MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: A former administrator of Manhattan’s Spence School, a private girls’ school, allegedly removed her daughter after a class video was shown to her eighth-grade daughter and classmates on the day of the handover degrees offended her.

Gabriela Baron, in a letter to the school, said the video “openly mocks, humiliates and ridicules white women.” She wrote: “They were sitting there in their graduation gowns while the white mothers of the white students – many of whom volunteer, donate, call, email and do whatever the school asks them to – were tarred and feathered in a video their teacher showed them. . While their white teachers were laughed at.

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The angry parent is said to be Cuban-American and is currently Executive Vice President of Strategy at KLDiscovery, a company that provides information governance and data recovery solutions to support litigation, regulatory compliance, internal investigations and the data recovery and management needs of its customers.

Baron, in his letter, said the footage, featuring comedian Ziwe Fumudoh, was another indication of what she and her husband “saw happening in Spence.” It mentionned, “Over the past few years, my husband and I have become increasingly concerned about certain trends at Spence, including what we believe to be a decrease in emphasis on academic rigor and a focus on race, diversity and inclusion that is now driving the school and everything that happens within its walls. Baron is also a former Spence alumnus, who attended the school from 8th to 12th grade, and graduated with the class of 1989.

“The blatantly racist video,” as Baron called it, was from Ziwe Fumudoh’s Showtime show, “Ziwe,” where she speaks to author Fran Lebowitz. In part of the episode, the comic said, “I think you don’t care how boring white women can be.” The episode featured encounters with Lebowitz, women’s rights icon Gloria Steinem, and four white women named “Karen.” The caption to introduce Lebowitz read: “Author, lecturer, white woman”. Fumudoh on the show also asked Steinem how many black friends she had.

“It amazes me that a Spence faculty member feels comfortable showing this to students and thinks it’s okay to do so,” Baron said. “If the video had derided and ridiculed Asian women, black women or Hispanic women, the Spence community would have declared with one voice that it was openly racist.”

“In fact, if a similar video had been shown mocking ANY OTHER racial group, Spence, his teachers, the board and the whole community would be dragged into a frenzy,” Baron said. “Isn’t Ziwe’s video racist and acceptable to Spence because it attacks white people?”

Baron said that several years ago, students at Spence College were required to “make politically motivated protest posters.” adding that when she protested, school officials mistakenly told her that was not the case. “I believe it [recent video] The incident is emblematic of a larger problem and a sad reflection of the current climate in Spence, ”Baron wrote in his June 11 letter.

“When our daughter was accepted into Spence, I cried. I was so proud to be able to give her a Spence education, ”she said, adding that concerns like these led her to resign as co-chair of the Annual Fund in 2018. She wrote: “These concerns also led us to vote with our feet and make the difficult decision to have our daughter attend high school at another school. Baron had served on the board for eight years, often co-chairing his annual fund. “I think the families of every student in this class owe the school an apology,” she said. “Racism is racism. “

In response to the incident, the school said in a press statement: “This satirical video is not part of our program. We trust our dedicated teachers and rely on their professionalism and commitment to our students.

Later, however, Spence School Principal Bodie Brizendine emailed the parents. affirming, “We take this seriously; it is never okay to ridicule anyone at all times. This video is not part of Spence’s program. Our teacher and the school admit that sharing a satirical video that made fun of white women was a big mistake.

“We are sorry for any harm this has caused to anyone in our community,” Brizendine said. “We will strengthen faculty protocols. On December 8, 2020, Brizendine and the Board of Directors announced her retirement plan at the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

Another parent, who reportedly recently took his daughter out of Spence, told the New York Post that the apology note was “a step in the right direction.” She said, on condition of anonymity: “I am happy to see that someone is ready to apologize to the whites. But I think he stops before calling it racism and canceling this teacher. I’m not in the business of canceling people … I don’t want it one way or the other … But I doubt if [the video] was against blacks or against Asians if this teacher had not been systematically dismissed.

Another parent said anonymously, “We will have our day. It becomes a culture war… I guess that’s what people want, instead of being true.

Disclaimer: This is based on sources and we have not been able to independently verify this information.