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An ex-top trustee of Manhattan’s elite Spence School says she yanked her daughter out over her growing disgust with its racial indoctrination — capped by a class video that "tarred and feathered" white women.
Hispanic tech exec Gabriela Baron fired off a scorched-earth letter to the prestigious Upper East Side institution last week seething that the video — shown to her eighth-grade daughter and classmates on graduation day — "openly derides, humiliates and ridicules white women.
"They sat there in their graduation dresses while the white mothers of the white students — many of whom volunteer, donate, call, email and do whatever the school asks of them — were tarred and feathered in a video their teacher showed them. While their white female teachers were mocked,’’ Baron raged in the missive, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
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Baron said the footage, featuring racially charged comedian Ziwe Fumudoh, was just another indication of what she and her husband "see happening at Spence (and many other schools in NYC).
"Over the last several years my husband and I have grown increasingly concerned about certain trends at Spence, including what we believe is a de-emphasis of academic rigor and a single-minded focus on race, diversity and inclusion that is now driving the School and everything that goes on within its walls,’’ wrote Baron, the daughter of Cuban immigrants.
Spence is among a slew of posh "woke" private schools in New York City that have come under fire for allegedly putting political correctness before actual learning and common sense.
Baron — who confirmed to The Post on Tuesday that she sent the letter — is an alum of Spence, which includes actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Kerry Washington and Michael Bloomberg’s daughter Georgina among its graduates. The K-12 school charges more than $57,400 a year per student.
"The blatantly racist video,’’ shown during her daughter’s last middle-school history class, was of Fumudoh’s premiere episode of her Showtime talk series "Ziwe,’’ which aired last month, Baron said.
It featured sit-downs with writer Fran Lebowitz, women’s rights icon Gloria Steinem — and four white women named Karen.
The caption to introduce Lebowitz read, "Author, Public Speaker, White Woman.’’ At one point, Fumudoh remarked to her, "I believe that you are not concerned with how annoying white women can be.’’
The host also said, "What percentage of white women do you hate? And there is a right answer."
Fumudoh asked Steinem how many black friends she has, then read her obscene lyrics from the rap song "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion and wanted to know whether the activist felt "empowered’’ by them.
Before the "Karens" took the stage, Fumudoh read what she said was an Urban Dictionary meaning for their name, which included "obnoxious, angry and entitled, often racist, white women.’’
At the end of the segment, Fumudoh gave the women temporary tattoos that said, "Karen & Proud.’’
"It astounds me that a Spence faculty member felt comfortable showing this to students and thought it was acceptable to do so," Baron said of the mocking, cringe-worthy footage.
Manhattan’s elite Spence School (GOOGLE)
"Had the video derided and ridiculed Asian women, Black women or Hispanic women, the Spence community would declare with one voice that it was blatantly racist," said the mom, executive vice president of strategy at the tech software firm KLDiscovery, according to her LinkedIn page.
"In fact, had a similar video been shown making fun of ANY OTHER racial group, Spence, its faculty, the Board and the entire community would be whipped into a frenzy,’’ Baron said. "Is Ziwe’s video somehow not racist and acceptable to Spence because it attacks whites?"
Baron said Spence’s showing of the video to its middle-school students on their special day earlier this month was only the final straw for her and her husband at the PC-obsessed all-girls institution — which has a task force to make sure it is "the anti-racist institution it aspires to be."
She said that several years ago, students in Spence’s lower school were "required to make politically-oriented protest posters.’’ Baron said that when she protested, she was falsely told by school officials that this was not the case.
In 2019, a Manhattan couple sued the school for allegedly buying into a "Mean Girls" scheme in which two students branded their daughter a racist over an innocent Instagram post.
"I believe this [recent video] incident is emblematic of a larger problem and a sad reflection of the current climate at Spence,’’ Baron wrote in her June 11 letter to "Board members, administrators, faculty members and fellow parents.
"When our daughter was accepted to Spence, I wept,’’ she said. "I was so proud to be able to give her a Spence education."
But "as some of you know, my concerns about Spence’s direction led me to resign from my position as an Annual Fund co-chair in 2018,’’ she said. "Those concerns also caused us to vote with our feet and make the difficult decision to have our daughter attend high school at a different school."
Baron listed her long association with the tony academy.
"I attended Spence from 8th grade through 12th, graduating with the Class of 1989,’’ she said.
"For more than 25 years I was one of the Spence’s most involved alums,’’ serving on its board of trustees for eight years and constantly co-chairing its Annual Fund.
"I believe that the family of every student in that class is owed an apology from the school,’’ she said, referring to the video.
"Racism is racism."
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The school did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment Tuesday.
To read more from the New York Post, click here.
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