Stung by repeated anti-Semitic statements made by an Oakland Unified School District task force leader, Jewish agencies and community members are seeking a strong response to the invective that is adding tension to an already race-rankled city.
Oscar Wright lit the fuse in December when he remarked that an attempt to oust the district’s superintendent was a play for “white and Jewish control” of the predominantly minority district. He has continued to make such comments at school board meetings and to the press, which has in turn given wide coverage to his statements.
Wright, 76, is a community activist and the appointed co-chair of the school district’s Task Force on African-American Students. He has a history of anti-Semitic speech dating back to at least 1993.
“Wright should be removed from the task force,” said Jan Malvin, who works for Oakland’s Human Relations Commission and has been following Wright’s case for several years.
Malvin, who is Jewish, said, “The issue is racist rhetoric at the school board in general. Anti-Semitism is part of the bigger picture.”
In 1993, Wright told the board that a cadre of Jews from the schools to the government to businesses was responsible for some of the “wickedest acts of institutional racism against black people.”
Local Jews don’t want to hear it again. “He’s the wrong person to hold an official position,” said Barbara Bergen, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League “Anyone who can lay blame on religion or race and represent the school district is unacceptable.
“We are working toward finding a positive solution to the matter. It’s easy to denounce what he said. But we want to bring people together instead of dividing people,” she added.
As in past incidents, Wright has publicly maintained he’s not speaking to the Jewish population as a whole, just to local factions. Wright refused an interview with the Jewish Bulletin.
His recent outbursts were prompted by attempts of state Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda) and Mayor Jerry Brown to remove current Oakland Superintendent Carole Quan for poor performance.
Wright’s anti-Semitic epithets, however, are apparently directed at school board member Dan Siegel and Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Sheila Jordan. Both are Jewish, but neither is at the forefront of the Quan issue.
Bergen wrote a letter to Quan in late January, calling for her to publicly condemn the anti-Semitic statements.
Quan replied with a letter to Bergen in early February, stating that “When Oscar Wright shared his personal feelings, he was not speaking on my behalf or on the behalf of the Oakland Unified School District…Please rest assured that prejudice and intolerance have no place in the Oakland Public Schools.”
Quan has not made any public statements about the incident. Nor has any other high ranking member of the school board.
Wright “gets away with his comments because no one stands up,” said Malvin.
Wright has not been the only one to denounce Jews in the Oakland school district in recent history. Superintendent Jordan said that when she was on the school board from 1988 to 1992, a flurry of anti-Semitic remarks was hurled at Jewish board members. Some Jewish members ended up resigning.
Jordan may soon call a press conference with Wright to address the situation. “We need to re-establish our city as one that fights racism of all sorts,” Jordan said.