Cynthia Nixon Shouted Down In School Diversity Fight

A resolution to move an Upper West Side middle school passed on Wednesday night, but not before Cynthia Nixon -- "Sex and the City" actress, Alliance for Quality Education spokeswoman, and parent at the school -- was shouted down briefly during a heated public comment session.

Nixon was stepping into a fight that has been raging on the Upper West Side for months. The fight began as a discussion about how to deal with overcrowding at public schools but has spiraled into a raging debate about class and race and privilege in Upper Manhattan. Confrontations have gotten incredibly emotional -- and personal: On this site, a commenter posing as Cynthia Nixon's fictional son, Brady, from "Sex and the City" accused his "mom" of hypocrisy. And parents at Nixon's school, called the Center School, have charged another school's parents with racism and class prejudice, citing postings from last January on the Urban Baby Web site that called Center School students "thugs."

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