The Revolt of the Unwoke

If the land of woke has a capital, it’s San Francisco. Which makes it all the more extraordinary that the City by the Bay has now become ground zero for a revolt by unwoke moms and dads.

Part of this is Asian-Americans awakening to progressive plans to sacrifice their children in the name of equity and diversity. Another part is ordinary citizens pushing back against the dividing of America into white oppressors and nonwhite oppressed. Still another is parents and alumni alarmed by the board’s lowering of standards at one of America’s most elite public high schools by elevating race categories over merit.

In San Francisco these strains have come together in a bid to recall three members of the city’s highly unpopular school board. The targets are President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison M. Collins. To force a recall election, pro-recall forces need 51,325 signatures for each candidate by Sept. 7.

They already have more than half what they need, and say they now have the resources to hire professional signature gatherers for the rest. Polling shows 69% of San Francisco parents back the school-board recall—far more than the 43% in a poll last week who support recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom in the election scheduled for Sept. 14. A recent San Francisco Chronicle headline warns that if there is a recall election, the board members are “in danger.”

What has the board done to make itself so unpopular? Consider what it didn’t do. San Francisco was one of the last public school systems to reopen. It was so bad, at one point the city itself sued the school district.