Palo Alto Unified School District employee explains that Asian school board member isn’t as oppressed as she is during school board meeting

Incidents


On January 27, 2025, the group Asians Against Wokeness posted on X how an Asian school board member at Palo Alto Unified School District was reportedly mistreated by a district employee at a January 23 meeting. In a discussion of ethnic studies, the board member Rowena Chiu stated:

I want to say personally I have not felt very safe in this room… I am attempting to maintain an open mindset, but the feedback that I’ve heard from the community so far has made me feel very unsafe. I have felt very unsafe in this meeting. So I will attempt to be constructive and ask questions with an open mindset. [Time Stamp: 3:00:00]

In response to Rowena Chiu, the district’s “Executive Director of Curriculum & Instruction” Danaé Reynolds appears to explain that Asians are not oppressed or at least not as oppressed as black people:

I know that we have members in our community who may be worried about the terms oppressor or oppressed. I completely understand that. But as a person who comes from a community that has and continues to be oppressed, I have to live with that every day. And our students of color in our district live with that every day. And the students who may not have that experience – now I’m not saying that I’m a victim. Believe me, I am not a victim. I am not saying that. Y’all know Ms. Reynolds. I also know that I can be Ms. Reynolds in Palo Alto here, but I can also be the black woman driving her Mercedes someplace else and also get pulled over and not come home to my husband. That is living an oppressed experience, right? And it’s okay to say that in a classroom because our kids are experiencing it every day. They’re experiencing it every day. So yes the language can be triggering for people. [Time Stamp: 3:51:30]

The audience notably snaps throughout the board meeting instead of clapping.

Asians Against Wokeness posted about a school board meeting at Palo Alto Unified School District.