Progressive leftists across the country are demanding that schools named after people who don’t pass their purity tests get new monikers. But in Waukegan, Illinois, they’re having a difficult time finding a suitable alternative.
Two committees comprised of students, staff, and those in the community were tasked with renaming the Thomas Jefferson Middle School and the Daniel Webster Middle School, the first because he was a slave owner and the latter because he supported slavery.
During a school board meeting on Tuesday to discuss some of the finalists for the Thomas Jefferson Middle School, immigration activists expressed their disapproval over one of the finalists: former President Barack Obama.
"I will not be part of renaming a school after someone who did not and does not represent the undocumented community," said District 60 school board member Edgar Castellanos. Castellanos said he came to the United States undocumented as a child.
Waukegan activist Julie Contreras works with a group that runs shelters for undocumented children at the U.S./Mexico border.
She said former President Obama failed to deliver on promises to help the immigrant population.
Contreras, who leads United Giving Hope, is organizing protests against naming the school for the Obamas.
"From the time Barack Obama became President until 2017 when he left, he today is still the highest ranking president with deportations in our nation," Contreras said. "We feel that Barack Obama did disservice to us. He denied us, and he didn't stop the deportations, the way he promised." […]
Members of the area's Latinx community held a protest outside the meeting's doors Tuesday night.
"If you're removing the name of Thomas Jefferson - one oppressor - the name of Obama is another oppressor and our families do not want to see that name," Contreras said. (ABC 7)
So now, despite being America's first black president, Obama is considered an "oppressor," not woke enough to have a school named after him.
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