Milpitas school district staff member wore blackface on Halloween, imitated rapper

MILPITAS — A Milpitas Unified School District staff member wore blackface on Halloween and imitated an African American rapper and social activist, upsetting and disturbing a group of district leaders, students, and teachers, according to a school board member.

The staff member has been placed on administrative leave following the incident, according to a written statement issued Sunday morning by school board president Chris Norwood.

“The action(s) were inappropriate, unprofessional and insensitive,” Norwood, who is African American, wrote.

“District administration has placed the staff member on administrative leave and I have asked the superintendent to ensure an immediate investigation is conducted,” the statement continued.

A video posted on Twitter Nov. 1, reviewed by this news organization, appears to show a teacher standing at the front of a classroom, imitating the African American rapper and activist Common, who is also the face of a national advertising campaign for Microsoft’s AI Technology.

Sooooooooo… one of our WHITE teachers at mhs yesterday decided to paint his face so look like common the rapper yesterday. pic.twitter.com/1WudSddCLZ

— karrington (@karrington_kk) November 1, 2019

The tweet showing the video says the teacher is white and teaches at “mhs,” or Milpitas High School.

District superintendent Cheryl Jordan and Milpitas High School principal Francis Rojas issued a joint written statement Sunday addressing the incident, however, they did not confirm the identity of the staff member.

“It is essential that every MUSD student and parent/guardian can expect to have a safe environment in which they can feel respected and valued. The actions of a staff member on Halloween adversely affected this expectation because of the choice to wear blackface paint,” it read.

“Blackface paint has a historical and present-day connotation of racism that demeans those of African ancestry. The act was disparaging to our students, parents, colleagues and the Milpitas community we serve. Our Human Relations team has placed the employee on leave and appropriate action will be taken pending further investigation,” the statement said.

The pair also wrote that in a diverse school district like Milpitas, “it hurts to know that this type of cultural insensitivity and lack of cultural awareness still hovers in the background.”

In his statement, Norwood linked to a history.com site focused on the issue of blackface.

“As an African American man, the history of Blackface reminds me of the cruelty, hatred and fear my parents and people of African Ancestry have dealt with in the past and still experience today around the world,” he said.

The use of blackface is “steeped in centuries of racism,” and “because of blackface’s historic use to denigrate people of African descent, its continued use is still considered racist,” the history.com article states. “White performers in blackface played characters that perpetuated a range of negative stereotypes about African Americans including being lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, criminal or cowardly.”

“In our schools, classrooms, homes, community,” Norwood said in his statement, “places of worship and work we must diligently continue to utilize the lessons of history to eliminate negative stereotypical biases and pursue the necessary restorative actions whenever and wherever possible.”

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