A black principal of one of the most selective high schools in Chicago is facing a push from “disappointed alumni” to resign.
Joyce Kenner has worked for Whitney M. Young Magnet High School for 25 years as its principal and previously worked for Jesse Jackson’s civil rights and political initiative, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Now, she is facing a petition signed by hundreds calling for her resignation for allegedly silencing students speaking out against injustice.
A petition on Change.org claims Kenner “silenced student activists speaking against all forms of injustice. Her silence and her enabling of the systematic oppression that her black and low-income students face should be condemned.”
“If you are not going to speak out for your students, if you are not going to do what is best for YOUR students, please resign. Whitney Young students deserve a principal who loves and cares about their wellbeing in a world that hates them,” the petition, signed by more than 800 as of Sunday, concludes.
Kenner has denied the accusations.
“You could go by your experience, and the only thing I’ve ever tried to do is get our black kids educated so they have the opportunity to be part of this world,” Kenner said, according to the Chicago Tribune, adding that she has no plans to resign. “Nobody is going to push me out. I’m not resigning. I still have a lot of work to do for my African American students.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that Kenner has long experienced racial protests in the country, witnessing people demonstrating against the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and seeing her father write “black-owned business” on his storefront to keep it from being destroyed. She has also dealt with her son being questioned by police for having a baseball bat when he played high school ball.
“My father served 11 years in prison. If I don’t understand about black people and oppression, nobody else does,” Kenner said. “Nobody can tell me … I don’t support the cause or that I don’t understand the cause.”
Kenner still considers her father her “hero” after he was put in jail for a drug conviction.
“He had to do what he had to do as a black man to support his family, and he did it well. All of my sisters and brothers were educated,” she said.
Dozens of high-profile people have come under scrutiny in the wake of George Floyd’s death, as activists shine a spotlight on racism.
Top editors at the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bon Appetit, Refinery29, and Variety have resigned or been placed on leave, professors at colleges such as the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Chicago, and Cornell University have been placed on leave or faced calls to be fired, and people in the sports and entertainment world have also resigned or been fired for race-related comments or actions.
