Back to the 'Hood
Submitted by scharrison on Tue, 11/30/2010 - 7:00pm
And into the open arms of the gangs:
Three citizen members of the committee appointed by new board members came to today’s meeting with a list of changes affecting large numbers of Southeast Raleigh students.
Tracey Noble, the community member for board member Deborah Prickett, proposed numerous moves that would send Southeast Raleigh students out of schools in North Raleigh. David Williams, the community member for Tedesco, proposed moves to send Southeast Raleigh students out of Garner High and East Garner Middle back to their communities. Ann Rouleau, the community member for board chairman Ron Margiotta, proposed moving Southeast Raleigh students out of schools in western Wake.
"What a coincidence! We all had the same idea!" A blatantly, transparently racist idea, that is.
White liberals need to be careful/thoughtful about this issue
Let me start by saying that I am making an assumption that you are White scharrison. Also, I offer these comments constructively, not as a flame.
I understand and share your anger about the Wake County school situation - but I believe that your portrayal of neighborhoods in Southeast Greensboro is troubling - this is not your "hood" and your use of this term comes across as derogatory. There are many positive things happening in these neighborhoods - they are not controlled by gangs - which is an overstated threat, primarily used to scare White people and continue stereotypes. Children from these neighborhoods can and do, in fact, learn and thrive without a white middle class child sitting next to them. As a White liberal myself, I am careful about throwing the racist word around - so I will refrain from calling your portrayal racist.
The framing of the Wake County schools situation is overly simplistic. We need to see the right wing agenda for what it is and call it out - but we also need to use this as an opportunity to figure out how to help all children learn and thrive - many children were not learning and thriving under the old school board. So the fight is not just about returning to the old status quo - it is more complicated and nuanced than that and we need to elevate the discussion.
Randy Johnston
I'm in south Raleigh (this is Raleigh not Greensboro)
...nearly every day.
And the author's primary blog is most certainly not overly simplistic.
Fewer children will thrive under the new board's plan -- for reasons of reduced resources for ALL children in the system. That's exactly what the new board's plans have already and will continue to result in (reduced grants, increased building costs, increased transportation costs, etc).
You do little here to elevate the discussion by implying someone is racist.
I'm all for elevating the discussion
But you have to have a discussion before it can be elevated. Wake County citizens (voters) have demonstrated a lack of concern over what happens to their education system, and they need to be woken up.
The article I referenced shows a pattern of behavior, and I believe that pattern is racist in nature. If pointing out that pattern to readers makes me a racist, then you can expect even more racism from me in the future.
And yes, I'm a white male liberal, who is allergic to country music and can only take about three laps of NASCAR before frantically grabbing the remote. ;)