POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Wake school board member gets threats and antisemitic insults for supporting DEI
By T. Keung Hui Updated February 15, 2025 10:09 AM
Wake County school board member Sam Hershey defended DEI during Tuesday’s board meeting, accusing critics of being losers and racists who want to support "mediocre white men." By Wake County Schools
A Wake County school board member is receiving threats and antisemitic insults after national coverage of his speech accusing DEI critics of being racists and “mediocre white men.”
School board member Sam Hershey said at the Feb. 4 board meeting that “mediocre white men” have been hired for 250 years solely due to their skin color and that critics say “DEI hire” in place of using a racial slur against Black people.
Fox News aired a story Thursday asking if Hershey would be reprimanded by the school district.
Libs of TikTok, which has been labeled as extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, accused Hershey of making a “racist rant” in a post on Friday on X, previously called Twitter. The post went viral, drawing more than 150,000 views and 1,300 reposts in its first two hours.
“I regret that this story is taking attention away from our schools and that it’s taking attention away from the potential devastating impact that cutting federal funding would have on public schools across this country if that were to happen,” Hershey said in a statement Friday to The News & Observer.
“Where we are as a country when it comes to education is not the fault of one party or the other (both have been in power over the last two decades) and the only way we improve academic outcomes across the country is to be working together. If we decide to do that in a meaningful way, we can give all of our students the opportunity to succeed.”
Musk: Hershey in for ‘a rude awakening’
Hershey, 47, was first elected to the school board in 2022. He was re-elected with 69% of the vote in November to represent a district that includes much of central Raleigh.
The board is officially non-partisan but Hershey is a registered Democrat. The board that oversees North Carolina’s largest school district has a 7-2 Democratic majority.
Wake County school board member Sam Hershey defended DEI during Tuesday’s board meeting, accusing critics of being losers and racists who want to support “mediocre white men.” His comments are making waves on social media. Wake County Schools
Hershey made his speech in response to President Donald Trump signing executive orders removing DEI policies and staff from federal agencies and threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that promote “discriminatory equity ideology.”
On Friday, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency announced that the U.S. Department of Education has notified all 50 state education agencies they have 14 days to remove DEI programming in all public schools. or face loss of federal funding.
Musk also personally weighed in on Hershey’s remarks, saying Friday night in a post on X that “he is in for a rude awakening.”
“I’ve heard people say DEI is racist,” Hershey said during board comments on Feb. 4. “If that’s what you believe, you know nothing about diversity, equity and inclusion and you know nothing about racism, and that speaks to you as a human being.”
Hershey, who described himself in the speech as a “slightly better than mediocre white guy,” also called DEI critics “losers.”
“This Wake County school board member Sam Hershey said what needs to be said about DEI,” the left-leaning Red Wine & Blue said Thursday in a post on Facebook. “We need more people speaking up like this at our school board meetings!”
Antisemitic attacks on Hershey
The national conservative spotlight has now turned on Hershey.
“Look at me making Fox News,” Hershey said Thursday in a post on BlueSky. “So far it’s mostly just insults with a couple of threats. Good times.”
A number of the insults have been antisemitic.
One X user called Hershey an antisemitic and profane name and said people should slap him and described his nose using a Jewish stereotype.
Multiple X users questioned Hershey calling himself white.
Hershey says he honors the traditions of his family, which include both a Jewish and Christian heritage. A 2021 Pew Research Center poll found that 92% of Jewish Americans identify themselves as white.
Some threats were not specifically antisemitic but mentioned eliminating Hershey. A common refrain from conservative critics is Hershey should be removed from the school board for his remarks.
No plans to reprimand Hershey
Fox News said it was unable to reach Wake school administrators to ask if “any reprimand or other action was being considered because of his remarks.”
School board chair Chris Heagarty told The N&O on Friday that there are no plans to reprimand Hershey. “We don’t have a policy or a practice regarding that,” Heagarty said in an interview. “It would be breaking new ground. One thing board members could do is adopt a code of conduct or board expectations, but we’d need to do that through board action.”
Heagarty echoed Hershey’s comments that the attention on the remarks has distracted people away from issues such as potential federal education funding cuts. Wake school board members have expressed concerns about how Trump is planning to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
“Mr Hershey is passionate about his beliefs and has a 1st Amendment right to express them,” Heagarty said. “But I regret how this has distracted us from urgent issues facing our public schools.”
In his statement, Hershey said he wants to move past the controversy over his remarks. “As I move past this news cycle, that I have no desire to be a part of again, I will be focused on what our schools need to succeed,” Hershey said. “Things like needing to pay teachers more, which will help fill vacancies with highly qualified people, additional funding in special education and AIG and needing the federal government to step up when it comes to feeding our students a nutritious breakfast and lunch if we are serious about making America healthy again.
“These are just a few items, and as I said, if we decide to work together as a country, we can dramatically improve academic outcomes for all students, and that is the ultimate goal in education.”
Read more at:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article300326924.html#storylink=cpy
T. Keung Hui
The News & Observer
T. Keung Hui has covered K-12 education for the News & Observer since 1999, helping parents, students, school employees and the community understand the vital role education plays in North Carolina. His primary focus is Wake County, but he also covers statewide education issues.
