San Fran Schools Are Renaming Their Arts Department Because 'Acronyms Are a Symptom of White Supremacy'

Brittany M. Hughes | February 2, 2021
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The San Francisco school board is changing the name of its arts department from an acronym to the department's full name, now saying that using acronyms is “a symptom of white supremacy culture.”

The school district, which still isn’t open to students for in-person learning but which found the time to change nearly four dozen school names over their alleged ties to “racism,” is now renaming their arts department – formerly known as “VAPA,” for “Visual and Performing Arts” – because "acronyms are a symptom of white supremacy culture."

Why? Because apparently, non-English speakers might not automatically know how to pronounce the made-up word.

The decision was apparently based on a paper written in 1999 by author Tema Okun, called, "White Supremacy Culture," in which Okun claimed that "Our culture perpetuates racism when things continue to be written down in a certain way."

"The use of so many acronyms within the educational field often tends to alienate those who may not speak English to understand the acronym," explained Sam Bass, Director of the SFUSD Arts Department.

"It is a very simple step we can take to just be referred to as the SFUSD Arts Department for families to better understand who we are," he said.

However, ABC7 reports that the school district uses so many acronyms, there’s actually an entire page on its website dedicated to listing them and telling people what they mean. So far, school officials say they have no intention of changing all the acronyms district-wide.

 

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