Separate and Unequal in Ann Arbor
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Instapundit links The Blog Prof on an Ann Arbor elementary school that banned white students from a field trip to hear an African American rocket scientist. The principal defended the exclusion because the speaker is a special inspiration for young black students.
I’m curious what President Obama would think given his recent decision to provide increased and targeted funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities … just because they are black. There may be a legal basis for his decision but, in theory, what’s the difference between granting black students special access and granting black colleges special funding?
— DRJ
Sad but typical of the degenerate left.
HeavenSent (a9126d) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:20 pmI don’t care what the Mighty O thinks. I want this principal to be made to face his own bigoted, student damaging behavior. Perhaps he could be made to read MLK’s “I have a Dream” speech aloud at an assembly, and then explain how his actions hindered MLK’s goals.
htom (412a17) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:21 pmI wonder if the rocket scientist “inspired” the students by telling them how Obama defunded NASA. Probably not.
Leviticus (30ac20) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:26 pmMy take away from the Ann Arbor school is that racism is good as long as its all about preserving the race. Quite the message to be sending to young impressionable kids in Ann Arbor.
whocares (99c859) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:31 pmThe real equal protection problem for me is that the DOJ would leap to this if the races were reversed to favor Holder and Obama’s racism.
Like election issues, they are simply not applying the laws equally. This should result in severe and instant sanctions, loss of fed funding, prosecutions. I realize that the feds should just stay out of our schools, which is another great example of how conservatives are told to abide by a different rulebook. Liberals get to stomp on issues they don’t like. We just complain on blogs and PTA meetings. Maybe we’ll get an apology?
Dustin (b54cdc) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:38 pmRacism is wrong unless I’m doing it…because I have a really good reason.
JHE (9284aa) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:43 pmWhat part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do not these people understand?
AD - RtR/OS! (5b0773) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:44 pmOh, Right! It was the “intent” of the Congress to only apply it to Blacks.
***comment on JG removed by poster***
You mean the principal thought a black scientist also couldn’t serve as an inspiration to white students? Who’s the racist now?
Rochf (ae9c58) — 5/5/2010 @ 2:49 pmThe principal clearly is not a rocket scientist.
Larry Reilly (fadcab) — 5/5/2010 @ 3:08 pmMy understanding is the Supreme Court ruled that racism is OK when it is used to reward favored groups (currently blacks, non white latinos and some Asians that self-identify as downtrodden and are underachievers.)
According to our intelligentsia, as articulated by Sandra Day, this overt racism is perfectly OK for a few decades. The reasoning includes heavy reliance on a somewhat unproven theory that sitting next to people of a different race improves everyone’s well being, intellectual prowess and general happiness. Doing this for a couple decades evidently inoculates everyone involved and then we stop overt, government sanctioned racism.
I do not blame a teacher who has been indoctrinated as part of obtaining an education degree or teaching credential in not understanding much about the little details related to what is sanctioned racism and what isn’t.
chris (2930fd) — 5/5/2010 @ 3:10 pmHuh
So the message sent to the kids is that they need special attention in order to succeed?
And imagine what the black rocket scientist could have achieved if he hadn’t had the distraction of white people around him. Think about it, waiters, classmates, bank tellers, project groups at work… my god… how did this poor black man ever succeed at anything much less become a rocketeer?
Steve G (7d4c78) — 5/5/2010 @ 3:23 pmHubert Humphrey, in the debates about the Civil Rights Act, swore that, if any racial preferences resulted from this act, he would eat the bill, page by page. Do you think we should dig him up ? Of course, he had an escape clause, like they all do.
“If the Senator can find in Title VII … any language which provides that an employer will have to hire on the basis of percentage or quota related to color, race, religion, or national origin, I will start eating the pages one after another, because it is not in there.”
I was struck by this because I had always thought that Humphrey had said something like: “If this bill brings about quotas, I will eat it.” Instead, he had said: “If this bill contains language mandating quotas, I will eat it.”
Mike K (2cf494) — 5/5/2010 @ 3:26 pmOf course the bill didn’t contain language calling for quotas, and it even had a proviso stating that the bill could not be interpreted as requiring preferences. So Humphrey’s big promise, which conservatives lay so much stress on, was meaningless. The question was not whether the bill had language mandating quotas, but whether the bill, regardless of its language, would in fact lead to quotas. And indeed it did.
Wrong on so many levels.
Maybe the principal lectured the other kids on white privilege when he got angry at them after black kids returned from the field trip.
Our educators only have the bestest interests of the chirren in mind, or as they protested in Illinois, RAISE MY TAXES!!!!!
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 5/5/2010 @ 3:34 pmLet the Balkanization of America continue for Democrat political gain. Shameful, just shameful.
in_awe (44fed5) — 5/5/2010 @ 3:34 pmI would agree with Chris that this behavior is wrong and counterproductive in many ways, but it is not surprising and to “make an example” of the teacher would be counterproductive and almost unjust in selective application as well.
Comment by Mike K
But what was his intent?
MD in Philly (ea3785) — 5/5/2010 @ 3:38 pmThis is so wrong.
PatAZ (9d1bb3) — 5/5/2010 @ 4:01 pmWait a second. I thought rocket scientists were German.
Birdbath (8501d4) — 5/5/2010 @ 4:05 pmI don’t know the socio-economic level of these particular African-American students but, if it’s at the lower level, then what’s the big deal about giving them a little extra push. These kids probably don’t have too many role models to look up to in their neighborhood, so why should anyone care about a one time field trip. The principal could have handled it better, but it’s really a pretty minor thing.
jimboster (fe0b27) — 5/5/2010 @ 4:09 pmOnly the one’s who speak Austrian.
AD - RtR/OS! (5b0773) — 5/5/2010 @ 4:12 pmI don’t know the socio-economic level of these particular African-American students but, if it’s at the lower level, then what’s the big deal about giving them a little extra push
It’s one thing to give a push to those on the poor end of the socio-economic spectrum. If they’d prohibited kids whose families make more than $xx, it would have been a different act.
But basing it on race is something that the Constitution explicitly doesn’t allow the state to do.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/5/2010 @ 4:46 pmjimboster-
There’s never anything wrong with encouraging people, especially children.
But when you give a special privilege to a group of children because they are black and make it clear to the white kids they are not wanted around, what message does it communicate? The typical 4th grader isn’t going to say, “Oh yes, it is only reasonable that I have to stay here and do boring stuff while the other kids get to visit someone who makes rockets because of things that happened anywhere from 40 to 240 years ago.
The child will likely get one of two messages:
1) What did I ever do to deserve getting left out?
2) Why do they get special treatment, just because they are black? What’s that about?
In either case what they learned back in February Black History Month has just been shown to be meaningless. “I don’t understand why people make Martin Luther King Jr. to be a hero when they don’t do what he said. He wanted his grandchildren playing with white grandchildren and everybody getting along, but they don’t want me around.”
Besides, if anyone ever saw a movie named “October Sky” they might see that sometimes little white kids need to overcome obstacles too.
MD in Philly (ea3785) — 5/5/2010 @ 4:52 pmThe Democrats have learned these things:
* Create – then exploit – a racial divide
* Corrupt the voting system
* Corrupt the naturalization and immigration system
* Use the U.S. Treasury to pay off what they view as their key constituencies to further entrench their political power
They will use these as tools to ruin this nation.
GeneralMalaise (33f99a) — 5/5/2010 @ 5:27 pmI don’t know the socio-economic level of these particular African-American students but, if it’s at the lower level, then what’s the big deal about giving them a little extra push.
Bigotry is wrong, and patronizing students helps no one. These students were racially divided and both were demeaned.
One set was denied listening to the speaker’s experiences based on the color of their skin. The other set received a condescending message about their inability to compete and achieve on an equal playing field (ie, they are so oppressed –victimized, stupid, unprivileged, incapable, etc — they need special help), because of the color of their skin.
This racist behavior is pure leftist thinking — justifying an immoral position as moral behavior, and doing so with without any regard to rational and consistent constructs of morally-based principles. In short, hollow values and false ethics.
Pons Asinorum (770c6d) — 5/5/2010 @ 5:35 pmThe practical effect of these kind of “educational policies” is that white and Asian students will leave the public school system of Ann Arbor, either by going to private schools or moving to a better school districts, and let the black kids waste 13 years of their youth learning ebonics and political correctness. Like what happened in Chicago where only 8% of the kids in CPS are white.
nk (db4a41) — 5/5/2010 @ 5:35 pmSTUPID
T
U
P
I
D
on so many levels.
Ira (28a423) — 5/5/2010 @ 5:40 pmI don’t care what the Mighty O thinks. I want this principal to be made to face his own bigoted, student damaging behavior. Perhaps he could be made to read MLK’s “I have a Dream” speech aloud at an assembly, and then explain how his actions hindered MLK’s goals.
Comment by htom — 5/5/2010 @ 2:21 pm
+1000
no one you know (105ce8) — 5/5/2010 @ 6:12 pmWhat do you suppose would be the reaction if an elementary school principal in a city took the white students (and only the white students) to visit with a white, American-born NBA player? After all, the NBA is overwhelmingly black and even among the white players a large portion of them come from Europe. Should white kids get to meet a bona fide American-born white NBA player so that they too can dream of a career where their race is vastly underrepresented? Somehow, I don’t think there would be a whole lot of support for this.
JVW (bf4fc7) — 5/5/2010 @ 6:32 pmYou’re all a bunch of colorblind racists!
The Irony Czar (88eebb) — 5/5/2010 @ 6:39 pmhey there,
don’t know if ya’ll know about any of this but over the weekend we had a little flood here in middle tenn, only killed 19 people, 10 in nashville alone. well this is from a local writer who says it much better than I can….
Allow me a moment to step away from the usual voice of this website.
What I am about to write has absolutely nothing to do with hockey.
If you live outside of Nashville, you may not be aware, but our city was hit by a 500-year flood over the last few days. The national news coverage gave us 15 minutes, but went back to focusing on a failed car bomb and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While both are clearly important stories, was that any reason to ignore our story? It may not be as terror-sexy as a failed car bomb or as eco-sexy as an oil spill, but that’s no reason to be ignored.
The Cumberland River crested at its highest level in over 80 years. Nashville had its highest rainfall totals since records began. People drowned. Billions of dollars in damage occurred. It is the single largest disaster to hit Middle Tennessee since the Civil War. And yet…no one knows about it.
Does it really matter? Eventually, it will…as I mentioned, there are billions of dollars in damage. It seems bizarre that no one seems to be aware that we just experienced what is quite possibly the costliest non-hurricane disaster in American history. The funds to rebuild will have to come from somewhere, which is why people need to know. It’s hard to believe that we will receive much relief if there isn’t a perception that we need it.
But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own.
Some will be quick to find fault in the way rescue operations were handled, but the fact of the matter is that the catastrophe could not have been prevented and it is simply ignorant beyond all reason to suggest otherwise. It is a flood. It was caused by rain. You can try to find a face to stick this tragedy to, but you’ll be wrong.
Parts of Nashville that could never even conceivably be underwater were underwater. Some of them still are. Opry Mills and the Opryland Hotel are, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. People died sitting in standstill traffic on the Interstate. We saw boats going down West End. And, of course, we all saw the surreal image of the portable building from Lighthouse Christian floating into traffic and being destroyed when cars were knocked into it. I’m still having trouble comprehending all of it.
And yet…life will go on. We’ll go back to work, to school, to our lives…and we’ll carry on. In a little over a month, I’ll be on this website talking about the draft. In October, we’ll be discussing the new Predators’ season with nary a thought of these past few days. But in a way, they changed everyone in this town. We now know that that it can happen to us…but also know that we can handle it.
Because we are Nashville.
thanks for letting me vent
rol
rain of lead (621b8a) — 5/5/2010 @ 7:19 pmnk:
Yes, and at some point hopefully everyone — black, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc. — will embrace vouchers and let people decide for themselves where and how to educate their children.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 5/5/2010 @ 7:21 pm29
I noticed that. You are not alone.
Mr. Pink (bb8267) — 5/5/2010 @ 8:08 pm________________________________________
I don’t know the socio-economic level of these particular African-American students but, if it’s at the lower level, then what’s the big deal about giving them a little extra push.
If they’re from a lower-income background, and if the school has a fairly high (or growing) number of black students, then it probably will become predominantly black as time goes by. That’s been the basic trend for decades, before, during and now well after public consciousness was first raised about civil rights and diversity. IOW, a high percentage of white (and better-class black and Latino) America is the epitome of limousine liberalism.
Meanwhile, since students of Asian background represent a disproportinate share of students at some major universities, particularly on both coasts, they can observe the lunacy throughout so-called minority (and mostly mindlessly liberal/Democrat) America and proclaim “c’est la vie, baby!”
As for the principal of the grade school in Ann Arbor, who happens to be black, if his campus does end up with a mostly black student body, he better not start groaning about “segregation! wahhh, waahhh! separate and not equal!!” After all, he’ll then have the luxury of no longer needing to worry about offending any white kids or causing a controversy because of his idiotic racial politics.
Mark (411533) — 5/5/2010 @ 8:11 pmNo better example of the liberal credo: Give privilege (special treatment) to the few, in the interest of “equality”.
Or, as Marx put it: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
Or, as Robin Hood put it: Steal from the “rich”, give to the “poor”.
I wonder if that principal thinks that he stole something from those non-black children . . . such as a learning opportunity — or a chance to see first-hand that racial stereotypes are not true [talk about an educational experience!]
Icy Texan (ee62c3) — 5/5/2010 @ 9:00 pmrain of lead,
I’ve been following the Tennessee floods. It’s incredible how quickly the floodwaters rose and how deep the water is. The stories of hardship and death are horrible. Other stories of sacrifice and valor are uplifting. It’s hard to know what to say except my prayers are with everyone there.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 5/5/2010 @ 9:18 pmA large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own.
rain of lead, you have brought tears to my eyes. It’s been a mean season for Tennessee, and yet it has revealed what is really the best of America. Neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers, all with the single goal of being able to live to tell. It’s a reminder to me that our best resource is not the government, but the motivated strength of family and community taking care of each other and fighting together. Resolved to press on, facing a common enemy, and determining that they will not be bested by this threat or any other threat that looms. God keep you and yours safe and thank you for commenting.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 5/5/2010 @ 10:07 pmRe the post, Pons sums it up nicely,
Bigotry is wrong, and patronizing students helps no one. These students were racially divided and both were demeaned.
What’s troubling is apparently many parents were okay with this as the article stated there had only been a handful of complaints. That suggests to me that parents have bought into the separate but equal message, are apathetic, or, as the article indicated, fear of retribution is winning out as the few who did complain remained anonymous. Regardless, none of this bodes well for any student, whether black or white.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 5/5/2010 @ 10:18 pm