The other day, @LibsofTikTok committed a horrible crime known as ‘journalism,’ by reporting on racial discrimination:
A California elementary school reportedly held a race segregated “playdate social” for all students except the white kids.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 28, 2023
A parent blasted the school on social media, “we’ll look back and cringe so hard that we tried to beat racism by segregating kids of color from white kids” pic.twitter.com/LhBMCtwSEq
Here’s a blown-up version of the flyer:
For the record, folks, this might actually be unconstitutional. The only question is if it is state action (which is required under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause). This ‘Equity and Inclusion Committee’ appears to be part of the PTA, and the PTA appears to be functionally part of the school. While their website is down (probably because of this controversy), this public school puts the entire PTA on its website, and a cached version of their website tells us that this PTA is vital to the basic functionality of the school. For instance, it states that:
The Chabot PTA budget for the 2023-2024 school year supports over $690,000 of vital programs at the school. The primary fundraisers to support this goal are (1) the fall Annual Fund drive, and (2) the spring Auction. Our Annual Fund drive is separate from PTA membership, and we encourage all families to contribute what they are able to the Annual Fund. Your donations are used to help the school provide:
- Art, music, library, and science lab
- Academic support
- Equity & Inclusion
- Mental health support
So, that seems likely to be seen by courts as so much a part of the school’s functioning that they are effectively state actors.
And if they are state actors, then this is pretty clearly unconstitutional. This is racial discrimination—really about as blatant as such discrimination gets—and the Supreme Court has long said that such discrimination has to be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling purpose and we don’t see how there could be a compelling purpose. Heck, not only does it discriminate against white people, but it also seems to discriminate against Native Americans, since they are typically constructed as ‘red’ not black, or brown, and they are not considered Asian or pacific islanders.
(By the way, this would be illegal even if they didn’t actually intend to shut out white children and/or Native American children. The law has long held that it is illegal to for the government to say it is going to discriminate, because we have recognized that when discrimination is announced ahead of time, those who are being excluded are often not even going to check if they mean it.)
And not for nothing, but it is wrong, too. And racially divisive. The best way to end racism is to encourage kids to stop judging people by color, but here’s the PTA saying otherwise.
So, Libs of TikTok has exposed behavior that is probably illegal, and definitely immoral, and divisive. This is what journalism should be. We have long said that in a just world she would have gotten a Pulitzer by now.
And the Daily Beast is here to tell you that it was wrong for her to do that journalism:
The bomb threat, which was emailed to the principal Chabot Elementary School in Oakland, came a day after notorious right-wing Twitter account Libs Of TikTok tweeted about the school holding a playdate for children of color. https://t.co/uzDQltEtY7
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 29, 2023
Yes, apparently, the school got a lot of angry emails and one included an alleged bomb threat. And, somehow, that is Chaya Raichik’s fault. It’s weird. If a conservative criticizes George Soros, to the left that is automatically antisemitic, because he is Jewish and if you criticize any Jewish person you necessarily hate all Jews (as opposed to having a criticism of a specific person who happens to be Jewish). But if you are a leftist criticizing Chaya Raichik, who is also Jewish, then you are fine, because reasons.
Naturally, the PTA are calling all of this raaaaaacist, putting out this statement:
Not only have we been continuously getting hate mails, the school has been receiving calls nonstop and Trump supporters and other unhinged racists have been spreading the school’s info by posting the address of our kids’ school for the whole internet to see. We have received a threat that has triggered an investigation by OPD which is now being considered a hate crime.
However, we are not sure that the people who actually are excluding children by color—including apparently Native Americans—know what racism actually is, so we are going to need some independent verification on that.
Meanwhile, this reporting prompted the responses they were looking for:
@libsoftiktok's a stochastic terrorist, her only purpose in life is to stoke hate in order to sow division. Truly the worst humanity has to offer. https://t.co/QDAeSz54vJ
— MJ (@mjxiggy) August 29, 2023
Most people would not be able to face themselves in the mirror each day if they found out their words had inspired (now multiple) bomb threats on buildings full of kids. I can’t begin to imagine the lack of empathy it must take for Chaya Raichik to act so proud of this stuff.
— Sarah Tonin (@MercifulSabre) August 29, 2023
Libs of Tik Tok is a terror influencer https://t.co/LnesjniTPd
— I’ve Seen Enough (@FormulaEAM) August 29, 2023
More conservative terrorism. https://t.co/uVb2C62hew
— Matt (@KrankyKanuck) August 29, 2023
Mind you, there is no allegation that Raichik got this story wrong or advocated any illegal act, they’re just mad someone is exposing this racial discrimination. If you say anything bad about a leftist, and someone who is arguably on your side else gets violent, then you are responsible.
(And it’s a documented fact that false flag operations do occur.)
But the Supreme Court rebutted that notion decades ago, writing that
There is nothing new in the fact that charges of reprehensible conduct may create resentment and the disposition to resort to violent means of redress, but this well-understood tendency did not alter the determination to protect the press against censorship and restraint upon publication.
Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931). In other words, when you accuse a person of doing a bad thing, some hothead might even get mad enough to get violent. This is unfortunate, but it is an inescapable cost of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is meaningless if you can’t occasionally accuse people of doing bad things—especially when that person works for the government. And the solution isn’t to suppress the critic, but to address any actual wrongdoing that the critic called out and any illegal threats or violence committed by anyone else.
And you would think the left would get this. For instance, we had nearly a year of rioting triggered by the death of George Floyd. Certainly, the left wouldn’t argue that this meant that we had to suppress any and all news about that death or the criticism of the police in that fatal encounter. But here they are suggesting that one death threat justifies suppression of conservative speech.
No matter how many examples there are of anti-LGBTQ stochastic terrorism, those fueling the contempt will never back down. They must be drowned out so their influence no longer prevails. https://t.co/EDzE8e9At7
— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) August 29, 2023
Literally LGBTQ (and any other letters) has nothing to do with this story. This is about anger over racial discrimination.
Kinda seems like she's ringleading a segregationist campaign of terror or something idk https://t.co/TkigouqWyX
— @mumbly-joe.bsky.social (@mumbly_joe) August 29, 2023
Literally, the school was discriminating against white children and Native American ones.
This is my grandson’s school. The play date was for all the children — black, white, brown, API— to foster a sense of inclusion for all. 60 years since MLK’s March and this is as far as we’ve gotten???? https://t.co/QRkoVedhEU
— Darby (@darby1044) August 29, 2023
It literally wasn’t for all children. Even the Daily Beast agrees:
@ChayaRaichik10 so NOW you are racist. https://t.co/6qmEVDlAZ6
— Holy Bullies (@holybullies) August 29, 2023
For opposing racial discrimination? We keep being told there was some kind of party switch, but the modern Democrats seem to agree with George Wallace: ‘segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.’ So what exactly has changed?
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 libs of TikTok and Alex Jones. Anyone who was white was welcome to come to the event. You can see all the LEOs (total waste of taxpayer money) here https://t.co/d0pB3KfN98 I’m livid. https://t.co/djj01WCrtW pic.twitter.com/VIz3zd6K58
— CaliforniaActivistNurse (@CaliforniaActi2) August 29, 2023
Again, that's not what the flyer said and the Daily Beast admitted this was true.
I wish more of an effort to loudly prosecute these guys were being made.
— StopShouting (@AgateBeachPlus) August 29, 2023
No problem with prosecuting any person making an illegal threat.
Republican and Democratic extremists are always inciting violence like this.
— Gooseberry Stew (@Gooseberry_Stew) August 29, 2023
Both sides are violent hypocrites who always act the same.
These are scary times for centrists.
Well, at least he notices the violence coming from the left, but we don’t think this the violence is equivalent. We can’t think of any event in our lifetime on the right comparable to the George Floyd riots.
Lol.
— Aaron G (@wicka2222) August 29, 2023
So, you agree with segregation ?
Apparently, the Daily Beast does.
And here’s an exit question written to the author of this piece:
So the next time there's a death threat against LoTT, you're responsible for "targeting" her?
— Monster 𝕏 (@SumErgoMonstro) August 29, 2023
Of course not. That would be (D)ifferent.
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