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Shino Tanikawa, the newest member of the state Board of Regents, is a leftist who believes “toxic whiteness” is everywhere — and has a history of griping about it on social media
The state Legislature made the controversial appointment of Tanikawa, 59, to represent Manhattan and the Bronx in the state’s top educational bureaucracy on Tuesday.
“Guess what? Toxic whiteness is EVERYWHERE in this society. Period,” she wrote in 2019 in a thread defending ex-schools chancellor Richard Carranza.
Tanikawa, who advised former Mayor Bill de Blasio on school issues, also fumed on mayoral control of city schools in 2019: “No more ‘control’ – we don’t want to be controlled, especially by a white man.”
Tanikawa, who lives in Soho with her white husband, tweeted in another 2019 Carranza thread: “[T]oo many Asians are aligning with the white power structure rather than being allies to our black and Latinx brothers and sisters,”
She tweeted in 2019 that the notion that “an anti-white person of color cannot be a racist” is “correct.”
“You must NOT be colorblind,” she wrote the same year.
The State Education Department said in a statement announcing her appointment that Tanikawa — who describes herself as Asian-American — would “empower … all students regardless of race.”
Tanikawa’s children, now adults, all attended public schools with selective admissions, which she now opposes.
She’s a longtime member of Manhattan’s sharply-split Community Education Council 2, where she tangled with then-president Maud Maron, a public defender who is now running for Congress.
“I have known Shino for years and worked with her for many years. She is an extremist ideological zealot,’” Maron said told The Post. “She is in the grip of a cult-like belief system that says tests are bad and racist, academic success is only an indicator of privilege and wrong-think.”
In a blistering open letter to Maron in 2020, Tanikawa wrote: “I have no interest collaborating with you on policy positions until you exhibit your commitment to anti-racism work.”
That contradicted an oath Tanikawa took as a political appointee to CEC 2 that she would work with elected members, Maron said.
The Soho resident also bad-mouthed Parents Defending Education — a non-profit that fights to remove identity politics from classrooms — as “Parents Defending Eugenics.”
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) slammed Tanikawa’s appointment in a letter sent Friday to Senate and Assembly leadership, demanding Albany “stop” it.
“Not only has she made some very racist remarks — anti-white, anti-Asian remarks — some of her actions point to very radical motivations,” he told The Post. “This is a huge mistake. … There’s no reason to appoint somebody with a past like that.”
Tanikawa has her defenders.
“She’s one of the most conscientious, hard-working, brilliant and passionate people I know,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. “As a parent activist she is highly-regarded by most parents.”
Tanikawa declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Susan Edelman
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