West Cook News

In a new book aimed at educators, Oak Park and River Forest High School Superintendent Gregory Johnson describes how he has struggled to do his job amidst the "powerful presence of whiteness and white racism" in Oak Park and River Forest.

Johnson also identified a group of parents and community members-- who have published detailed research and opinions as the "E3 Group"-- as the face of this "whiteness," who are in effect supporting "white supremacy" by arguing against his "anti-racist" plans.

Johnson published his comments in the book, Strengthening Anti-Racist Educational Leaders published by Bloomsbury Academic.

He co-authored the first chapter of the book, titled "Anti-Racist Leadership in Precarious Sociopolitical Contexts."

Oak Park and River Forest were the "precarious sociopolitical context," according to Johnson, who is described as having "navigated the political tightrope of being anti-racist in values and actions while simultaneously wrestling with the powerful presence of whiteness and white racism in (the) district community" from groups like E3.

"Leaders (need) to understand how whiteness and white supremacy operate within the current educational policy agenda, because only then will they be prepared to upend white racism's efforts to impede their anti-racist policy aims and actions," he wrote.

"Public education is an agent of whiteness," Johnson wrote. "Education as an institution was inherently orchestrated to exclude people of color to further the accumulation of white constituents' privileges and opportunities within the educational system. This white supremacy in education is also linked to white accumulated privileges in other societal institutions... which advance white supremacy."

"Whiteness also survives and thrives by delaying and often derailing any progress toward righting racial wrongs in educational policy," Johnson wrote, describing his "struggle to manage the political pushback (i.e. whiteness) from white stakeholders who are concerned with how this leveling in the playing field may take away educational privileges they have long grown accustomed to and expect."

"Only by understanding how whiteness operates can leaders then ensure that it does not distract from their key purpose, which is systemic anti-racist action," Johnson wrote.

"The fear of black and brown students existing in spaces that had been largely populated by white students became monetized. Moreover, the color-evasive discourse used both in-person and though anonymous letters demonstrates the pervasiveness of whiteness in education and who (i.e. white students) "should" be afforded opportunity," he wrote.

Johnson previously worked for nine years as an English teacher at Urbana High School in Urbana, Illinois (1997-2006) before being promoted to associate principal (2006) and principal (2010). He was hired as assistant superintendent at OPRF in 2017 and promoted to superintendent in 2021.

A hard copy of the book, Strengthening Anti-Racist Educational Leaders, costs $108.00. It includes contributions from University of Illinois-Chicago professors Matthew Rodriguez and Amanda Lewis, Mary B. Hermann and Asia Fuller Hamilton from University of Illinois art Urbana-Champaign and Marcus Campbell of Evanston Township H.S.