Dozens of Asian-American parents filtered into a Queens auditorium in January, gathering to protest a local school desegregation plan that they said would drive their children to low-performing schools in far-off neighborhoods. But their anger was really directed at one person: Richard A. Carranza, the leader of New York City’s schools.
They chanted: “Fire Carranza!” and accused the schools chancellor of forcing integration and of discriminating against their children.
The scene — groups of parents venting frustration with Mr. Carranza and his vision for the nation’s largest school system — has been repeated in recent months, from City Hall Park to a dim sum restaurant in Brooklyn.
Those rallies are led by a small yet highly organized group of mostly Asian-American families who travel to the school chancellor’s appearances, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with anti-Carranza messages and holding signs with messages like, “Carranza breeds racism in the name of diversity.”
Mr. Carranza’s focus on racial inequality in city schools has drawn ire from prominent conservatives across the country, many of whom are white. But the Mexican-American chancellor has faced his strongest critics closer to home, from some of those in the city’s Asian community.
That rift, which is at the center of an emotional debate among families of color about merit and fairness in city schools, threatens to undermine the chancellor’s remaining two years as one of the most influential education officials in the country.
“You have this chancellor and this mayor who have all these great ideas, but the ideas don’t include Asians,” said Amy Tse, a Queens mother who frequently attends anti-Carranza allies.
“They never even mention Asians. It’s always a white-black thing.”
Mr. Carranza’s handling of a 2018 fight over how to enroll more black and Hispanic students in the city’s top public high schools offended and alienated many Asian-Americans — and not just parents.
Sen. John Liu, a Democratic state senator who represents a large Asian population in Queens, helped ensure that the specialized school plan failed in Albany this past summer. “It’s important to be a chancellor for all school kids,” Mr. Liu said. “Two years in, Carranza is falling behind on the curve on that.”
The chancellor has also faced criticism from Rep. Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat, along with other Asian-American Democrats in the New York City Council and State Legislature.
And the chasm continues to deepen.
Since the start of this school year, Asian-American parents have accused Mr. Carranza of prejudice over a range of issues, from his decision not to fire an elected parent leader who called Asians “yellow folks” to the fact that the city considered relocating one of the chancellor’s upcoming town hall meetings from Chinatown to Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, before reversing course.
The vitriol and racial division that defined the battle over the so-called specialized high schools have now begun to color a series of seemingly unrelated issues — and stand to influence the school district for years to come.
Shortly after Mr. Carranza arrived in New York in spring 2018, he and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to get rid of the admissions exam for eight specialized schools, in an effort to boost the number of black and Hispanic students.
Asian students make up a majority of the schools and would lose about half their seats under the city’s proposal. Asian-American parents and politicians were not consulted about the plan before it was announced.
Mr. Carranza’s striking defense of the plan that summer — “I just don’t buy into the narrative that any one ethnic group owns admission to these schools” — galvanized Asian-American parents to oppose the plan and the chancellor himself.
In an interview with The Times, Mr. Carranza said he regrets not reaching out to Asian-Americans sooner, but said he will continue to push for the elimination of the entrance exam.
Mr. Carranza insisted that integration would benefit “all cultures and all ethnic groups,” but said he would continue to speak bluntly about inequality — even if doing so continues to land him in trouble.
“In a leadership position you have a choice to make, you can go along and get along and incrementally make some changes, or you can actually take a stand for what you believe in,” he said.
He added, “I’m not a politician, I’m really not, I just want to be honest with people as a chancellor.”
But Mr. Carranza’s ability to push forward a still-hypothetical integration agenda that requires broad support may have already been seriously compromised: Some Asian-American families now believe that desegregation would not include or benefit their children.
“Carranza comes from an immigrant family, you would think he would be a little more understanding of the immigrant experience,” said Ms. Tse, who immigrated from Hong Kong as a child. Mr. Carranza is the grandson of Mexican immigrants.
Asian-Americans across the country have said they feel ignored or misunderstood in charged debates about merit and fairness in education.
Some families have protested affirmative action policies in higher education, most prominently at Harvard University, arguing that they benefit black and Hispanic families at the expense of Asian students.
“Our community, as diverse as it is, remains highly invisible in discussions around race,” in New York and around the country, said Vanessa Leung, the co-executive director of the New York-based Coalition for Asian-American Children and Families.
In recent conversations with the chancellor, Ms. Leung said she felt heartened that he was “learning” more about the community.
Asian-Americans are the poorest immigrant group in New York, and about 70 percent of the city’s Asian public school students live in poverty.
The large and ethnically diverse community does not hold a monolithic view on school integration or Mr. Carranza, and the chancellor has support from some elected officials, integration activists and educators. The city’s school system is about 70 percent black and Hispanic, 15 percent white and 16 percent Asian-American.
But even Asian-Americans who strongly support integration are frustrated that the city has focused so narrowly on a handful of schools mostly attended by poor Asian-American students.
There are nearly 1,800 public schools in New York, including high-performing, highly selective schools and largely white and middle-class schools like Beacon High School that have admissions systems controlled by the city. The specialized schools are unique for having admissions processes dictated by the state.
“I don’t think it’s by accident that Carranza went after those schools,” said Syed Ali, a Brooklyn parent and professor of sociology at Long Island University, adding, “Carranza doesn’t go after hard targets.”
Some white parents who have children in high-performing schools have aligned with Asian-Americans to fuel a new wave of parent activism.
One such group, Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, was founded by white and Asian parents in response to a recommendation from a de Blasio-appointed panel that the city scrap its current gifted and talented system. Nearly 75 percent of students in the city’s gifted classes are white or Asian-American.
While it is highly unlikely that the mayor, who has final say, will approve the proposal, Mr. Carranza has all but endorsed it.
Lucas Liu, a PLACE founder and elected parent leader in Manhattan, said he became more politically active because of what he considers “this vindictive mentality that the chancellor has created and fostered, of taking something away from white and Asian students.”
PLACE and the chancellor’s other critics have recently broadcast what they believe is mounting evidence of the chancellor’s bias against Asians.
Last fall, a black member of an elected parent council in Brooklyn referred to Asian parents and children as “yellow” and “yellow folks” on an email chain. Parents appealed to the chancellor to fire the parent, Jackie Cody.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Carranza called the remark “unacceptable” but said the chancellor would not dismiss Ms. Cody, citing the independence of parent councils. Some parents said a much stronger response was warranted.
Ms. Cody apologized and said she did not know the term was offensive. The email chain shows that Yiatin Chu, an Asian-American member of PLACE, referred to Asians as having “yellow” skin on the thread before Ms. Cody made her comment.
In January, Mr. Carranza abruptly left a town-hall meeting in Queens after he was shouted down by mostly white and Asian-American parents concerned about safety at a local middle school. The chancellor later accused parents of “grandstanding," called the meeting “a setup” and declared that some of his critics were racist.
He eventually apologized, but not before sparring about the incident on Twitter with Ms. Meng, the Congresswoman.
Amy Hsin, a public school parent and professor of sociology at Queens College, defended the chancellor’s efforts to push his agenda and said the incidents have become a distraction from the urgent problem of segregation.
“There are elements within the community that are weaponizing this anger to create discontent and an environment of hostility because they don’t want to integrate public schools, including reforms that would benefit other low-income Asians,” she said, adding that she has been called a race traitor for being a member of the panel that recommended an overhaul of gifted and talented.
“The anger has grown so much that I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done,” Ms. Hsin said.
If there is any chance for Mr. Carranza to act on his sweeping rhetoric about inequality, “there needs to be better communication that integration is about everyone,” said Andre Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies education.
While segregation has been particularly harmful to black children throughout American history, Mr. Perry said, research has shown that integration can benefit all students.
“Erasing anti-black legislation does not mean you are anti-everyone else.”
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