An Elk Grove teacher thought a union seat that barred whites was wrong. He won in court | Opinion

As a history teacher in Elk Grove Unified School District, I try to ensure that my students don’t learn the wrong lessons from the struggles of American history. But I taught my latest course on civil rights to adults in a federal courtroom, not students in a classroom.

I have been a union member of the Elk Grove Education Association for 10 years and have long disagreed with what I believe is the district’s deeply flawed approach to diversity, equity and inclusion. Last year, when the union created a new seat on its board specifically for certain racial and ethnic groups (Blacks, Indigenous people and people of color, also known as BIPOC), I saw an opportunity to change the union from within. I decided to run for the position.

When filling out the position’s nomination form, I discovered a mandatory checkbox stating, “The BIPOC At-Large Representative position is open to ... self-identified (members) of one or more of the following racial/ethnic categories.” A list of 11 racial identities followed. As a white person, it did not include me.

Since I could not truthfully check the box, I was barred from running for the board seat — simply because of the color of my skin.

I was dumbfounded. As a student and teacher of history, I knew that this type of racial segregation was banned 60 years ago. So, this past May, I filed a federal lawsuit with the help of a nonprofit law firm, the Fairness Center, to desegregate my union’s board.

My lawsuit alleged that the union violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says it is unlawful for a “labor organization” to “discriminate against … any individual because of his race, color, religion, sex or national origin,” and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Legal commentators lined up on my side.

“I think reserving a seat on the basis of race will be regarded by the courts as impermissible,” UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky told The San Francisco Chronicle.

Meanwhile, Sacramento civil rights attorney Jeffrey Kravitz explained to a television reporter that “this is blatant discrimination.”

The union’s lawyers seemed to agree. In August, the union ended the board seat and passed a standing rule saying it would never practice racial discrimination in any other union position. Then it offered to accept a judgment against itself, requiring it to pay me $12,000 in addition to my attorneys’ fees.

A judge agreed, and, this month, I accepted.

To be clear, my fight was never about money. My family and I intend to donate every penny I receive from the union to a local Elk Grove scholarship fund.

While I see this as a major victory, it’s just a part of an ongoing battle I have been fighting for years.

In 2021, my union and school district collaborated to impose 28 hours of diversity, equity and inclusion training on district faculty and staff. These trainings often correctly identify problems that face all Americans, but the solutions they propose show that they’ve learned the wrong lessons from history. To me, the message of these trainings is to divide people by race and measure them by the extent of their victimhood rather than their character. The creation of a union board seat that excluded whites was a direct result of poor district training.

Despite its legal defeat, the union is still pushing a racial agenda as far as it can. The union has replaced its illegal board position restricted to certain races with one that “encourages” non-whites to run. Imagine the outrage if the roles were reversed and the new position encouraged only whites to run!

Clearly, someone needs to hold the union to its commitment. That is why I am now running to join its leadership as I previously intended. My candidacy and lawsuit are reminders that no form of racism is acceptable.