Though leftists routinely accuse Republicans and conservatives of being racists and bigots, it is they who view our country strictly through a racial lens, as evidenced by a recent event in Tacoma, Wash.
There, the city parks department held a “whites only” meeting earlier this week to pressure white staffers into becoming race propagandists and activists in response to the mass shooting last week in Buffalo, N.Y.
Metro Parks Tacoma wanted to determine how “white people can move from being allies to advocates” at the meeting, per Jason Rantz, a conservative radio host who broke the story for KTTH.
Norinda Rosario, the department’s chief equity officer, organized the meeting by sending out the email that Rantz was able to obtain.
“I am holding space for White staff to connect and share their thoughts and feelings around the Buffalo Supermarket massacre that took the lives of 10 innocent Black people in Buffalo, NY, on Saturday, May 14,” the email stated. “This is an invitation, not an expectation.”
EXCLUSIVE: Tacoma Parks hosted a whites-only staff meeting to discuss how to “move from being allies to advocates” in response to the mass shooting in Buffalo.
When a white staffer called this divisive, he was publicly scolded by the equity director.https://t.co/jBjXa5Vnp5
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) May 26, 2022
What white staffers at Tacoma Parks had to do with the racially motivated killings of mostly black employees and patrons at a Buffalo grocery store is unclear to most everyone not named Norinda Rosario.
The Daily Wire adds:
The 18-year-old Buffalo shooter, who The Daily Wire is not naming in keeping with a policy of depriving mass shooters of undeserved notoriety, was a white supremacist, according to authorities. He killed 11 people and wounded three, and reportedly picked a supermarket in an area of the city populated by black people.
One Tacoma parks staff member who complained that a whites-only meeting was divisive, Rosario allegedly said she was glad it made him cringe, according to the report.
A spokesperson with the parks department told the Rantz Show that “affinity” group meetings, where people are invited based on a shared identity, are common, and defended the one called by Rosario because it was aimed at encouraging activism among white people.
“The conversation for white folks was also intended to help grieve and process and heal, but also to share thoughts about racial violence and how white people can move from being allies to advocates – in a conversation space without risk of further traumatizing BIPOC colleagues,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The spokesperson added that additional meetings were held for non-white employees.
“There were several conversation times for black/BIPOC folks, and others for white folks,” the spokesperson told Rantz. “The intent behind the conversations for BIPOC folks was to create a process for healing, a space where people can talk freely, for black and brown staff to grieve and process this incident and the toll of racism as a whole without the risk of the conversation diverting to console white people and serve their needs instead.”
In other words, hold racist meetings to discuss racism.
While a number of staff members quietly objected to the whites-only meeting, one of them reportedly dissented in a reply-all email.
“White staff?” the employee’s response began. “This doesn’t sit well with me separating fellow coworkers by skin color. It was a tragic event that took place, but I’d like to think we all fit under the same umbrella as Americans. Our hearts go out to those affected.”
Two days later, Rosario responded and instead of seeing the staffer’s point, she chastised him instead, according to reports.
“The Buffalo Massacre occurred on Saturday, May 14, and from that moment on, my focus was centered on the health and welfare of MPT’s Black staff, and not the comfort or needs of White people,” she wrote. “My choice to include other People of Color was based on the likelihood that they too have experienced racial violence and that this incident has likely activated their anguish, anger, fear, and frustration as well.”
‘Likelihood?’ What makes her say that? And if America is so racist, how come people from all over the world are desperate to get here?
She continued:
“I’m happy to know that reading the words White Staff Only makes some people cringe. It means that your heart is in the right place. But, I challenge you to do the work to understand why the practice of providing raced-based affinity groups is a powerful tool for healing.”
Writing a “whites-only” email should have made Rosario cringe enough not to finish — and then send — it.
We challenge her to check her own racist tendencies in part by ending her proclivity to make assumptions about people she doesn’t know and by dividing Americans by race to ‘combat racism’ which makes no sense.
