Middle-Eastern American mom slams LA Teachers’ Union for racially profiling and targeting her

The Afghan-American mom, Maryam Qudrat, slammed Unified Teachers Los Angeles for asking about her ethnicity after she gave media interviews pushing to reopen California schools.

The Unified Teachers' Los Angeles' union head made previous claims that reopening schools for in-person learning were largely driven by "wealthy white and middle-eastern parents," which led to Qudrat believing that the union racially profiled her after one of their 'researchers' asked her what ethnicity she was.

Maryam Qudrat told Fox11, the union sent her an email asking about previous media interviews and her ethnicity as part of a teachers union "research project."

The union also asked her about her class status. "I’m a mom and an educator and I want our kids to come back to school," Qudrat told Fox.

"Their conclusion is if you want schools to reopen right now, then that means you are racist against African Americans and Latinos," said Qudrat of the union. The mother of a seventh grader claims that she was targeted because of her middle-eastern descent.

In the email sent to Qudrat, the UTLA union head asked questions about her ethnicity. "Could you tell me how you racially self-identify or point me to a citation on your identity?" said Albert Lowe, a research specialist with UTLA. The union also asked her about previous media interviews, which made the mother feel particularly targeted.

"They are trying to collect data on folks like me who have been quoted in the LA Times, and they’re trying to say that if you are in favor [of] the kids coming back to school, you’re racist," said Qudrat. "If it (the email) was sent out to somebody who was African American or Latino, they would have a lawsuit on their hands."

The teachers union released a statement to Fox11 in response to the email. "The email in question is from a UTLA researcher who was attempting to ascertain the race of individuals quoted in order to assess whether or not that is a factor we could evaluate."