• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

White supremacist principal runs school with majority black and Latino students

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Gaborn

Member
alg_frank-borzellieri.jpg
alg_mount-carmel-school.jpg


A firebrand educator with ties to a white supremacist group is running a Bronx Catholic school where most of the students are black and Latino, the Daily News has learned.

Frank Borzellieri, 48, was quietly promoted to principal of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School two years ago - despite a history of controversial writings and campaigns, including a push to ban a biography on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

In 2004, Borzellieri wrote the book "Don't Take It Personally: Race, Immigration, Crime and Other Heresies," in which he declares "diversity is a weakness" and says the rising black and Hispanic populations in America will lead to the "New Dark Age."

He has also written frequently for the white supremacist publication American Renaissance, with which he is still "intimately involved," the non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center says.

Borzellieri declined comment.

Mount Carmel pastor, the Rev. Eric Rapaglia, said he knew of Borzellieri's views, but didn't "see any cause for concern" when he hired him to run the 200-student elementary school.

"I knew of him from my last parish," he said. "Do I agree with all of it? No. But I think much of it is valuable and logical and reasonable.

"A lot of his ideas would actually benefit minorities," he added.

Borzellieri, who unsuccessfully ran for state Assembly in 1994 and City Council in 1997, previously made headlines as a school board member in District 24 in Queens, where he lives.

During his board tenure, from 1993 to 2002, he tried to:

Ban literature he labeled "anti-American" from school libraries. His targets included books on different races and culture, and a biography of King.


Remove an openly gay teacher and gay-rights activist from the classroom at Public School 199 in Sunnyside, and ban school employees from making any references to homosexuality.

Introduce a resolution calling for students to be taught that U.S. culture is superior.

Borzellieri's views rankled teachers at St. Barnabas School in Woodlawn, Bronx, where he taught English from 2006 to 2009.

"You can't have someone with those beliefs or who writes that kind of stuff working at a Catholic school," said Annemarie Zagaglia, principal of St. Barnabas School during Borzellieri's time there.

When Rapaglia was the pastor of St. Barnabas, Zagaglia warned him that teachers had legitimate concerns about Borzellieri. She said Rapaglia "dismissed the whole thing, and that was the end of that."

Rapaglia became pastor of Mount Carmel - in Fordham, Bronx - in 2009 and hired Borzellieri as principal that year.

A former teacher at St. Barnabas said she alerted the Archdiocese of New York in 2007 that students had complained Borzellieri was using them as "research" for his books, but the teacher never got a response.

Archdiocese spokesman Joe Zwilling said there is no record of a complaint against Borzellieri, but said the matter is under review.

Zwilling added that sweeping changes in hiring parish principals went into effect in 2009 - right after Borzellieri got the gig.

"Previously, pastors had great leeway and discretion in the hiring of principals," Zwilling said. "That practice usually worked well, but we saw room for improvement."

Parents of students at Mount Carmel voiced concern after the Daily News informed them of Borzellieri's past.

"I've heard kids say they don't like him," said one mother, a Jamaican immigrant. "I was wondering where the heck he came from. He shouldn't be teaching here. He could look at kids differently because they're black. It's not fair."
Click to expand...

Story Here

More from the Village Voice

Disgusting. Sad. Shameful.
 
D

Deleted member 81567

Unconfirmed Member
Why is he wearing a shirt of a mediocre university?
 
C

CornBurrito

Member
WedgeX said:
How the shit does he get any job at a Catholic school? Much less being a principal.
Click to expand...

Insert joke about Catholicism and bigotry.

Alternatively: He was the only Catholic man that wouldn't touch the kids.

(No offense meant to Catholic-GAF)
 
C

CF_Fighter

Member
Just continues the trend of placing horrible teachers into positions of leadership. Instead of firing them they have to place them somewhere else int he school, out of the classroom. One of the sad parts of tenure and the union to a point. I support teachers unions, I'm in school to become a teacher, but there are parts to them that don't help.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
WedgeX said:
How the shit does he get any job at a Catholic school? Much less being a principal.
Click to expand...

Remove an openly gay teacher and gay-rights activist from the classroom at Public School 199 in Sunnyside, and ban school employees from making any references to homosexuality.
Click to expand...

He probably put that on his resume. That, and the pastor who hired him agrees with his views on minorities.
 
K

Keru_Shiri

Member
I seem to remember a previous thread where some gaffers insisted that racism could not exist in a town that had a majority of blacks, or at the very least, tried to downplay its likelihood.
 
C

Crumpet Trumpet

Banned
How do people even get these jobs nowadays, aren't there background checks and such? Lord. Also, I read the school name as caramel and lol'd.

edit: Oh, it's a private school, duh. I feel bad for the students.
 
Spokker

Spokker

Member
Let's see what the math scores are like. I'd rather my kids learn about geometry than homosexuality. I can teach them about that.
 
E

elrechazado

Banned
jaxword said:
If you read scary places like Stormfront, you'd see how there's a twisted marriage of Christianity and Racism that they've rationalized--and it's been this way for a long, long time.
Click to expand...
Not of catholicism though. White supremacists in the US have a history of trying to drive catholics out of their communities, along with blacks and others. Hence his question.
 
F

Forkball

Member
daw840 said:
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!?

That's my name... :(
Click to expand...
I have traveled from the future to warn you, David. You are the key to its salvation. No one else can see these posts, I decided to contact you through NeoGAF because not much is known about the chosen one's past except that he posted on this website. I can only give you this hint: salamander. Godspeed.
 
T

TheNatural

My Member!
Sounds like the perfect script for Sister Act 3. Pastor hires white supremacist. Whoopi Goldberg comes on as the nun that rises up the poor minority community and changes his views with an amazing chorus. Box office hit, I'm telling you.
 
K

Keru_Shiri

Member
Spokker said:
Let's see what the math scores are like. I'd rather my kids learn about geometry than homosexuality. I can teach them about that.
Click to expand...
Tag-fishing done correctly, ladies and gentlemen. :p
 
D

Dram

Member
Keru_Shiri said:
I seem to remember a previous thread where some gaffers insisted that racism could not exist in a town that had a majority of blacks, or at the very least, tried to downplay its likelihood.
Click to expand...


This thread?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438494

A high school southeast of Little Rock would not let a black student be valedictorian though she had the highest grade-point average, and wouldn't let her mom speak to the school board about it until graduation had passed, the graduate claims in Federal Court.

She says in the federal discrimination complaint that after her daughter had been told she would be valedictorian, the mother heard "in the copy room that same day, other school personnel expressed concern that Wimberly's status as valedictorian might cause a 'big mess.'"
 
Spokker

Spokker

Member
jaxword said:
Boy, that sentence comes across as creepy...
Click to expand...
It sounds creepy but parents and their children should honestly talk about sex at some point, including homosexuality.
 
N

neutralgamer02

Member
Keru_Shiri said:
I seem to remember a previous thread where some gaffers insisted that racism could not exist in a town that had a majority of blacks, or at the very least, tried to downplay its likelihood.
Click to expand...

If you are referring to the valedictorian thread, I may be the poster you are referring to.

I never said that racism doesn't happen in a majority black area. I was simply saying that it is weird that such a situation would occur in a majority black area since the administration must have had black people based on the make up of the town. And guess what? I was right. The school came out and explained the situation, and there was no racism involved.

This situation is totally different from this one. They actually hired a known white racist for some reason. We don't even know what he has implemented any discriminatory policies, so it not like he is actually doing anything wrong. He just has a shady background. Anyway, now that it is known I doubt he will remain principal for much longer.
 
J

jaxword

Member
Spokker said:
It sounds creepy but parents and their children should honestly talk about sex at some point, including homosexuality.
Click to expand...

It as a joke, bro, about the sequence of saying "Homosexuality? Oh, I'll teach the kids about that..."

Maybe it needed an SA forums smug emoticon to work better.
 
Spokker

Spokker

Member
jaxword said:
It as a joke, bro, about the sequence of saying "Homosexuality? Oh, I'll teach the kids about that..."
Click to expand...
No jokes allowed on the Internet.

I'd like to hear what this guy's educational policies are, from his mouth, before calling for his resignation.
 
Spokker

Spokker

Member
He seems like a great teacher: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=542192&page=1

I worked very hard for my A-, which I got this week. He's a very tough grader, but he points out your mistakes in order to help you. Wants students to succeed. Wrote me a beautiful letter of recommendation. His writing classes are very lively. Great sense of humor. Encourages a diversity of opinions. Very interesting man. Take this professor!
Click to expand...

There is one poor review and one average review, but the rest of the 15 ratings are good quality. Unless, of course, he wrote them all.
 
A

Al-ibn Kermit

Junior Member
LiveFromKyoto said:
You guys are just racist against racists. Stop discriminating against him!
Click to expand...
No we're intolerant of intolerance.


Spokker said:
Let's see what the math scores are like. I'd rather my kids learn about geometry than homosexuality. I can teach them about that.
Click to expand...

Well tbf, there's a lot of argument against how useful geometry is for a general high school student.
 
K

Keru_Shiri

Member
neutralgamer02 said:
If you are referring to the valedictorian thread, I may be the poster you are referring to.

I never said that racism doesn't happen in a majority black area. I was simply saying that it is weird that such a situation would occur in a majority black area since the administration must have had black people based on the make up of the town. And guess what? I was right. The school came out and explained the situation, and there was no racism involved.

This situation is totally different from this one. They actually hired a known white racist for some reason. We don't even know what he has implemented any discriminatory policies, so it not like he is actually doing anything wrong. He just has a shady background. Anyway, now that it is known I doubt he will remain principal for much longer.
Click to expand...
Once again, I referring to the general tone of the thread of posters who seemed to think that the very idea of racism was out of this world, not so much if this case specifically was racist or not. In fact, I came out and stated that I hoped that my initial suspicions were wrong. Furthermore, a school coming out and making a statement alone would not be enough to sway my decision.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

44% of American teens are now persistently sad or hopeless
2 3 4 5
227
21K
Boaty McBoatface replied
WaPo: A school principal will pay students to forgo electronics this summer.
2
50
4K
Hilbert replied
New Orleans School Principal Caught in Nazi gear and speakng on "White Genocide"
2
57
9K
R0ckman replied
  • Locked
Sherman Oaks Principal Says She Is Being Demoted Because She Is Black
12
3K
Slayven replied
Video shows principal holding a student’s head while he’s shocked with a stun gun
2
66
14K
theignoramus replied
Top Bottom