{"id":146502,"date":"2026-02-26T20:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146502\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T20:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:30:07","slug":"racist-remark-by-manhattan-mom-spurs-black-studies-vow-by-nyc-schools-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146502\/","title":{"rendered":"Racist remark by Manhattan mom spurs Black Studies vow by NYC schools chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Amid uproar over a Manhattan mom\u2019s racist comments<\/a> during a community meeting, New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels vowed to roll out new parent training and grow the number of schools that use the city\u2019s Black Studies curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to equip our staff to have courageous conversations focused on shifting attitudes and interrupting prejudice, addressing controversial issues, and coalition-building,\u201d Samuels said during Wednesday night\u2019s Panel for Educational Policy meeting. <\/p>\n

He promised to launch training next month to provide \u201cour parents with the tools to combat racism\u201d and said the city\u2019s Black Studies curriculum \u201cshould be expanded throughout the city in more districts and schools.\u201d <\/p>\n

Samuels also said the Education Department is working on a \u201cbroader, system-wide plan because we know that this is not an issue that is localized in District 3,\u201d referring to the commenter\u2019s district, a diverse swath of Manhattan that spans from the Upper West Side to part of Harlem. <\/p>\n

Samuels\u2019 comments come in response to a District 3 education council meeting earlier this month. On a hot mic, a mom appeared to insult the intelligence of a Black student who was testifying against a plan to close the child\u2019s school<\/a>, which mostly serves Black and Latino students, before going on to comment about Black people\u2019s place in society.<\/p>\n

The schools chief said the episode \u201chas exposed what many in the Black community believe to be ever-present and simmering anti-Blackness in our city.\u201d Samuels\u2019 promises came one day after Black parent leaders and elected officials urged the city to take more decisive action in response to the incident, which has drawn national<\/a> and international<\/a> headlines<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The parent\u2019s offensive remarks came during a Feb. 10 District 3 Community Education Council meeting that included discussion of city proposals to close three of the area\u2019s middle school programs<\/a>. At the hybrid meeting, with people speaking in person and virtually, a Black student at the Community Action School was testifying in person against the plan to close the school when Allyson Friedman, a parent at another local public school, could be heard on a hot mic on Zoom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re too dumb to know they\u2019re in a bad school,\u201d said Friedman, a professor at Hunter College.<\/p>\n

She then appeared to misattribute and misquote Black historian<\/a> Carter G. Woodson. \u201cApparently Martin Luther King said it: If you train a Black person well enough, they\u2019ll know to use the back. You don\u2019t have to tell them anymore,\u201d Friedman said. (The District 3 interim acting superintendent had quoted from Woodson earlier in the meeting in his remarks on Black History Month.)<\/p>\n

In the 1933 book, \u201cThe Mis-Education of the Negro,\u201d Woodson described how racism in schools can perpetuate inequities. \u201cIf you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door,\u201d Woodson wrote.<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

Friedman has since been placed on leave from Hunter College, the Daily News reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Friedman previously said in an email that she inadvertently unmuted herself on Zoom and did not intend to share her comments publicly. \u201cAs a parent, I was trying to explain the concept of systemic racism by referencing a historical example,\u201d she wrote. \u201cMy remarks were not directed at the student speaker, and they do not reflect my beliefs or values. Regardless of context, my words were wrong and caused real harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parent leaders push for more sweeping changes<\/p>\n

Education Department officials did not indicate whether schools would be required to use the Black Studies curriculum, which is currently optional. The federal government has taken a hostile stance toward diversity, equity, and inclusion programming and has investigated some school districts<\/a> for policies that are specifically geared toward Black students. <\/p>\n

Nicole Brownstein, an Education Department spokesperson, said the city does not track how many schools use the Black Studies curriculum, but said it is available to all schools. She said more details about the city\u2019s plans would be released soon.<\/p>\n

Multiple parent leaders told Chalkbeat that they were glad that Samuels delivered a more forceful statement on Wednesday that specifically called out anti-Blackness, compared with his initial response on social media days earlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very elated with the chancellor\u2019s remark last night,\u201d said NeQuan McLean, the president of the local parent council in Bedford-Stuyvesant. \u201cHe understands this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLean noted that Samuels is Black and worked on integration efforts during his previous roles<\/a> as superintendent in Brooklyn\u2019s District 13 and Manhattan\u2019s District 3. City officials emphasized that Samuels worked to scale up the Black Studies curriculum in District 3, where it is taught in dozens of classrooms.<\/p>\n

But McLean and other parent leaders also want the city to go further to equip schools with resources and give community education councils tools for handling racist comments.<\/p>\n

Tanesha Grant, the executive director of Parents Supporting Parents NY, which organized a press conference earlier this week calling for broader changes, said the city should require schools to use the Black Studies curriculum. She said she has raised concerns that the city\u2019s most popular elementary school reading curriculum is not culturally responsive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need something in place that says that it is mandatory for every public school to offer Black Studies,\u201d Grant said. <\/p>\n

Grant said it was frustrating that Samuels\u2019 more forceful response came after parents began pressuring the city. (Samuels said he regretted not speaking out sooner.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for the parents getting together and organizing,\u201d Grant said, \u201cI don\u2019t think his response [on Wednesday evening] would have been like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[61404,9,24,56,63,65,64,209,61403,61405],"class_list":{"0":"post-146502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-kamar-h-samuels","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-public-schools","16":"tag-school-chancellor","17":"tag-speaks-as-mayor-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}