News/Commentary

Obama-honored school superintendent claimed ‘problematic’ white race should feel ‘really, really uncomfortable’

January 27, 2023 | | Print Article

An Arizona superintendent once honored as a “champion of change” by the Obama White House stated in a recently-unearthed media interview that the “problematic” white race should feel “really, really uncomfortable.”

Fox News Digital (FND) obtained a forgotten interview with Scott Menzel, the superintendent of Scottsdale Unified School District — a woke district that recently made headlines for keeping its “transgender support plan” from parents.

Prior to Scottsdale, Menzel, a white man, was the superintendent in a Michigan district. In an interview given while in Michigan, he opined on “equity, inclusion, and social justice” and said the white race is “problematic.”

“There’s a misperception that educational equity is really only for ethnically and racially diverse districts,” he said, according to FND. “But White people have racial identity as well, and in fact problematic racial identity that we typically avoid.”

Menzel said the system needed to be “dismantle[d].”

“Privilege,” he claimed, needed to be called out so that a system of racial equity could be created.

Being white and privileged meant Menzel bore a heavier “burden.”

“Because I had that advantage in this country, I have an additional burden and obligation to dismantle,” he said.

Menzel endorsed the blatantly racist book by Robin DiAngelo, “White Fragility,” claiming DiAngelo tells it like it is.

“So thinking about how hard can we push on the system without a collapse that disrupts the progress of the entire work and sets us back 20 years, that’s a question we don’t talk about often enough in my mind,” he said. “But also calling out the question of privilege. White people, Robin DiAngelo’s book ‘White Fragility’ calls it straight up.”

“White people… shouldn’t feel comfortable, we should feel really, really uncomfortable,” he stated, “because we perpetuate a system by ignoring the realities in front of us, and living in a mythological reality.”

He then blasted the concept of “meritocracy” — that people should succeed on their own merit.

“In this country, it’s about meritocracy. ‘Pull up yourself by your bootstraps, everybody has the same opportunity.’ And it’s a lie,” he said.

When asked by Fox News Digital if he still held these beliefs, Menzel reportedly did not respond.

In the interview, the superintendent stressed the importance of “creating that sense of inclusion or belonging, not including you at the table in a symbolic sense or a token sense, but inclusion as a sense of belonging, that everyone brings value to the table, and that we see them for their own inherent human worth and dignity.”

While FND does not know if Menzel still holds these views, it is clear he took them with him to the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD).

In May 2020, Menzel was interviewed on a YouTube video as the “incoming SUSD superintendent.”

The following month, in June 2020, the Scottsdale Unified School District posted this on Twitter:

“SUSD is working together to promote equity, inclusion & fair treatment of ~all~ people. We launched a committee on 6/17 to identify goals, desired outcomes & next steps for this important work. More info will soon be available on the District’s website. Stay tuned!”

 

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

$10
$15
$25
$50
Other
$
Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles