Marin Voice: Here’s why I voted for the Dixie School District name change
Dixie School Board member Marnie Glickman speaks during a board meeting in San Rafael on Jan. 15, 2019. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
By MARNIE GLICKMAN |
June 8, 2019 at 4:00 pm
Thousands of people supported the movement to change the name of Dixie School District and Dixie Elementary School in San Rafael. Over the past 22 years, we talked with neighbors, wrote letters, made phone calls, signed petitions and read history books at the Marin County Library.
I am grateful to every single one of our supporters, as well as trustees Brooks Nguyen and Megan Hutchinson who joined me in voting yes to change the names. Thank you to Marin Community Foundation for funding the name changes.
The students and alumni are inspirational leaders. They told us about the harmful impact of Dixie on their lives. They stayed up late to testify at board meetings. They joined us on silent marches from school to school across the district. They shared new name ideas and organized.
Together, we generated a historic transformation for our children. We can now teach the true history of Dixie. Dixie School District was created by the Marin County Board of Supervisors during the Civil War in 1863 when six million humans were enslaved in this country. Dixie is the national anthem of the Confederacy. The song, Dixie, was played at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as the president of the Confederacy. The Confederacy fought for white supremacy and lost. We changed the name of our school district and school because it was hurtful to many people.
We started public conversations about race, racism and privilege in an overwhelmingly white, affluent school district located in the heart of liberal Marin County. Only 3% of our students are African-American. We have no African-American teachers. We introduced new concepts to some of our neighbors like implicit bias, microaggressions and white fragility.
By MARNIE GLICKMAN |
June 8, 2019 at 4:00 pm
Thousands of people supported the movement to change the name of Dixie School District and Dixie Elementary School in San Rafael. Over the past 22 years, we talked with neighbors, wrote letters, made phone calls, signed petitions and read history books at the Marin County Library.
I am grateful to every single one of our supporters, as well as trustees Brooks Nguyen and Megan Hutchinson who joined me in voting yes to change the names. Thank you to Marin Community Foundation for funding the name changes.
The students and alumni are inspirational leaders. They told us about the harmful impact of Dixie on their lives. They stayed up late to testify at board meetings. They joined us on silent marches from school to school across the district. They shared new name ideas and organized.
Together, we generated a historic transformation for our children. We can now teach the true history of Dixie. Dixie School District was created by the Marin County Board of Supervisors during the Civil War in 1863 when six million humans were enslaved in this country. Dixie is the national anthem of the Confederacy. The song, Dixie, was played at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as the president of the Confederacy. The Confederacy fought for white supremacy and lost. We changed the name of our school district and school because it was hurtful to many people.
We started public conversations about race, racism and privilege in an overwhelmingly white, affluent school district located in the heart of liberal Marin County. Only 3% of our students are African-American. We have no African-American teachers. We introduced new concepts to some of our neighbors like implicit bias, microaggressions and white fragility.
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