NC Black pastor’s speech saying school diversity is ‘wasting taxpayer dollars’ goes viral

A local pastor’s anti-LGBTQ speech denouncing the Wake County school system’s diversity efforts as failing Black students has gone viral on social media.

John Amanchukwu told the Wake County school board on Tuesday that the $1 million a year it’s spending on its Office of Equity Affairs is not helping Black students. Instead, Amanchukwu accused North Carolina’s largest school district of focusing on making LGBTQ students feel comfortable and grooming children to be “the next pervert.”

“As we talk about inclusion and making sure that the trans student feels comfortable and the queer student feels comfortable, what does that have to do with reading, writing and arithmetic?” Amanchukwu said during the public comment portion of the board meeting.

“As we are teaching cultural Marxism and grooming children to be the next pervert, we are damaging our kids in this public school system, and it needs to stop.”

Ryan Fournier, a conservative activist and the founder of Students For Trump, praised Amanchukwu on Twitter. Fournier’s tweet of the speech had drawn more than 200,000 views and more than 12,800 retweets, quote tweets and likes as of Thursday afternoon.

“This pastor in NC nailed it while giving this speech to the woke Wake County school board,” Fournier tweeted. “God Bless this guy!”

Opposition to comments

Some people were more critical of Amanchukwu’s comments, especially those directed toward LGBTQ students.

“Idk...maybe feeling like your life isn’t going to be threatened helps you to perform better in school,” Benjamin Peters replied in response to Fournier’s tweet.

Renee Sekel, a Wake parent, tweeted her opposition to Amanchukwu’s speech.

“A kid who is being bullied; who is made to feel uncomfortable in their own skin, who must hide who they are, is not in a great place to learn reading and writing,” Sekel tweeted. “ALL kids deserve to be safe and comfortable at school. That essential fact doesn’t change.”

David Blackwelder, a past Republican candidate for Wake County commissioner and Wake County sheriff, tweeted that “Amanchukwu is a good man, a servant of god.”

“But I wish he would reconsider his position,” Blackwelder continued. “I have personally known many in the LGBT community who are conservative, but are dismissed for their sexual preferences. God loves ALL people, regardless of their standing or beliefs.”

The speech comes as voters will decide Nov. 8 on who will lead the Wake County school board. Conservative school board candidates have made a campaign issue of questioning the kinds of books available in school libraries.

‘Wasting taxpayer dollars’

Amanchukwu is the youth pastor at Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh. He regularly leads protests outside an abortion clinic in Raleigh as a city ambassador for the group Love Life, The News & Observer previously reported.

Amanchukwu was also among a group of Black pastors who spoke out in support of House Bill 2, the 2016 North Carolina law that required people in schools and other government buildings to use the bathroom matching the gender on their birth certificate, The N&O previously reported. The law has since been rescinded.

Amanchukwu’s speeches against abortion and Critical Race Theory have led to multiple appearances on conservative podcasts and talk shows. He’s also spoken at school board meetings in North Carolina and Virginia.

On Tuesday, Amanchukwu opened his speech by quoting from the Bible and telling Wake County school board members that God will judge them for the decisions they’re making on behalf of children.

Amanchukwu then pointed to how, according to 2020-21 school year state test data, 78% of Wake’s Black students in grades 3-8 were not proficient in math and 66% were not proficient in reading. Test scores dropped sharply in Wake County and nationally during the pandemic.

“We’re wasting taxpayer dollars putting money towards this diversity office that’s not benefiting those who need it the most,” Amanchukwu said.

The numbers improved slightly in the 2021-22 school year to 69% of Black students not proficient in math and 63% not proficient in reading. But Black students are still passing at much lower rates than white students in Wake and nationally.

Wake is working on developing an equity policy and says that promoting equity will help meet the needs of its diverse student body.

But Amanchukwu said Black students need school choice, which refers to alternatives to traditional public schools such as charter schools, homeschooling and vouchers to attend private schools.

“We’re wasting money on a diversity, equity and inclusion office while we are failing Black students ‘in the name of diversity,’” Amanchukwu said. “You know, in the Jim Crow era, Black students were locked out of the public school system. But today, they are trapped in.”