A father has threatened to pull his daughter out of an exclusive $53,000-a-year NYC school over the school’s woke policies.
Andrew Gutmann, a wealthy Jewish former banker, complained in a letter of the elite Manhattan Brearley School’s “cancerous’ antiracism policies that include training for parents and “color healing” sessions.
Gutman accused the all-girls prep school of trying to “brainwash” kids with woke philosophies in a 1,700-word letter that he mailed to 650 families. The April 13 letter, published on controversial pro-Israel columnist Bari Weiss’ blog, has since gone viral.
The school is known for its famous alumnae who include Caroline Kennedy, Jill Clayburgh, Téa Leoni, and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Chelsea Clinton, comedian Tina Fey, actress Drew Barrymore, and Steve Martin are among those with daughters currently enrolled at the 761-student, K-12 school, The New York Post reported.
“By viewing every element of education, every aspect of history, and every facet of society through the lens of skin color and race, we are desecrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” he wrote, saying the policies encourage kids to judge, and be judged, by the color of their skin.
Gutmann said the school is “desecrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
He also uses the letter to deny the existence of systemic racism.
“Systemic racism, properly understood, is segregated schools and separate lunch counters. It is the interning of Japanese and the exterminating of Jews. Systemic racism is unequivocally not a small number of isolated incidences over a period of decades,” he wrote.
While there were some on Twitter that praised Gutmann, many called him out.
“Andrew Gutmann’s letter proved conclusively he not only hadn’t a clue what ‘intersectionality’ is, but that it never occurred to his Master-of-The-Universe brain he would end up a high-trending asshole on Twitter,” wrote one.
Despite his objections to the school’s policies, he wants his 12-year-old daughter, who has gone to the school since kindergarten, to finish out the year and complete the sixth grade.
“She hasn’t been brainwashed yet by the school — but she’s had me at home,” Gutmann, a wealthy former investment banker who now heads his family’s chemical business, said. “I’m not so sure that’s true of the other kids.”
Last year he refused to sign the school’s anti-racism pledge. The pledge requests that parents of prospective students explain how their family’s values align with the school’s “commitment to creating an anti-racist and inclusive school community.” The school also “requires all members, including at least one parent/guardian, to participate in required anti-racist training and ongoing reflection.”
According to the school, many of the parents who’d received his letter complained, calling it “deeply offensive” and saying it frightened them to even receive it, The Daily Mail reported.
