Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has an ugly habit of pretending most of his critics don’t exist — ignoring them so he can claim that only the privileged oppose him. Does he even care that it leaves him treating Asian-Americans and other minorities as un-people?
At a Bronx town hall just the other night, Politico reports, Carranza said of his drive to remake admissions to the city’s top high schools, “The only people that have engaged against this has been millionaires.”
Hmm. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who opposes Carranza’s drive to kill the race-blind admissions exam, is no millionaire.
And neither are the thousands of parents of all races who’ve rallied against the chancellor’s bid for racial quotas — including Asian-Americans of modest means in communities like Flushing and Sunset Park.
It’s striking how Carranza seems unable to see or hear his Asian-American critics. He ignored their protests in September, when a community education council member used an anti-Asian racial slur, and again when they protested his lack of response just this month.
A pretty bigoted showing for a guy who claims to be all about empowering minorities.