#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Chancellor Carranza Refuses To Be Silent, Moves Forward w/ Race-Based Agenda To Diversify NY Schools

Episode Date: June 20, 2019

New York City Council members are calling for School Chancellor Richard Carranza to be fired saying that his practices are divisive. On Monday, Carranza defended his race-based agenda as he unveiled the next steps in his move to diversify and desegregate city schools. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You can make this possible. New York City Council members, folks, are calling for school chancellor Richard Carranza to be fired, saying that his practices are divisive. Here's what he had to say about that. Well, first of all, I'm not going to play the video. I've got him right here. Let's go right to the video. Chancellor Carranza, how are you doing? I'm good, Roland. How are you?

I'm just going to get right to it. Why are so many white folks in New York scared of you? Because there's been a hegemony of certain people getting all the privilege for decades and decades and decades. And when you think about the 1.1 million students in New York City's public schools, 70 percent of those students are black and Latino students. And we're actually having a children's agenda that's based on equity for them. And the power structure doesn't like it. And so you have folks who are saying that you targeted them because of their gender, because of their race, saying that you are promoting unqualified people of color. We always hear that phrase.

I never hear anybody white call somebody else white unqualified. And it is as if folks are just targeting you. Now you've got New York City Council. And so, you know, what is your position on this and how are you fighting back? Well, just keep in mind, there was only seven council members. Did we did we lose? There you go. You're back? Okay. Yeah, I'm back.

We got you. There was only seven that signed this letter asking the mayor to make me stop or find another chancellor, but there was over 25 council members that signed another letter saying he not only needs to keep going, he needs to double down on what he's talking about because we've had historic segregation in New York City's public schools. In 2014, UCLA did a study that called us the most segregated school system in America. And how can that be in a diverse city like New York City? What's the systems and structures that have been put in place for a very long time to privilege some kids and not privilege others? And the thing that I keep trying to explain to people when they throw out progressive and liberal,

I keep saying a progressive white person and a conservative white person has one thing in common, protect whiteness. And the reality is this comes also down to power. This comes down to control. Even this whole battle over the elite schools there, because the bottom line is those schools, when you look at the numbers now, just the paucity of black and Latino students,

they know that that's the gateway, some of the best schools in the country, and there are folks who want to protect their positions. Well, you know, when you think about, you know, even the elite schools, Stuyvesant High School in New York City, nationally, internationally known, there's a single test that you have to take to get into Stuyvesant High School. It's not related to any of the state standards. It's not related to anything the kids study all day long. It's a test that's created to be a hard test. And in order to do that, do well on that test, you have to get all kinds of outside tutoring. There's a cottage industry that is sprouted up

to test prep kids to death at the low, low cost of thousands of dollars. And out of the 900 incoming freshmen seats this coming year, nine, not 9%, nine seats are going to black students. Now, the data is incontrovertible, and the data says that the system, the structure for admitting students to specialized schools is just not working. And it's not capturing the talent at the time and the board of education at the time were concerned about this very issue, and they wanted to desegregate the three specialized schools at the time, Stuyvesant being one of them. And the state legislature in New York State put a state law in place requiring a single test as a sole source of admission to the specialized schools as a direct response to the desegregation efforts that were being made in 1971 to desegregate these

schools that that law is racist in its intent and it's still on the books so even if i as chancellor want to change that law which i do even if the mayor who has mayoral control of the school system wants that gone, he does, we have to get the legislature to lift that law to even be able to do what we need to do for our children right here in New York City. That's what systemic oppression looks like. You have a school district that's majority minority, yet when you look at those who are teachers and administrators, majority white. I keep making this point when I travel around the country because I'm an art and supporter of charter schools. I say I support every form of education. I said, but the problem that I fundamentally have is that the ed

reform movement is largely led by white folks. I said, and black folks and Latinos are tired of having somebody else tell us what's best for us. We want to be able to control our own destiny. And that's what we're seeing here. And what we're dealing with in New York City and many of these big city school districts, we're dealing with not just elite schools, but billions of dollars also at play when it comes to contracts. That's also a fundamental thing you have here, high-paying positions and billions of dollars at play, and who gets to control those resources. Absolutely.

And I've been chancellor here now for 14 months, and when I arrived here, I did a top-to-down, top-to-bottom, look at the entire system and structure, did a reorganization, and then advertised for new senior cabinet-level positions. And the talent that came out of the woodwork, not only here in New York City, but from across the country, and the talent that was diverse was incredible. And I hired the most diverse cabinet that this organization has seen in the last 30 years. And it just so happens they were the best qualified, but they also reflect the diversity of our student body. And that's

what you alluded to in the beginning, where we're being sued because we're being accused of bringing in people of color and moving aside folks that are white. No, I'm just hiring the best qualified people that have an orientation for serving the kids that we white. No, I'm just hiring the best qualified people that have an orientation for serving the kids that we have right now, not the kids we used to have, the kids we wish we would have had, the kids that we have right now in the school system. And what you're doing is being someone who is Latino, you are saying, hey, I want to see everybody. We know how this game works. Before you came to New York, you were there in Houston. I knew you went to Houston Independent School District. Same thing.

Majority minority school district. Okay. And it comes down to control and power. And the reality is, and I've been saying this for the longest, that we're operating in this age of white fear. And the white fear is about power and control. And that is who controls the resources, who is in position of power to change curriculum and things along those lines. And as America becomes more brown, you're seeing this resistance because folks can't stand. And let's just deal with it.

They can't. Let's just put on the table. There are people there, no doubt in my mind, who cannot stand taking orders from a Latino man. Well, I should be taking their order at a restaurant, not taking orders as a chancellor. And you're absolutely right. And I call them out on it. And when they refer to students not being able to go to

some of the best schools in New York City, and then they say to me as a justification, well, we don't want to water down the academic talent at these schools. Well, who are they talking about? They're talking about kids that aren't represented right now. They're black and Latino kids. And they are saying that black and Latino kids don't have the academic talent to go to these schools, yet they've been structurally shut out of opportunities to go to these schools. And then you have that coming from a Latino chancellor who was an English language learner when he entered public schools. And then you have that coming from a Latino chancellor who

was an English language learner when he entered public schools. And it's like, who does this guy think he is? What an uppity guy does he think he is? He should be quiet. Well, I'm not going to be quiet. And I'm not going to be so concerned about trying to keep my job and going along to get along that I'm not going to do my job. And my job is to serve the students. And as a chancellor, my job is to look at every system, every structure, every protocol we have in place and make sure that it is serving all of our 1.1 million students. That's what I'm doing. And as you can tell, some of the tabloids and some of the folks in the city don't like it. Last question here. I'm looking at this $90 million lawsuit that was filed against you by three senior white educators.

And here's the other thing. They say they were demoted in favor of less qualified minority educators. But here's the deal. You also got a fundamental education crisis in New York City. There are a bunch of people who, frankly, need to go because the kids are not getting the education they need. We look at the test scores. We look at the fact that you've got 20 and 30,000 people who are trying to get into success charter schools, getting away from a New York City school system. And there are people, frankly, who've been sitting in jobs for a long time who need to go. And that's also, I think, part of this whole deal as well. And so this pushback, because again, if they were doing such a great job, why are kids not learning? Absolutely.

And as the CEO of a $32 billion a year organization, which is the Department of Education, I'm the CEO. There's 156,000 employees in the public school system of New York City and as a CEO why are people certain people certain tabloids focusing on the hiring of a certain small group of people and notice they're not saying that there are the people they're saying that are not qualified are all black and they're all Latino and the people they're saying are eminently qualified are white. Don't tell me there's not a racial animus to this whole conversation. But this is a conversation we need to have. And the impact is too important.

It's about our children in New York City. Right now, specifically, it's about our children in New York City. But let's not get it twisted. This is about every child that's being educated in public school systems across America. Because if we don't educate them well in the public education system, there is another system called the criminal justice system, the school to prison pipeline that will take them off of our hands. And that's not what we want. It's a matter of life and death. And that's why I won't be silenced. We won't be silenced in this movement't be silenced.

And this movement around equity and making sure we have the best people in the best places to serve our children is not going to stop. Chancellor Carranza, we appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, sir. All right, then. Good luck. All right, folks, let's go to our panel here again. Well, I just want to say when he's ready to run for office, he can call me as a Democratic strategist. I will certainly, certainly support him. I think everything he said was absolutely on point. Everything that he was saying about hiring and making changes. I don't know any CEO of any company who doesn't enter in and start shifting things around and start seeing his own vision, implementing his own vision instead,

his or her own vision, rather than just going along with what's been done, particularly when what's been done has failed. And that's the reason they're there. So what he's doing is is the right thing to do. He's trying to serve the people of New York City better. We know that there's been a huge gap in between Stuyvesant and Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech and the schools that produce college-ready students and the kids who go

to their neighborhood schools that are failing. And he's trying to fix that. I wish him all the best in what he's doing. Kelly, when I was at CNN, there were some white folks who had no position being in some of the positions they were in. No, no, I'm going to put it out there. And there are other companies out there where there are some mediocre-ass white people in positions. Now, there are people out there who are white who are doing a hell of a job.

But what you have here, and we've seen this in many other areas, is that when they, you start going after paychecks. See, they love talking about inclusion, diversity, how these things are important. But then when it comes knocking on their door, all of a sudden they now are being assessed by somebody different based upon a standard. Now folks start getting all upset. And also we talk about those tabloids. Okay, look at how many white editors they have. See how diverse their so-called offices are. You ain't going to find it.

And that's what we're dealing with. And I keep telling everybody, black folks and Latinos are not sitting around playing this little nice game we are 24 years away from america being a nation majority people of color and there are white folks who are scared to death of losing power and losing money and the whole point of this is like what you said earlier is the fact that it is because of power. But what's interesting is with Carranza's, is that how you say his name? Yeah, Carranza.

With Carranza's plan, it doesn't disenfranchise white people. You know, it's never a minority's job or whenever a minority is in power, that's the most inclusive, that's the most diverse, that's the most beneficial system that we always ever have. There's never been a time where it's just been about black and brown people. Whenever something benefits black and brown people, it ultimately also benefits white people. So when he talks about these initiatives that he has, and I was reading how they wanted to change the three R's to five R's, one of them being restorative justice and race enrollment.

Even with race enrollment, it is to balance out things. It's never taking away from anybody. It's never subtracting value. It always adds value to implement diversity and to actually restore things to a balance that benefits everyone. So it's really frustrating. I can only imagine how frustrated he is in trying to just actually do his job and make sure that everyone benefits from a city that's supposed to be beneficial to everyone. The key thing he said, Malik, $32 billion. Yeah.

That's the key thing. That's what we're dealing with. And that's why we're dealing with, again, this white fear of where America is going, because it's like, oh, my goodness goodness they're coming for my jobs now it's a mediocre people who need to move on to their own divine good and he's helping them get there well this is what you I'll say the two things based on justice case and the gentleman who was on you know I'll start where you were at the beginning of your comments talking about this is why I support charter schools,

not as the answer to our problem with our education here, but an answer. And the second part of that is that this really, this entire situation speaks to the need of our, to the necessity for us to focus on local issues. A lot of times we, into, you know, some, there's some reason why that's so, and some are good reasons and then some are not, but we, a lot of times we get, as far as black people, we get ourselves caught up in the national discussion

and we lose focus on those local issues. If he had the people of New York City behind him pushing for his, you know, supporting his efforts, that's something that really can affect the citizens of New York. No, it's not a national thing. You're not going to have national politicians going out there. Everything in New York is national. Like New York City. No, but I'm talking about here, I'm talking about the need for involvement in local politics. First of all, that local politics matter. Full support of the mayor. He's got other people. We talked about all those council members. But what you're dealing with here, Kelly, again, what you're dealing with the individuals who also have access to media.

And see, this is this is the piece that people don't understand. This is why we at the National Association of Black Journalists continue to put pressure on these companies. Just yesterday, it's a perfect example, just yesterday, CNN named Janita Dew, Senior Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion. All right, made a big deal. She's going to be reporting to Jeff Zucker. First of all, when Jeff Zucker got to CNN in 2013, Janita Dew was head of the Diversity Council. He demoted her. He made Geraldine Mariba the

VP for diversity. Two years later, she left. And then Ramon took over. He became head of diversity. So this is not a promotion. She went from, she was there, got demoted. Now she's back, but she's a lawyer. Right. She's our news exec. Right. She has no journalism background. Right. She's a lawyer. And so we blasted him back saying, well, guess what? You still don't have any black news managers, journalists making editorial decisions at your company. He must have thought that by nominating her, it's going to cause us to back off. Y'all go to my Instagram page. I played the video for the movie Malcolm X where he says, okay, break it up. Y' to back off y'all go to my instagram page i have i played the video for the movie malcolm x where uh he says okay break it up y'all got what y'all want and he says

no i'm not i'm still not satisfied and that's our position and that's what this is all about and zucker keeps wanting to sit here and come after me saying oh roland martin said cnn back because of the town hall first of all i ain't seeing no email donald brazil did so you got issues call her but his was interesting he has yet in a hundred days yet to address our initial criticism why you ain't got no black folks he keep trying to call my name all he want to but he is not jeff zucker refuses to address the issue why you don't have any black folks and these these papers that karan is talking about is the exact same thing these high ranking positions the exact same thing what people need to understand we talk about

systematic racism is that we're talking about systems we We have a sprinkle, sprinkle of color. A few black people here, a few Latino people here. In media, they're like, hey, you got Robin Roberts. You got Al Roker. You got Gayle King. And guess what? They're on air. I'm talking about a person

who is sitting in that suite who says, this is what we're covering today. This is where we're sending our resources. This is what we're focusing on. And that's what Carranza is doing. What he is saying is, as a Latino man, I'm looking at this whole situation from my perspective and saying, how in the hell can I have a district that's approaching 80% minority, because all the white folks in New York send their kids to private school, and go, this has to change.

And so now, Kelly, I'm going to open it up. Oh, my goodness, look at the diverse resumes. These are the folks who want to work for the New York City public school system. Whereas the previous folks shut out those people. That's the difference when you got black folks and Latino folks of conscience that did work for a quasi-Negro at CNN. But this is what happens when you got, no, I did, when the number two at CNN had the audacity to say

that there were no African Americans at CNN at the time who were qualified to host a show. A black man told NABJ that. That's why when he got fired, we didn't say nothing. But the point I'm saying here is, this is what happens when you have people of conscience who say, I am not going to continue to be a part of a system that locks us out.

That's what he's saying here. And you said everything that I was going to say, but to reiterate, this is a problem of power. And once black people are in a position of power, that's when white people and white adjacent people scurry and get threatened and try to reinforce the power that they already have. So what Carranza is doing is, like you said, if you think of it kind of like a machine and you like you said, like a little sprinkle, like black people are just like little gears in the machine, but they're the gears that people can see in the machine.

So if you think like a grandfather clock, you see those gears moving. And yes, they are integral part of said clock. They are integral part of the machine. But if you take one out, that clock will still work. If you take that black person out, that machine will still work. We need to be in a position where we're not just a little mechanical gear. We are actually the engine. We are actually the engine we are actually the

transmission something that actually will propel the machine to move forward and Jason what this also speaks to is that when a Richard Carranza creates the opportunities for people of color who are black or Latino. What then happens is when somebody else wants a superintendent, they're going to look to that. It's the same thing again, and I need people to understand. Why are we constantly riding Jeff Zucker? Because when another network is looking for a number one or a two or number three, where are they going to look? If they don't have any intro candidates, they're going to look elsewhere.

Well, if there's nobody at CNN, can't hire somebody there. Who's at NBC? Who's at ABC? Who's at CBS? Who's at Fox? That's how this system works. So when you look up and you got two or three amongst all the networks, you're never going to be able to get a shot. In the history of the media business, an Africanamerican has never been a network president

never wow never we talk about schools if you actually count up the number of black and latino superintendents we are not talking about a hell of a whole lot we're talking about a small pool of people what he's also doing is creating the next generation of superintendents and that's why they're upset because that's the high-paying jobs that's the ones we have the power and what happens with superintendents they go from one place to the next one, to the next one, to the next one. And like head football coaches in football and basketball, they create a coaching tree. People who they bring in. So if I'm white, I keep bringing in the same white folks.

Guess who's going to be the next superintendents? Then when they become superintendents, who are they going to hire? Same folk. Then when they get same folk, that's why all of a sudden they call him this toxic whiteness or he's afraid of white people. I don't comment. Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely correct. He's and what he's doing is a really good thing. Number one, because people of color and children of color, at least I can tell you in the state of Maryland, for example, are the majority. They are the majority of people under the age of 18. So how goes young kids of color is how goes

the nation. If you want to improve the education and improve the prospects of this entire nation, you need to focus on children of color. And we know that there's been a gap in terms of reading in terms of math skills we need to address that and if we don't we will fail as a nation that's right and so Richard Carranza keep it up keep fighting and let me say this right now Jeff Zucker if you think we are going away, you are wrong. To every other media company, we will hold you accountable as well. And this stuff is happening on Wall Street, hedge funds, corporate America, schools, you name it. Because this generation of black folks, we are not asking your permission. We are demanding equality.

We are demanding freedom. And we're not going to sit idly by as another generation keeps getting major positions that pay top dollar. And then black folks are at the bottom getting small amounts of dollars. And then you say y'all should be happy in the words of malcolm x i'm not satisfied all right folks back to that rollback unfiltered video in just one moment all right folks they're back marijuana stocked out over because another great investment opportunity now if you were lucky enough to invest in their last crowdfunding campaign you know they raised a bunch of money in just a few months investing in legal marijuana

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