Dallas City Wire

A racial equity advocacy group is circulating a petition that asks wealthy white people to refrain from allowing their high school student teens to apply to Ivy League universities and other top 50 colleges in order to make room for students of color.

“Our pledge was brought about by the need to give kids in our community educational opportunities that we have been denied for centuries,” said Michele Washington, founder of Dallas Justice Now (DJN)

Pledge letters are currently being sent out in the 95% white Highland Park and University Park neighborhoods of Dallas, according to a DJN press release.

Dallas Justice Now pledge letter | provided by Casie Tomlin

“Many wealthy white folks including those who live in the 95% white Park Cities think they are allies because they put up a Black Lives Matter sign or parade black people like animals at their charity galas that somehow they aren’t part of the problem,” Washington told Dallas City Wire. “They are the problem. If whites want to be our allies, they MUST make sacrifices.”

Only 3% of students at Harvard came from the bottom fifth of the income ladder, while 70 percent came from families of the top fifth of income earners in the country, according to a 2017 white paper written by Harvard professor Raj Chetty.

“In the Civil Rights movement, our white allies risked their lives to end the cruel Jim Crow laws,” Washington said in an interview. “Yet now many people think they can get by just posting on social media—-it’s hurtful to those of us who have dedicated our lives to social justice when they think that is enough to remedy hundreds of years of oppression.”

A DJN pledge letter obtained by Dallas City Wire states, “We are writing to you because we understand you are white and live within the Highland Park Independent School District and thus benefit from enormous privileges taken at the expense of communities of color. You live in the whitest and wealthiest neighborhood in Dallas, whether you know it or not, you earned or inherited your money through oppressing people of color. However, it is also our understanding that you are a Democrat and supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which makes you one of our white allies and puts you in a position to help correct these cruel injustices. We need you to step up and back up your words with action and truly sacrifice to make our segregated city more just.”

When Casie Tomlin, a Caucasian woman, received a pledge letter on Dallas Justice Now letterhead last week, she was in disbelief.

“There’s no way an organization would send this,” Tomlin told Dallas City Wire in a Facebook Messenger email.

Other than people like Tomlin, Washington said that feedback from DJN’s white allies has been supportive for the most part.

“We understand there are some racist voices who have opposed the pledge,” Washington alleged in an interview. “One racist, in particular, Casie Tomlin, who works as a Senior Software Delivery Manager at AT&T, has attempted to harass our supporters in an attempt to distract from the fact that she doesn’t want to make a single sacrifice to remedy the injustices that face our city."

Tomlin denied the allegations.

"I wholeheartedly dispute and deny all accusations made by Michele Washington and Dallas Justice Now," she said, in part, in an email. "Ms. Washington's statements are factually incorrect and intentionally misleading. Her statements are part of an ongoing campaign of harassment lodged against me, a single mother, because of an agenda she wishes to advance. I am now and have always been an active advocate for social justice."

Washington further accused Tomlin of being the embodiment of a racist "Karen."

"She donated $3 to DJN only to claim a couple of minutes later that DJN is a scam," Washington alleged. "Then, she attempted to weaponize law enforcement by calling the University Park Police Department to complain about the pledges and try to put our volunteers in danger. Calling the police on people of color when not in imminent danger is itself an act of violence.”

Washington added that DJN will soon unveil an Advisory Council that includes Professor Troy Harden, director of the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute at Texas A&M.

“Since their creation, top educational institutions have been vehicles for the perpetuation of white supremacy,” she said. “Most top universities only opened their doors to our community in the 1960s but even then have done everything possible to make us feel like second-class citizens. Ivy League and other Top 50 Schools provide the best vehicles for upward mobility, particularly for marginalized communities. Yet, a vast majority of the spots at these institutions are taken by wealthy white folks.”