Sixth-graders at a Minnesota elementary school were recently given an assignment asking them to create a “protest music playlist” that can include songs with “racial justice” and “LGBT” themes.
The school in question is Eisenhower Elementary in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis. A concerned mother sent a screenshot of the assignment to the well-known “Libs of Tik Tok” Twitter account.
“Create a playlist of protest music that matters to you,” reads the assignment description. “You may use examples from class or bring in other song ideas that you may have. Songs could be about racial justice, environmental issues, LGBTQ+ rights, war, or women’s rights. You can make a YouTube playlist, use Spotify, or copy YouTube links into a Google Doc for this assignment.”
The concerned mother told Libs of Tik Tok that her son created a playlist featuring the music of Bryson Gray, a conservative Christian rapper.
EXCLUSIVE: 6th grade assignment at Eisenhower Elementary, MN requires students make a “protest music playlist” which can include racial justice and LGBTQ theme music.
This mom told me her kid made a @RealBrysonGray playlist 😂🔥 pic.twitter.com/z9lHKfagtH
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) February 9, 2022
Eisenhower Elementary is part of the Hopkins public school system. In Aug. 2020 Superintendent Rhoda Mhiripiri-Reed kicked off the beginning of the school year by imploring teachers and staff to examine their “whiteness.”
“In our communications to staff and families, we have referenced a dual pandemic. Mr. George Floyd — rest in power — is seemingly the contemporary face of the pandemic of racial injustice. This pandemic of systemic racism has soiled this country, not just since slavery, but since the genocide of the Native Americans and the American Indians who resided on and cared for this land,” she said, adding that “we talk extensively about our diversity and we celebrate it with great pride.”
“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,” she added.
Video of the virtual event was made private sometime later after receiving negative backlash, but Alpha News obtained a copy of it that can be watched here.
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.