The Democratic Party challenger to Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) in the November election wrote a column accusing white families of “white flight” when Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“White flight, a phenomenon where white people leave significantly high-minority areas, is happening in our public schools,” wrote Maryam Abolfazli in a guest column in The Tennessean. “Reacting in frustration to the decision of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools to halt in-person teaching, white parents who can afford to are transferring their children to private schools.”
The Democrat, who has focused her campaign on race by “amplif[ying] the voices of marginalized communities, [and] advocating for inclusive policies that benefit all residents,” went so far as to liken white Tennessee families who wanted their children to learn in person to the days of school segregation.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve seen white flight in schools, of course. Tennessee, like several other states, responded by digging in its heels when schools began to desegregate in the 1950s,” she wrote. “In 1971, when it was ordered that Black students would be bused to predominantly white public schools, some 12,000 white children were taken out of the public school system. It wasn’t until the 1980s that meaningful desegregation actually started to take place here in Nashville, but the results were notable.”
“If we continue to allow racial and economic segregation in our schools, we may be raising generations of white youth who lack the creativity, emotional intelligence and global leadership skills that come from an integrated public school experience,” the column said. More importantly, later in their lives, they won’t exhibit the comfort with and the demand for more integrated workplaces, government, and society that are essential for a more just and equitable city.”
As reported Tuesday by The Tennessee Star, Abolfazli is no stranger to race-baiting.
After a special August 2023 session of the Tennessee General Assembly that was supposed to be focused on gun control, she blamed the “White patriarchy” in another column for not passing the Red Flag Laws.
“This week, the Tennessee General Assembly gave me a lesson on the white patriarchy,” she said in that column, published in The Tennessee Lookout. “I had not understood the term in a meaningful way until this week, until I could feel it viscerally in the silencing of our dissent, in the ignoring of our presence, and our silent and present plea for gun safety — in the day-in and day-out legislating despite our desperation.”
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Peter D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Peter on Twitter/X.
Photo “Maryam Abolfazli” by Maryam for Congress.
