NEWMAN – Outgoing school trustee Barbara Alexander raised allegations Monday that racism had reared its ugly head in the weeks leading up to the school board election. Alexander, in her comments during a board meeting, denounced a YouTube clip of her October exchange with an Orestimba teacher as designed to incite racial hatred.
Click here to watch the meeting (courtesy of Barbosa Video Services).
Moments after Alexander and Derek Solano, who were defeated in the Nov. 3 board race, were acknowledged by Superintendent Rick Fauss and received an appreciative round of applause for their service, Alexander stunned those in attendance as she lashed out at the YouTube clip and what she characterized as lies and rumors circulating in the community.The clip showed video of an October board meeting exchange between Alexander and teacher Catherine Quittmeyer during which Alexander, who is African American, told the teacher that she did not have the background to teach the African American culture depicted in the novel “Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
Alexander contends the narrative in the clip used “buzz words” favored by hate groups to inflame racial tensions, and that the misinformation found fertile ground in the community.
“There is a gossip blog at the Index; and then there is the Newman rumor mill,” she said, reeling off the names of three people who she said were rumored to be behind the YouTube clip. “There are people who lie, they have these half-truths and they do all this throughout the community, and there are people who sit there and listen to them.”
Alexander said the seriousness of the situation was such that her 82-year-old father made her promise that she would keep a gun by her bed, and she received a text message from a sibling asking if any crosses had been burned in her yard.
She termed the clip “race baiting,” which Alexander defined as an inflammatory tactic designed to incite racial hatred.
Hatred and racism, she said, cannot be hidden.
“If you have little sheets tucked away in your heart; if you have little crosses burning in your heart, that’s going to come out of your mouth and it’s going to manifest itself as a YouTube video,” Alexander stated.
She said she felt compelled to speak out to educate the public about what she considered to be race baiting. “The next time you think about making a video like this, maybe you’ll think about that,” Alexander said.
She thanked the 234 voters “who did not believe these racist lies” and showed their support for her at the polls.
Superintendent Rick Fauss said Tuesday that Alexander’s statements were hers and hers alone, and in no way reflect the views or position of the school district.
“She operated on her own and said what she said. There was obviously some hurt from the experience she talked about,” he commented. “We respect the right of people to voice their opinions. Unfortunately, in an electronic age, that sort of thing goes out to a huge venue. It is hard to know the impact it makes on somebody until you hear responses like we did last night.”