illegal and discriminatory?
- Does California secretly lobotomize its citizens? Is Weenie juice secretly put in the water?
- How can educators so smugly described a purely discriminatory educational exercise without any ethics alarms ringing?
I don’t understand this story at all.
Ethics Alarms 
“Are there no white families at all in that district? If there are, what the hell is the matter with them? Why would they permit such biased treatment of their children…in a program they are paying for?”
If I described this program to my Trump-Deranged sister, her answer would be, “That’s great.” Great, in this context, being a non-sarcastic synonym for terrific or good.
They have been told for a long time now that minority-only programs are good, so a large number of them accept it. The few that don’t wouldn’t dare object as it would cause them to be targeted as bigots.
I regard that as brainwashing, straight-up.
It is worse than brainwashing, it is prisoner mentality. If any parents speak up, they will be targeted as rrrrracists! The district will then retaliate against their children. You could try fighting it in court, but it may take 10 years, all the while, your kids are being abused by the school staff. If you win in court, what do you get? Traumatized and abused kids and a court that says that you are right and they end the program that ran out of funding 8 years ago? If you don’t have kids in the school, the court says that just because it is your taxpayer money paying for this, you don’t have standing to sue over it being illegal.
Abuse by school personnel is very prevalent. When people’s kids are being abused by the school district and they win in court over it, I have never seen a judgement that granted the family private school tuition at the public school district’s expense. That would seem to be common sense, but the courts all seem to think that after a verdict, the district will just stop abusing the kid instead of doubling down. This abuse by staff is a big deal. When I pulled my son from school because he was being academically and emotionally abused by the teachers, I was one of the few homeschoolers I knew in my son’s friend group. Four years later, only 2 of the other 10 or so kids aren’t homeschooled. The reason they were pulled from the public school was psychological or physical abuse in the system that couldn’t be stopped.
It would make more sense if a private community organization (the local NAACP chapter, or the youth group from a historically Black Protestant denomination, such as the local A.M.E. church, f.ex.) were sponsoring a class trip to historically Black colleges in Virginia, or if the admissions offices at those historically Black colleges clubbed together to sponsor such a trip in an effort to recruit students from California. But for the school district to sponsor such a trip and limit participation to students of only one race/ethnic group is indeed government-sponsored racism.
Would any Albany property owner have standing to sue? Even if they don’t have children in the system, they are taxed to support it.
Wait. I thought California was the model for diversity, equity and inclusion. Why, then, is this trip necessary?
The Board stated that “[s]tudents gather in a safe, supportive, and empowering environment to voice their needs and challenges. The students engage in enriching discussions on social justice, education, leadership, mental well-being, and self-awareness. This mentoring program is transforming the lives of young men and women of color to make a significant global impact in society.”
Why is it assumed that black students need more safety, support, and empowerment? Has the Civil Rights movement gained nothing, changed nothing? If that is the case, then maybe we need to reassess the value of that movement and its purported successes?
Secondly, why is it assumed that black students are more inclined to “social justice” (whatever that is) than other non-minority students? What about Charles Payne or David Webb? They are highly successful business leaders but are not motivated by DEI os sosicl justice programs.
jvb
In these people’s minds, it’s still 1860, never mind 1960, John. It’s still “The white man’s burden.” Or as a friend from Oklahoma said in 1985, “If I’d have known you were going to be this much trouble, I’d have picked my own damned cotton.” All of which is, as Charles Barkley would say, “Turrable.”
That sounds like the type of program that Legal Insurrection’s Equal Protection project would go after.
I don’t know if they take on public schools, though, as opposed to universities.