Let’s talk a little bit about the narrative regarding the upheaval in St. Paul Public Schools. And because that is such a sprawling and, at least on the internets, bloviation-prone arena, let’s start with local news media coverage.
The point we’re going to build up to: Much of the coverage to date, and in particular the reporting done by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, has framed the tensions as the outcome of an antagonistic Black Lives Matter pushing school district leaders to punish a teacher “who Black Lives Matter St. Paul has labeled racist.”
The coverage has been biased, both from a journalistic standpoint and a racial one.
That quote is taken from a 600-word PiPress story that blames black activists—and not the racially incendiary defenses of the teacher in question that brought people to their feet—for shutting down a St. Paul School Board meeting Tuesday. Astonishingly, it fails to describe the blog and social media posts that lots of people—not just Black Lives Matter—found inflammatory. Continue reading