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— Comments —

Michael D. writes:

Of course, that is just a very short clip, and I do not know all that transpired.

For the gentleman standing with the microphone, I thought the look on his face was priceless. I think on some level, things gelled for him and he recognized that the utterance was a reasonable question. A pregunta that might well have been asked down south in his own home town, had the tables been turned. Was he laughing at the storm unleashed?

One of the reasons we pulled our youngest from public schools was a sea-change at the same elementary school that happened in a mere decade’s time. The principal let me know in no uncertain terms during my last meeting with her that most of her energy had to go into being solicitous of the feelings of non-native students, and that our kids would have to find their own way.

I have never considered myself a xenophobe and have enjoyed interacting with people from all over the world through my life in various contexts. But if honest dialogue cannot happen in a public forum, where can it happen? And for how long have we conservatives been told to suck it up? I am glad the old hens were shocked by the effrontery of a simple rhetorical question not couched in virtue signals.

If I had been the gentleman with the microphone, I would have explained exactly why I was here with my family, for good or bad. But I am outspoken, I suppose.

Thank you for sharing this little vignette with your readers.

Tony S. writes:

The reaction of the crowd against the man who asked the question is the really dispiriting part of that short clip. Typical of white Americans I have seen for most of my life. Virtue signaling is so important (and the highest virtue of course is being on the side of anybody non-white). Many of these people would sell out their own family to be seen as anti-racism.

Maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on them. They have been brainwashed by the great American proclamation … Freedom!  Why wouldn’t they get to the point where they believe in the complete freedom from borders and consequently the freedom to replace their own people.

Kathy G. writes:

The clip of the school board meeting was a classic example of the Delphi tactic often used at these types of hearings to control them. People are planted in the “audience”, often teachers/administrators or their spouses, or sympathizers/gov’t employees (usually women). They then react exactly as the people in this audience reacted to the man who asked the Mexican man why he left Mexico. This is intended to “bully” the “outsider” into either shutting up or falling in line with everyone else.  If it is less crowded, the reactions are more subtle, nodding or head shaking, “tsk-tsking”, immediately requesting time to make a longer, louder statement in opposition. It works very well. It’s group dynamics. People don’t want to be outside the group, isolated, marginalized. They usually look bewildered, then shut up or fall in line.

I know this, and recognized it immediately from my days working on school reform (an impossibility). I was Delphied, but didn’t understand it at the time.

One other possibility here is that the man was himself a plant, and acting as controlled opposition to be the example to discourage others from speaking up. I say this because of his unconcern/lack of surprise with the crowd reaction.

I’m unable to link to any info about it’s use in these situations as the search engines I use won’t go there. It used to be easily researched.

Laura writes:

It’s possible; I don’t know much about the details here. But I also think this could be an entirely genuine and spontaneous reaction. It seems like that to me.

Kathy G. writes:

LOL, you may well be right. My experiences were over 20 yrs ago, a rural district and most of the time I was the only parent who attended the board meetings, other than district employees, and it was very obvious. Nowadays, parents are paying more attention. The one who jumped out at me was the older woman at the forefront. Not a parent, MAYBE a grandparent, but I doubt it. There were people in the background who didn’t react, so this man may have had more support than it appears. Maybe there’s no longer any need to Delphi, there are plenty of liberal parents, alphabet people at the meetings now.

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