The Democratic Party challenger to Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) in the November election wrote a column accusing white families of “white flight” when Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“White flight, a phenomenon where white people leave significantly high-minority areas, is happening in our public schools,” wrote Maryam Abolfazli in a guest column in The Tennessean. “Reacting in frustration to the decision of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools to halt in-person teaching, white parents who can afford to are transferring their children to private schools.”
The Democrat, who has focused her campaign on race by “amplif[ying] the voices of marginalized communities, [and] advocating for inclusive policies that benefit all residents,” went so far as to liken white Tennessee families who wanted their children to learn in person to the days of school segregation.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve seen white flight in schools, of course. Tennessee, like several other states, responded by digging in its heels when schools began to desegregate in the 1950s,” she wrote. “In 1971, when it was ordered that Black students would be bused to predominantly white public schools, some 12,000 white children were taken out of the public school system. It wasn’t until the 1980s that meaningful desegregation actually started to take place here in Nashville, but the results were notable.”
“If we continue to allow racial and economic segregation in our schools, we may be raising generations of white youth who lack the creativity, emotional intelligence and global leadership skills that come from an integrated public school experience,” the column said. More importantly, later in their lives, they won’t exhibit the comfort with and the demand for more integrated workplaces, government, and society that are essential for a more just and equitable city.”
As reported Tuesday by The Tennessee Star, Abolfazli is no stranger to race-baiting.
After a special August 2023 session of the Tennessee General Assembly that was supposed to be focused on gun control, she blamed the “White patriarchy” in another column for not passing the Red Flag Laws.
“This week, the Tennessee General Assembly gave me a lesson on the white patriarchy,” she said in that column, published in The Tennessee Lookout. “I had not understood the term in a meaningful way until this week, until I could feel it viscerally in the silencing of our dissent, in the ignoring of our presence, and our silent and present plea for gun safety — in the day-in and day-out legislating despite our desperation.”
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Peter D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Peter on Twitter/X.
Photo “Maryam Abolfazli” by Maryam for Congress.
Whites Move Out = White flight
Whites Move In = Gentrification
Whites just can’t win it seems. They should move to a crime infested tishole, shut up about it, the failing schools, not improve the lot and quit mowing the grass?
Or, move out and listen to complaints from afar.
Misery loves company and crabs grab onto the leg of any other trying to crawl out of the bucket.
Baby-killing, gun grabbing, race-baiting/DEI, Marxist economic policies and open borders. Some of the wonderfully evil high holy political sacraments of the Demonrat party.
who is this person? why is she running other than to lose?
The same old tired racist BS. It is a sad fact that cities and neighborhoods with the highest percentage of people of color also have a higher percentage of crime. Look at Washington, DC., it has the highest crime rate in America (a truly sad statistic) as well as the highest percentage of people of color. I am not bringing this up because I am a racist, thought I am sure I will be accused of such, I am using this statistic to make the point that perhaps this is the reason for, what liberals love to call, white flight.