Photo courtesy of Dr. Kenann McKenzie/ Instagram.
According to the Boston Globe, a school committee meeting got heated after a racist woman questioned the credentials of Dr. Kenann McKenzie, the only Black board member in Beverly, Mass., on Sept. 15.
In January, Dr. McKenzie was voted in unanimously by the Beverly School Committee per the city charter and began sitting on the committee. She has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is
an adjunct professor and Director of the Aspire Institute of Wheelock College at Boston University.Donna Loiacano, a parent who also has a problem with critical race theory and mask-wearing, was unnerved by Dr. McKenzie’s seat on the board and publicly questioned her credentials.
Loiacano pointed her salty finger at Dr. McKenzie as she cried,
“How does she get on the board? She wasn’t voted in. She wasn’t on the ballot for school board. Is it because André Morgan’s here? And maybe the person who stepped down?”
Morgan, the Beverly Public School system’s director of opportunity, access, and equity, is also Black and has a doctorate from Harvard.
Another parent, Stephen Moloney, had a problem with the school teaching history and McKenzie’s spot on the board. Still, he was stopped short after Beverly Mayor Michael Cahill finally got sick of the ignorant comments.
“Neither you nor Ms. Loiacano are really showing any respect for Dr.McKenzie as a human being and as a member of our school committee,” Cahill said. “I just want you to stop, Steve. Please.”
Loiacano clearly felt crunchy after learning that Dr. McKenzie is undoubtedly over-qualified for her position on the board and was forced to apologize to her privately after the public backlash. She also said that she would like to move on and stop talking about it “because I feel it would keep so much hate alive, possibly for many,” she wrote.
Dr. McKenzie handled the situation with grace and said she’d thought of those who’d gone before her and have dealt with people questioning their qualifications.
“This is what other people have confronted who’ve been in these situations,and it must feel pretty awful to be on the front lines of some of this work and have people do this to you regularly. So, I was really feeling a sense of connection and compassion for people who just do this work all the time witha lot of rancor and aggression pointed towards them.”