JACKSON, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Jackson Public Schools Board of Education meeting got physical and loud on Tuesday night after some people called for the removal of a board member after a racist social media tweet.

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Kesha Hamilton, a Jackson Public Schools Board member, posted that “whiteness is so evil” on social media last month.

 

On Tuesday night, some people called for Hamilton’s removal while others voiced their support.

Although Hamilton’s removal was not on the agenda, calls for her resignation garnered both boos and cheers from the audience, and police intervened after one person was shoved.

Michigan News Source reached out to Hamilton. She responded with this full statement, and identified herself as a private citizen rather than a member of the board. In addition, she included the citation of three sources within her statement:

“Whiteness defined is ‘white racialized identity (which) refers to the way that white people, their customs, culture and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups are compared.’ (Source is here.)  “Writers crafted whiteness (white racialized identity) as a national inheritance, a way to preserve the social construction of American life and, ironically, its democratic institutions and values. Given the extent of the nation’s belief in white supremacy, one would be astonished if it had not been a guiding principle…” (Source is here.)

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Hamilton went on to say “Whiteness (white racialized identity) is a construct, a normalization with a foundation in white supremacy, recent examples of the normalization of whiteness (white racialized identity) with a foundation of white supremacy are the murder of George Floyd, the massacre of Black residents in Buffalo, NY, the attempted kidnapping of Governor Whitmer, the attack on our Democracy on January 6th, 2021, inconsistencies of our criminal justice system, the wage and wealth gap between White Americans and Americans of color, the lack of authentic sufficient representation in leadership, education, employment, etc. These outcomes, actions and behaviors are not a coincidence. There are centuries of data and thousands of peer reviewed articles by legal and social justice scholars from America’s highest academic institutions that repeatedly address these issues – these issues persist by intentional design – to maintain whiteness(white racialized identity) whose foundation is white supremacy.”

Hamilton continued, “The danger of being in the woods tweet … ‘refers to the challenges Black people in the United States continue to face when attempting to establish and protect their right to freedom of movement…. The United States has a longstanding history of efforts aimed at keeping Black people from enjoying freedom of movement and restricting them from entering spaces that have been racialized as white.’” (Citation is here.)

Hamilton finished her statement by writing, “There are hundreds of examples of the danger Black Americans face including the Central Park Five, Amy Cooper and the bird watcher, Bar-be-que Becky, sitting in a Starbucks, studying in a university common room, shopping, using the sidewalk, driving, attending school, and swimming in a public pool, to name a few.”

“Our concern should not be that I named these issues, but that these issues continue to persist.” [END STATEMENT].

 

Meanwhile, people appeared to push back against Hamilton’s statements on Twitter:

 

 

 

Emails to the other members of the Jackson Public Schools Board asking whether disciplinary action would be taken were not returned by press time.