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American from Africa punished for claiming to be "African American"
Severely EFL
Officials disciplined students who [advocated] a white student from South Africa for the school's "Distinguished African American Student Award." Peggy Rupprecht, spokeswoman for the Westside Community Schools district, said administrators at Westside High School discovered more than a hundred of the posters throughout the school first thing Monday â Martin Luther King Jr. Day. "The content of the posters, they believed, was inappropriate and insensitive to some members of our school community," Rupprecht said.
| When it's unlawful â in this case, not allowed by the rules â to be "insensitive," then you're on the way to true repression. When I die and go to hell, my punishment will probably be having to spend eternity walking on eggs to avoid offending the overly sensitive. |
The award has been given the last eight years to an outstanding black student as part of the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, she said. The poster pictured junior Trevor Richards, 16, smiling and making a thumbs-up sign. A message at the top encouraged votes for him for next year's award. Karen Richards said her son and his friends were not trying to hurt anyone. "My son is not a racist," she told the Omaha World-Herald. "He has black friends, friends from Bangladesh and Egypt. Color has never been an issue in our home."
| Of course, he couldn't be a racist if he wanted to be, which I consider to be a bad thing. In this case, he's too young to actually understand the term. He's a high school student. He's a goof. All high school students are goofs in one way or another. And the school administration utterly lacks any vestige of a sense of humor. I'd call the school administration intrinsically racist, as well as oppressively authoritarian. I stand by the boy's right to like or dislike individual members of all races. I heartily condemn the school's "protected species" approach to categorizing its students. |
Two of her son's friends were disciplined along with him, she said. A fourth student was punished for circulating a petition Tuesday criticizing the practice of recognizing only black student achievement with the award. Tylena Martin, a junior, said the poster had been on the door to her homeroom class where she is the only black student. She said she felt hurt by the posters and the backlash that ensued.
| Tylena, also a goof, should work on getting a life. |
According to 2002-2003 state statistics, 56 Of Westside's 1,632 students are black.
Well he is African and American... I guess that skin color is all that matters to some folks - and this time its not the KKK. Whatever happened to Dr King's statement that we "should not be judged by the color of our skin but the content of our character" -- that sound too Republican for the liberals these days?
Posted by: OldSpook 2004-01-24 |
