Stein’s letter was misguided
Reading Gil Stein’s demand for PVUSD Trustee Joy Flynn’s resignation (Sept. 19-25, page 9), it seems clear that this is an instance of a white man attempting to police the behavior of a Black woman.
He comments on grammar and spelling mistakes; on her “lack of preparedness”; on her “lack of commitment.” He says that she has “failed to make the effort to learn,” that she seems “ignorant” and “clueless.” He then shares that she has declined to meet with him, citing safety concerns, which he deems “absurd.”
First, we would like to invite Mr. Stein to reflect on why a Black woman might feel unsafe meeting with a seemingly angry white man, who has been openly and publicly hostile in his assessment of her work, up to and including comparing her behavior—again, a Black woman’s behavior—to the KKK.
Second, we would also invite him—and all of us—to reflect on the ideas of “ignorance,” “efforts to learn,” and “preparedness.” Where do those ideas come from? Are “worship of the written word,” expectations of the “right way” to do things, and standards of “perfectionism” all ideas actually rooted in white supremacy culture? Is there an internal or implicit bias against the first Black trustee—who also happens to be a woman—on the PVUSD board that might be causing him to excessively focus on what she is doing (from his perspective) “wrong?”
Finally, we would like to remind him—and everyone reading— that Ms. Flynn is exceptionally qualified for this role, which is why she was appointed. She has served as a trustee on the Second Harvest Food Bank board, as vice chair of the Santa Cruz County Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and as a member of the Circle on Anti-Racism, Social and Economic Justice. She is also a parent, a fierce Black woman in the world, and an insightful and powerful community member and leader.
Creating diversity does not simply mean giving a Black or Brown person a seat at the table. It means letting go of some of our old ideas about how things “should” look or “have always been done” to create space for new ideas, new perspectives, new ways of doing and being that are informed by diverse experiences. We strongly encourage all of us to pause, reflect, and think critically before following Mr. Stein’s lead.
By Emma Ledvina, Pam Sexton, Susan Kohen, Jill Susskind of Showing Up for Racial Justice Santa Cruz County
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In response to Gil Stein letter
We are writing as representatives of the grassroots group Pajaro Valley for Ethnic Studies and Justice, in response to Gil Stein’s absurd and racist attack (Sept. 19-25, page 9) on PVUSD trustee Joy Flynn in his letter to the editor.
It is important to note that Stein has a long history of publicly attacking people of color, especially women of color, who do not conform to his extreme pro-Israel beliefs. This includes respected ethnic studies professors at UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State University, the director of the Resource Center for Nonviolence, PVUSD trustees and civil rights activist Angela Davis.
It is also relevant to note that Stein made significant financial contributions to the political campaign of Trustee Flynn’s predecessor, Kim De Serpa, two weeks after they jointly pushed the PVUSD board to cancel its ethnic studies contract against the best interests of teachers and students. It is no wonder that he considers Trustee Flynn, who he has less influence over, an unsatisfactory successor.
Stein criticizes Trustee Flynn for asking clarifying questions about the school bond measure before making important decisions, calling her “ignorant and incompetent” and using the long-standing racist trope of questioning and disparaging the intelligence of Black people.
He singles her out for opposing the censure of Trustee Medina, even though the decision was a 4-2 majority vote by the board. He lambasts the typos in her emails as a lack of commitment, even as he misspells the PVUSD superintendent’s name within his own letter to the editor.
As parents, educators, and mentors of young people, we have witnessed trustee Flynn demonstrate many of the qualities we aim to cultivate in our students. She has shown courage, humility, and integrity in asking thoughtful questions before making important decisions, in changing her mind when necessary, and in taking accountability for her actions.
Trustee Flynn’s sincerity and honesty has been a welcome change from trustees who ignore emails from students and constituents, lie to colleagues and constituents, fail to disclose key conflicts of interest, and bully students in public, even if they may have fewer typos in their emails.
By Nat Low and Eli Davies, (Aptos), Lourdes Barraza, Gabriel Barraza, Roy Recio, (Watsonville), Christine Hong (Soquel) and Bobby Pelz (Santa Cruz)
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It is astounding, that both of this activist groups lack self-awareness to the extent that they are negating their own supposed interests. These groups demonstrate little understanding of the world around them because they view everything through only one lens. Every action in society must have a motive based on racism. It is impossible for someone like Stein (who I assume is white, based on their attacks of him) might have a legitimate criticism against someone is a position of power that happens to also be a person of color. This is ridiculous, and transparently fraudulent. If you disagrees with Stein, list your reasons, but save the ad hominem attacks for your comrades and spare us the false righteous indignation.
We know why you dislike him, and it is not because you believe he is racist. It is because he has the audacity to stand up to against your policies of funneling as much public money as possible to your cronies and their social agendas of dismantling education and replacing it with pseudo-Marxist ideology. You are not capable of a direct argument based on substance, so you default to the race card every time. You have done this multiple times against any target who disagrees with you. Perhaps if you showed more subtlety and nuance in your arguments, you would be able to gain supporters with logic instead of labeling everyone with a racist tag. Real racism exists. Your attempt to conflate everything as racism detracts from the real issues that have to be addressed. Let’s stop trying to manipulate the public and have an honest debates based on facts.
Joy Flynn deserves a better defense than what you have given. She is more than capable of handling criticism from Stein. Why aren’t you addressing the bigger issues like death threats and actual racism she is facing? Perhaps this is because the issue would take more substantial examination into the interactions within our community than our activists would prefer to undertake. It wouldn’t fit into their pre-conceived oppressor/oppressed narrative. It is just easier to blame an old white man (I apologize if Stein is neither white not old). Stein may be impolite and creepily focused on Joy Flynn, but you are wrong to think that he is the racist problem in PVUSD just because he criticized a woman of color.
Stein also recently attacked Gabriel Medina. It seems that Stein doesn’t like POC or Latinos serving in any capacity in our school systems. I think Stein is a racist person.
Both Flynn and Medina were the only board members to make blatantly anti-Semitic statements in defense of their support for an ethnic studies program. To credit Flynn, she apologized and I believe that she was genuine. Other board members are not white, and he did not criticize them. I am just pointing out that this is more complex than these letters make it out to be.
oh look! Pajaro Valley for Ethnic Studies and Justice and Showing Up for Racial Justice Santa Cruz County, using a Black woman as a shield to go after a Jewish man.