In the heart of New York City’s Lower East Side, a bold principal from East Side Community High School, Mark Federman, initiated a conversation about race and identity.
For almost two decades, Federman has been leading the school, taking on the role of principal since 2001. The school is home to a diverse student population, with 680 students from grades six through twelve; 55% of the students are Hispanic, 18% are white, and 15% are Black.
Principal Federman urged parents to become “white traitors” and actively dismantle institutions of racism across the nation, with the intention of promoting awareness and anti-racism. To do so, he sent out a “whiteness” pamphlet to parents, asking them to evaluate their “whiteness” on a scale that ranged from “white abolitionists” to “white supremacists.”
Before distributing the materials to parents, the staff at the school was given an opportunity to review them. Once they gave their approval, the pamphlets were sent out. The handout featured a graphic of “eight white identities,” which appeared to be the creation of Barnor Hesse, an Associate Professor of African American Studies, Political Science, and Sociology at Northwestern University. The graphic was produced by the Slow Factory Foundation, a non-profit organization striving to combat racial inequality in America.
In the pamphlet, Hesse emphasized that “there is a regime of whiteness, and there are action-oriented white identities.” He argued that it is time to create an ethnography of whiteness since white people have historically written about and governed others.
The eight categories of whiteness, as identified by Hesse, include white supremacist, white voyeurism, white privilege, white benefit, white confessional, white critical, white traitor, and white abolitionist.
Hesse’s work explains that white supremacists advocate for a “clearly marked white society that preserves, names, and values white superiority.” In contrast, white abolitionists work towards “changing institutions, dismantling whiteness, and not allowing whiteness to reassert itself.” The “white traitor” actively refuses complicity, names ongoing issues, and works to subvert white authority, speaking the truth at any cost in order to dismantle institutions.
In defense of Principal Federman, a representative from the Education Department stated that the whiteness pamphlets were sent to parents as “part of a series of materials meant for reflection” and as “food for thought.” The official statement underscored that “anti-racism and the celebration of diversity are at the core of our work on behalf of the young people of New York City, and the East Side Community School’s students, parents, and staff partner together to advance equity in their community.”
WATCH the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, Syracuse, Wionews
