A Los Angeles mother is accusing the local teachers union of attempting to do racial opposition research on her because of her support for returning students to the classroom.
“Their conclusion is if you want schools to reopen right now, then that means you are racist against African Americans and Latinos,” said Maryam Qudrat, a mother of a seventh-grade student and advocate of returning students to in-person instruction.
Qudrat, who is of Afghan descent, has been an outspoken critic of school closures, criticizing the union in multiple interviews with the Los Angeles Times. Qudrat said that her advocacy got the attention of union officials, who emailed her to ask her about her racial background and class status for a “research project” they were working on.
The “researcher” pointed out that Qudrat had been quoted twice by the paper in eight months, speculating that her last name sounds Iranian before asking her to self-identify her race.
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“I felt very targeted,” Qudrat said. “I think that they are very clearly case building, they are trying to collect data on folks like me who have been quoted in the LA Times, and they’re trying to say that if you are in favor the kids coming back to school, you’re racist.”
Qudrat also pointed to a January Facebook post from UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz, who specifically pointed out racial groups when saying that union members have been “stalked on social media by wealthy white and Middle Eastern parents” who want to reopen schools.
But Qudrat insists her advocacy has nothing to do with race.
“I’m a mom and an educator, and I want our kids to come back to school,” Qudrat said.
Her educational background led her to previous support of a union strike for higher wages, but things have changed during the pandemic.
“I stood in the rain on strike with the teachers when they wanted to get their pay raise a couple of years ago,” Qudrat said. “And to see them now basically turning this way, it’s frankly scary the way they’re taking education, pinning white and Middle Eastern against black and brown.”
In a statement to Fox 11, UTLA claimed that Qudrat was taking the email she received out of context.
“The email in question is from a UTLA researcher who was attempting to ascertain the race of individuals quoted in order to assess whether or not that is a factor we could evaluate. This outreach by the researcher was not authorized and nothing from that outreach is contained in the report. We understand this type of email could be taken out of context,” the statement said.
The union also said it has reached out to Qudrat to apologize for any misunderstanding.
But Qudrat isn’t buying the union’s explanation.
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“Anybody who spends 30 seconds reading that email would see that it is very clear pointed racism. They are racial profiling,” Qudrat said. “If it was sent out to somebody who was African American or Latino, they would have a lawsuit on their hands.”
