Hopkins Schools urge teachers and staff to examine their ‘whiteness’

On Aug. 24, 2020, Hopkins Public Schools Superintendent Rhoda Mhiripiri-Reed welcomed teachers and staff back to school in a virtual staff kickoff event by urging them to examine their “whiteness.” She delivered a 25-minute lecture on the “dual pandemic” of COVID-19 and racism in Hopkins Public Schools and added, “If you are white and/or if you are privileged in another way, I ask you to engage in the same self-analysis to see your own privilege and to examine your whiteness.”

The school district made the video private, but Alpha News, a news outlet in Minnesota, wrote an article about the video and published the video on its YouTube channel.