A Michigan school board member is facing calls to resign over her inflammatory social media posts, including tweets that declared “whiteness is evil” and that white persons are “more dangerous” than animals.
Kesha Hamilton, the varsity board member, defended herself at a tense Jackson Board of Education meeting on Tuesday as parents blasted her comments as “appalling” and “disgraceful,” while others showed their support, MLive reported.
Specifically, parents took issue with Hamilton’s Dec. 18 tweet which read: “Whiteness is so evil. it manipulates then says, I won’t apologize for my dishonesty and trauma inducing practices and thinks you must applaud it for being honest about its ability to govern and be dishonest.”
In one other tweet from December, Hamilton wrote in response to a twitter user “The final thing you’ve got to fret about is an animal – though that may very well be a really real threat.. more dangerous are any whites it’s possible you’ll see on the trail.. be secure!”
Through the public portion of Tuesday’s meeting, many parents said the posts were divisive.
“Someone in her influential position have to be held to a high standard. She have to be a representative for all students within the JPS system,” parent Gina Hastings said, in line with MLive. She called Hamilton “offended and bitter.”
“Her racist comments mustn’t be condoned. How can all kids feel secure when physical characteristics over which they don’t have any control are being call evil and dangerous,” she added.
One other speaker, Jackie Leslie, told Hamilton “You are usually not addressing the disparities, you’re adding to them by your hurtful remarks. Your words are usually not unifying our community. Your words are dividing our community.”
Several other members of the varsity community voiced their support for Hamilton.
“Never once in these five years has she questioned me, a white man – a conservative Christian white man at that – with regard to teaching her children about their history, a history that isn’t mine,” Jackson High School teacher Paris Anderson said.
Hamilton, who works as a racial equity consultant, has been an outspoken critic of district policies she believes are discriminatory or racist, in line with MLive. She can be chair of the City of Jackson’s Racial Equity Commission.
She outlined the reasoning behind her comments in a statement to Fox News.
“Whiteness defined is ‘white racialized identity (which) refers to the way in which that white people, their customs, culture and beliefs operate as the usual by which all other groups are compared,” she said.
“Whiteness is a construct, a normalization with a foundation in white supremacy, recent examples of the normalization of whiteness with a foundation of white supremacy are the murder of George Floyd, the massacre of Black residents in Buffalo, NY, the attempted kidnapping of MI Governor Whitmer, the attack on our Democracy on January sixth, 2021, inconsistencies of our criminal justice system, etc.”
She said the tweet comparing calling white people more dangerous than animals within the woods “refers back to the challenges Black people in the US proceed to face when attempting to ascertain and protect their right to freedom of movement…. The USA has a longstanding history of efforts aimed toward keeping Black people from having fun with freedom of movement and restricting them from entering spaces which have been racialized as white.”
The college district upped its security on the unusually crowded meeting after flyers with a logo much like that of far-right extremist group The Proud Boys circulated locally earlier within the week, MLive reported. The flyers included screenshots of Hamilton’s tweets and said “Jackson School Board hates White People.”
A Michigan school board member is facing calls to resign over her inflammatory social media posts, including tweets that declared “whiteness is evil” and that white persons are “more dangerous” than animals.
Kesha Hamilton, the varsity board member, defended herself at a tense Jackson Board of Education meeting on Tuesday as parents blasted her comments as “appalling” and “disgraceful,” while others showed their support, MLive reported.
Specifically, parents took issue with Hamilton’s Dec. 18 tweet which read: “Whiteness is so evil. it manipulates then says, I won’t apologize for my dishonesty and trauma inducing practices and thinks you must applaud it for being honest about its ability to govern and be dishonest.”
In one other tweet from December, Hamilton wrote in response to a twitter user “The final thing you’ve got to fret about is an animal – though that may very well be a really real threat.. more dangerous are any whites it’s possible you’ll see on the trail.. be secure!”
Through the public portion of Tuesday’s meeting, many parents said the posts were divisive.
“Someone in her influential position have to be held to a high standard. She have to be a representative for all students within the JPS system,” parent Gina Hastings said, in line with MLive. She called Hamilton “offended and bitter.”
“Her racist comments mustn’t be condoned. How can all kids feel secure when physical characteristics over which they don’t have any control are being call evil and dangerous,” she added.
One other speaker, Jackie Leslie, told Hamilton “You are usually not addressing the disparities, you’re adding to them by your hurtful remarks. Your words are usually not unifying our community. Your words are dividing our community.”
Several other members of the varsity community voiced their support for Hamilton.
“Never once in these five years has she questioned me, a white man – a conservative Christian white man at that – with regard to teaching her children about their history, a history that isn’t mine,” Jackson High School teacher Paris Anderson said.
Hamilton, who works as a racial equity consultant, has been an outspoken critic of district policies she believes are discriminatory or racist, in line with MLive. She can be chair of the City of Jackson’s Racial Equity Commission.
She outlined the reasoning behind her comments in a statement to Fox News.
“Whiteness defined is ‘white racialized identity (which) refers to the way in which that white people, their customs, culture and beliefs operate as the usual by which all other groups are compared,” she said.
“Whiteness is a construct, a normalization with a foundation in white supremacy, recent examples of the normalization of whiteness with a foundation of white supremacy are the murder of George Floyd, the massacre of Black residents in Buffalo, NY, the attempted kidnapping of MI Governor Whitmer, the attack on our Democracy on January sixth, 2021, inconsistencies of our criminal justice system, etc.”
She said the tweet comparing calling white people more dangerous than animals within the woods “refers back to the challenges Black people in the US proceed to face when attempting to ascertain and protect their right to freedom of movement…. The USA has a longstanding history of efforts aimed toward keeping Black people from having fun with freedom of movement and restricting them from entering spaces which have been racialized as white.”
The college district upped its security on the unusually crowded meeting after flyers with a logo much like that of far-right extremist group The Proud Boys circulated locally earlier within the week, MLive reported. The flyers included screenshots of Hamilton’s tweets and said “Jackson School Board hates White People.”
