By Caitlin McFall
A Dominican-American Bronx educator, one year away from retirement, says she was fired after refusing to participate in the cross-arm, “Wakanda forever” salute to Black power.
Rafaela Espinal, who identifies as Afro-Latina, says she was chastised for repeatedly refusing to mimic the gesture popularized in the 2018 Marvel Comic’s “Black Panther,” during superintendent meetings, reported the New York Post Saturday.
According to a Manhattan Supreme Court suit against the city’s Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza and other top officials earlier this month, Espinal was “admonished and told that it was inappropriate for her not to participate” in the salute by the then-Bronx superintendent Meisha Ross Porter.In the 2018 movie, the cross arm motion represents Black empowerment. Though the film’s Director Ryan Coggler said the idea was largely taken from paraoh sculptures in ancient Egypt, coupled with it’s meaning of “love” or “hug” in American Sign Language, he said in a 2018 interview with Inverse.
But some have questioned the directorial decision to cast a Black only cast and Espinal’s lawyers said she felt the arm gesture “introduced a racial divide where there should be none,” reported the Post.
Porter, who has since been promoted to “executive superintendent,” allegedly referred to the 1960’s Black Panther Party for Self Defense, when encouraging staff members to make the motion – telling them about her father’s involvement in the group.
The cross arm gesture from the movie is different than the civil rights group’s well-known raised fist – highlighted in 1968 Olympics by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who raised their fists after receiving their medals.
But pressuring the long-time educator to participate in the crossed arm motion “corrupted” the meaning of it, Espinal’s attorney, Israel Goldberg, told the Post.
“The gesture was hijacked,” he added.
DOE officials have countered that the motion, copied from the popular film that grossed $1.34 billion, is “a symbol used to represent the Bronx” and not intended to be interpreted as a form of “Black power.”
The $40 million suit also alleges that Espinal was told she wasn’t “Black enough,” and should “just learn to be quiet and look pretty.”
Take them to court sue their Pants off rake them over the coals until they sizzle
Leftist totalitarian empowerment. It’s only going to get worse. Freedom of thought is not permitted.
@Spurwing Plover: John Roberts WASTE OF TIME AND $. *** John Roberts!
Stan Lee, a WHITE American male, hetero, created “Wakanda” out of whole cloth to see if it increased sales of comics to appeal to a black audience.
It did enough to continue featuring Wakanda and Black Panther in 2 series of 15 and then 17 comics.
So, he created the salute, not black people.
You wonder how people that stupid can now be in power.
Worshiping fiction is just like Lefties.
They know they stole the election for unpopular Biden, but they make up a narrative and you can be punished for not buying in (in a full-throated manner.)
They don’t know what sex they are, so they make up new sex identities…..on pain of punishment for not buying in on their fantasy.
They know nothing about blacks existence in Africa so they pretend it was like Wakanda…… on pain of punishment for not buying in!
I fully expect that someday soon the Left will want to put Brawndo on our crops (if they even allow crops to be planted.) After all, it is better than water……it has electrolytes.
Minneapolis needs to recalled their City Council
@Nan G: And we are supposed to anticipate what these morons want to be called or what they are honoring at that particular moment and respect it, for fear of offending them. How about… kiss my ass?
In these days of unscrupulous people using any excuse to “cancel” someone they may have a grudge against, there is the risk someone could be forcing you to do something, out of “respect” that is actually offense and could get you fired or “cancelled”.
Years ago at work, we had many Vietnamese that worked with us. Around Christmastime, one worker wanted to go around an wish these Vietnamese “Merry Christmas” in their own language, so he got a guy to translate it for him. As a prank, he gave him an alternative phrase, one that involved a male appendage and suction, and this guy went around making an obscene comment to numerous Vietnamese. It was just a prank, and everyone accepted it as such (before political correctness and tissue-thin feelings), but imagine doing this to someone whose departure could benefit you? Imagine being told to make this bizarre gesture to blacks and finding out it is considered “racist” or “offensive”? Nowadays, it could destroy your life. For that matter, simply imagine being told you have to make some sort of salute in order to validate your loyalty. Reminds me of something… I’ll try to figure out what it is.