HAVE WE GONE BEYOND STUPID????
Did you know that eating or even talking about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be considered racist?
That’s right.
Apparently, it’s because people in some cultures don’t eat sandwich bread. Verenice Gutierrez, principal of Harvey Scott K-8 School in Portland explained in and interview with the Portland Tribune:
“Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year,” the Tribune said.
UPDATE: The Portland Public Schools released a statement regarding the story written by Nathan Harden
Your story concerning Portland Public Schools, ”Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich is Racist, Says Portland School Official,” is absurd and is a simplistic, offensive and false depiction of the words and actions of our principal and the practices of our school district. Portland Public Schools has never said at any time that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are racist.
Writer Nathan Harden, did not at any time reach out us to verify the facts of the Portland Tribune story on which his piece is based. Had he done any research, he would have discovered that other news reports show our schools in no way describe the peanut butter and jelly sandwich as racist. Please click on this link to find what the reporter failed to uncover before posting:http://www.politifact.com/oregon/statements/2012/sep/18/education-action-group/portland-schools-spending-half-million-dollars-dec/.
Portland Public Schools, like all public schools across our country, are charged with educating all students to become successful and contributing members of our community. We all benefit when our public schools do this well. The point of Courageous Conversations About Race, our district-wide professional development, is to encourage educators to make lessons relevant and engaging to the students in the room, giving them the best opportunity to learn and to learn from each other. Our principal at Scott School, Verenice Gutierrez, was simply giving the Tribune reporter an example of how one might draw out students from other cultures about familiar foods. At no time did Principal Gutierrez say or imply that a peanut butter sandwich is racist.
