There’s a Post-it note I keep on my desk with a reminder for every time I write a column or respond to a reader email: “Do not attribute malevolence to what might simply be difference or ignorance.”
During my tenure in San Diego, there are few times I have found that phrase more relevant than watching the chaos that’s unfolded in the San Dieguito Union High School District over the past few weeks.
Its superintendent, Cheryl James-Ward, was placed on istrative leave April 20 after making racially biased comments at a district diversity, equity and inclusion training session earlier this month.
James-Ward was asked by school board Trustee Michael Allman about data that show Asian students in the district receive fewer D and F grades than other racial groups. She responded by saying wealthy families moving into San Dieguito in coastal North County from China were part of the reason.
According to a report from the U-T’s Kristen Taketa, James-Ward added that Chinese families also are wealthy enough to have parents and grandparents at home to their children, unlike some Latino families who “don’t have that type of money” and are too busy working.
“We have an influx of Asians from China, and the people who are able to make that journey are wealthy,” James-Ward said.
“You cannot come to America and buy a house for $2 million unless you have money. … In my community, in Carmel Valley … we had a large influx of Chinese families moving in, sight unseen, into our homes, into the community, and that requires money.”
The comments irked many and was criticized by several Asian American parents and community as biased, playing on the model minority trope and shortchanging students for their academic achievement. It also prompted a divide among some in the community who argued James-Ward should resign and others who said she should retain her position and learn from it.
For her part, James-Ward has apologized multiple times and promised to work with the community to avoid future incidents of bias.
“I understand the magnitude of my comments and how I angered and disappointed our Asian-American community,” James-Ward wrote in an email to San Dieguito families on April 15. “I spoke insensitively with a bias I didn’t know was there. I am so sorry; I fully acknowledge this bias and am committed to uniting with my community to work through this bias, to learning from neighbors and peers, and to preventing anything like this from happening again.”
It’s also worth noting that this is all occurring amid the backdrop of a district ripe with tension up top. The school board’s liberal and conservative have clashed over a variety of issues for months now. And, before the controversy over her comments, James-Ward had filed an abusive behavior complaint against Allman.
In fact, James-Ward is arguing that her punishment is in part because Allman is retaliating against her for filing that complaint.
So there’s lot to unpack in all this San Dieguito chaos, but I want to focus on two things: the comments themselves and the path forward for James-Ward.
The comments were biased and played into a harmful stereotype, even it was not explicitly offensive.
Asian Americans are not a monolith. This false narrative that Asian Americans are mostly successful economically, academically and culturally, has been widely pushed in American culture for decades, even though data show certain Asian American communities experience significant poverty and other disparities.
This in turn has contributed to a whole host of other issues creating blind spots and allowing many of us to ignore how subsets within the Asian American community might be experiencing anti-Asian racism differently. It also contributes to an underreporting of anti-Asian hate crimes, obscures anti-Asian racism from being covered in news media, and can lead to Asian Americans being absent from dialogues about other issues.
I think that is important to keep in mind because it’s easy to not fully the damage of comments like that. They might lack the kind of overt bigotry or hostile prejudice we typically see when a leader is facing a controversy like this, but they’re harmful nonetheless.
With that said, I do think it’s fair to question whether the best way to handle this is by putting James-Ward on istrative leave or ultimately removing her, as some in the community are advocating.
The prospect that this is a retaliatory action instantly gives me pause.
But most important, what makes me hesitate in embracing this kind of punishment is that I’m inclined to think James-Ward’s comment came from a place of ignorance rather than malevolence.
I do not know her personally and have not interacted with her. But she appears to have a record of working on equity issues, and the apology she emailed the district seemed to take ability and grasp that she has work to do to counter her own bias and rebuild trust with the community.
Because of that, I’m reluctant to write her off entirely and would rather wait and see her put in the work before a more severe action is taken.
However, I can understand how some might feel differently, especially after James-Ward’s attorney made a rather dismissive comment about the whole affair, arguing her punishment was only about retaliation and there was “nothing offensive or inappropriate” about what was said.
If that statement more sincerely reflects how James-Ward feels, well then there is a bigger issue here, because that kind of ignorance and shirking of ability can lead to something more hazardous.
So, I guess my unsolicited advice to the San Dieguito community is simply to make sure you ask yourself whether you think this affair came from a place of ignorance or malevolence? If it’s ignorance but there’s a sincere willingness to grow, you still have a path forward.
