Wisconsin school district holds t-shirt contest for BLM group some consider antisemitic

A school district in Wisconsin is holding a t-shirt design contest for students to promote a controversial organization critics accuse of having antisemitic and socialist ties.

The group, called Black Lives Matter at School (BLMS), has sparked backlash for a statement after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel this month, accusing Israel of “settler colonialism, land dispossession, occupation, blockade, apartheid, and attempted genocide of millions of Palestinians.” 

Milwaukee Public Schools first posted the contest on Oct. 12, several days before BLMS shared its statement on Oct. 17. However, the group has publicly expressed similar views in the past, 

BLMS argues in its statement that what students are taught “must include Palestinian existence, resistance, culture, global contributions, and the ongoing struggle to realize a free Palestine.” It also claims the “ways that U.S. imperialism has fueled and supported apartheid and war crimes” must be “directly” named. 

The statement links to a handful of resources, the first of which is called Decolonize Palestine, a website devoted to persuading others of the “Palestinian people’s struggle against Zionist and Israeli settler-colonialism, which has been intent on erasing Palestinians and claiming their lands for over a century.” 

In section called “Rainbow washing,” the site suggests Israel propagandizes the world about how inclusive it is. “From appeals to environmentalism to claims of women empowerment, learn about the myriad ways in which Israel seeks to improve its dismal world image,” the website says.  

But support for such views is nothing new for BLMS. 

In July 2022, the group endorsed Democratic Socialists of America’s Educators for Palestine Summer Series, Learning Toward Liberation: Rooting Our Pedagogy of Palestine in Humanity and Justice,” which had sessions related to anti-Zionist views. 

Neither is the district’s relationship with the organization new, as it appears to have participated in the BLMS “Week of Action” as early as 2019, according to one school document online.  

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors also adopted a resolution, known as the Black Lives Matter Resolution in 2015, and later adopted the BLMS resolution in 2018. 

The BLMS contest in the district asked students to submit a t-shirt design by Oct. 19. The winner will be selected and announced in November, and the student will receive a $100 gift card and four t-shirts,” the flier said, as shared by Parents Defending Education. 

Since the contest has gone viral on social media and received criticism, the webpage from the school district appears to have been removed. 

The Lion reached out to the Milwaukee Public Schools for comment, but received no response at time of publication.