The New York City Department of Education will push more schools to teach Black history and culture through its Black Studies Curriculum after controversy erupted in a Manhattan school meeting when a white mother was accused of saying racist remarks towards Black students in a hot mic moment.
NYC Public Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the Black Studies Curriculum "should be expanded throughout the city in more districts and schools."
"We need to equip our staff to have courageous conversations focused on shifting attitudes and interrupting prejudice, addressing controversial issues, and coalition building," he said during a Wednesday Panel for Educational Policy meeting, according to a transcript provided by the DOE.
He also said the DOE will start parent training sessions that will teach tools to combat racism in March.
The push stems from a parent's offensive remarks during a Feb. 10 District 3 Community Education Council meeting that included discussion on the city's plan to close middle schools in the Upper West Side.
At the hybrid meeting, with people speaking in person and virtually, a Black student at the Community Action School was testifying in person against the plan to close the school when Allyson Friedman, a parent at another local public school, could be heard on a hot mic on Zoom, according to Chalkbeat.
“They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” Friedman, a professor at Hunter College, reportedly said.
On Wednesday, Samuels said Friedman's comment "was a vile and reckless attack on a young person speaking her truth to power. Let me be clear: Anti-Black racism has no place in NYCPS—not in our classrooms, our community spaces, or anywhere in our city," he said.
The Black Studies Curriculum was adopted in the 2024-2025 school year and offers a more inclusive perspective of American history to include the contributions of people of African descent in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Samuels said a long-term approach was needed to prevent bias from "infecting our society, and our schools, in the first place."
"You have my word that behavior like what we saw at the District 3 CEC meeting will not be tolerated. We can and must do better," he added.
