Washington School Board Director Links Teaching Kids Instruments To ‘White Supremacy’
By Hank Berrien
A large school district in Washington has canceled music lessons for fourth graders as the school board director linked teaching children to play instruments to racism, suggesting that music lessons could “inculcate and allow white supremacy culture to continue to be propagated and cause significant institutional violence.”
The comments, made by school board director Scott Clifthorne, came as the school discussed ways to save money for the school. By eliminating band and orchestra for fourth and fifth grade, the Olympia School District would save $530,000; the district agreed to keep the fifth-grade
“We’re a school district that lives in … is entrenched in … is surrounded by white supremacy culture. And that’s a real thing,” Clifthorne told parents.
“There’s nothing about strings or wind instrumental music that is intrinsically white supremacist,” he said. “However, the ways in which it is and the ways in which all of our institutions, not just schools — local government, state government, churches or neighborhoods — inculcate and allow white supremacy culture to continue to be propagated and cause significant institutional violence are things that we have to think about carefully as a community.”