'White Victimhood': Teacher's Critical Race Theory Suit Condemned

EVANSTON, IL — More than a hundred Evanston residents gathered Tuesday in James Park to denounce a lawsuit filed by a teacher who alleges elementary school administrators discriminated against her because she is white.

Nearly 100 local organization and about 1,600 people signed on to a petition supporting the district's anti-racist efforts and opposing the litigation, which challenges the district's race-conscious curriculum, racially segregated voluntary staff meetings and mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training.

Rev. Michael Nabors, president of the Evanston North Shore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the landfill-produced hill in the west Evanston park is an appropriate place for the demonstration.

"What better place to gather than at Mount Trashmore, so that we may lay to rest the trash?" Nabors asked. "Trash that has begun to pour into cracks and crevices within our community. What better place to gather them at Mount Trashmore, so that the best and brightest in our community may shine with justice today? While the dark forces of injustice tries to infiltrate its way into the lives of our precious children and students, we are here."

Nabors, one of about a dozen speakers at the rally, said the teacher's lawsuit will not prevail.

"We are here today, and we say, we are not having it," he said. "Those attempting to stop our children from reaching their highest potential: We are not having it. Those who seek to negate our history: We are not having it. Those who would file a lawsuit against the district seeking to bring equity: We are not having it. Go on with those lawsuits if you want to. You can sue everybody. Sue the 90 different organizations that are represented here today. Sue the 70,000 people who reside in Evanston. You will not win because we are not having it."

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss portrayed the suit as part of a concerted effort by conservatives to meddle in the city's affairs and said the same type of backlash faced by district officials following the suit has traditionally led to lynching, terrorism and incidents such as the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

"Evanston children are not pawns or some kind of canvas for Tucker Carlson to paint his white supremacist fantasy on," Biss told the crowd.

The mayor, a 6th Ward resident since 2006, said he was blessed that his children benefit from a much more complete education that he did at their age.

"I am fortunate to be a District 65 parent because I'm a parent of two children whose educators and whose school district are grappling, wrestling — yes imperfectly — every day with the question of how we can finally, after centuries of oppression, begin to teach our children the truth, so they can function in this world as constructive and empathetic and loving people and build the kind of society that we actually believe in," Biss said.

"Quite frankly, as white children, they're not sacrificing, they're benefiting from that," he added. "And by the way, it's not very hard for them to tell. They're not confused about it. The kids aren't confused. As per usual, it's the grown-ups who are confused."

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Stacy Deemar, a Wilmette resident and part-time drama teacher in Evanston/Skokie School District 65 since 2002, filed the federal civil rights lawsuit June 29 against the school board, its superintendent and two other senior administrators.

Prepared by attorneys from the Roswell, Georgia-based Southeastern Legal Foundation, her three-count complaint alleges violations of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

District officials issued a statement in response to the suit suggesting that it misrepresents "lawful, sensitive and responsible professional learning and student-focused initiatives to advance the important work of building equity in our schools" and promising to "vigorously defend against this baseless and inflammatory lawsuit."

Sebastian Nalls, a former mayoral candidate and current college student, was one of several speakers who spoke of the need for students to be exposed to critical thinking about race and society.

"Media outlets have publicized the war on critical race theory as being one of a part of an ongoing dichotomy in American political discourse," Nalls said. "However, I see this conflation of critical race theory and the attacks on anti-racist education policies here in Evanston and across the nation as being nothing more than a war on reality itself."

The lawsuit from Deemar and the conservative nonprofit legal foundation representing her are part of a "conservative fear-mongering machine designed to prevent the advancement of people of color," he said.

Patricia Savage-Williams, the board president of Evanston Township High School District 202 and special education coordinator at New Trier Township High School District 203, said the turnout at the rally showed the progress the community has made in recent years.

"I'm excited — because the opposition will always be there in various forms, we know that — but today our communities have come together in unity to support District 65's efforts to create an anti-racist community for all children and community members so that we can all feel safe and valued and have equitable access to resources, including access to accurate history taught to our students," Savage-Williams said.

Savage-Williams said anti-racist efforts would continue at local school districts despite being uncomfortable, even for her as a Black woman.

"This lawsuit offers a perspective that is rooted in my oppression and the oppression of Black and Brown children and families and meant to deny our humanity and the right to exist," she said.

Abdel Shakur, a teacher at Evanston Township High School and parent of a student in District 65, said his daughter had initially been happy to take part in Deemar's drama classes and theater productions at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School.

"Sadly, Ms. Deemar, the plaintiff in this case, selected a play that was transphobic — that featured transphobic language — and she also selected all the major parts be played by white children, even though this is a school that's only a third white," Shakur said. "Luckily, there were colleagues who stepped up and said, 'You know what, this isn't right. We can't present this to our community, we can't do this to our children.'"

That incident — a March 2019 King Arts 2nd grade production of the play "Giants in the Sky" — formed part of the basis of a complaint Deemar filed with the U.S. Department of Education later that year.

In it, according to a summary recounted in a January 2021 letter of finding from the department, Deemar said she randomly assigned the parts by going down the roster. However, the principal sent an email to parents expressing concerns with the script and describing the casting as "not equitable to all students," later telling investigators he believed the character names were inappropriate for school and "street level," according to the letter.

Education Department staff determined there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the principal's modifications to the production comprised retaliation against Deemar.

Related:
Racist Voicemail, Vandalism Follow Teacher's Lawsuit, District Says
'Anti-Racist' Teaching Is Racist, Unconstitutional, District 65 Teacher Alleges

Speaking at Tuesday's rally — organized by Stronger Together, a recently formed "white group working with Black and Brown accountability partners" — Shakur said critical race theory is not about making white children feel bad but about making sure all children feel seen regardless of the color of their skin and giving kids the tools to root out racist systems of oppression. He said it was time to stop worrying about white people's feelings.

"We're going to give the hook to white supremacy. That means that we're closing the curtain on opportunity hoarding and opportunity gaps. That means we're going to cut the mics of colonizers," he said. "White victimhood will no longer take center stage in our community. We cannot be concerned so much about white feelings and hurts and fears. That was the script that we were in when we were in school — all of us — in classes like Miss Deemar's."

Sarah Bogan spoke on behalf of Evanston Fight for Black Lives at the rally. Bogan said Deemar was using her privilege as a weapon, describing the drama teacher's perspective as ignorant, disrespectful and dangerous to the whole town.

"Not only did Stacy Deemar put a target on Evanston's back, she put a target on her students, her fellow staff members and her community as a whole. But we cannot be mislead to believe this is just one ignorant community member. She speaks for many — outside of our community and within. We saw blatant and covert racism from white parents all over Evanston this spring as we went through the school board elections," Bogan said.

"District 65's efforts to bring pedagogy that will help us understand why we are where we are today should be applauded, not threatened. If we fail to ensure that our teachers, and teachers everywhere, have had extensive anti-racist training educating, we not only fail our students of color but also our white students who do not live these experiences and may never find it in them to go educate themselves. Stacy Deemar is the perfect example of the danger that not educating white people can cause."

Last week, district officials said in a statement that Superintendent Devon Horton had received a pair of voice messages containing threats of violence and racial slurs following the filing of Deemar's lawsuit — and that someone had smashed his car window while it was parked in a district lot in what appeared to be an act of criminal damage.

Deemar's attorney, Kimberly Hermann, provided a statement on her client's behalf following Tuesday's rally.

“Any effort to intimidate or otherwise harass those who have the courage to step forward to challenge these programs in court further reveals the ideological ambitions of those who enact and mandate unconstitutional programs designed to re-segregate our schools and, by extension, our republic," it said.

Hermann declined to answer questions regarding whether Deemar has herself been subjected to any such intimidation or harassment.