Discrimination

[OnyxCougar]

From cnn.com
Students disciplined for award campaign
Posters promoted white student for African American award

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- Officials disciplined students who papered their nearly all-white high school with posters advocating 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 -- 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.

Citing privacy policies, Rupprecht said she could not specify what the penalties were or how many students were disciplined. But the mother of the boy pictured on the posters said he was suspended for two days.

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."

"It was a very innocent thing," she said.

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, she said.

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.

According to 2002-2003 state statistics, 56 Of Westside's 1,632 students are black.

[Beestie]

A fourth student was punished for circulating a petition Tuesday criticizing the practice of recognizing only black student achievement with the award, she said.

What next? Good grief.

[dar512]

I don't hold with treating others differently based on the color of their skin. But I think that goes both ways. Is there an American Indian award? How about a German-American award? The list could go on. Why not have a distinguished student award, and call it a day? Then the issue would never have arisen.

Another thing is the play on words that, I think, was intended on the PC term "African American". There are a lot of shades of people from Africa. Would the issue be different if the posters were of a student from Egypt?

This is the kind of nonsense you can get into when you try to treat symptoms instead of problems. People have to learn to see all people as brothers. Are we there yet? Not by a darn sight. Was the school's response helpful. I don't think so.

If they want to honor MLK day. Why don't they give an award to the student (white, black, or in between) who best exemplifies the principles he stood for?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Would the issue be different if the posters were of a student from Egypt?

Probably not, Dar512, as the white student was from Africa. Your post is spot on.

[FileNotFound]

I think if people want racism to go away, the first thing that must go is "racial pride".

That means affirmative action must go, that means "negro college fund" must go, that means "hisoricaly black" colleges must go and things like "Society of Black Engineers" and awards that only "Affrican Americans" are eligble for.

It's sickening frankly. You ever seen a "white college fund" or a "Society of White Engineers"?

[mwbEEf]

You ever seen a "white college fund" or a "Society of White Engineers"?

HAHAH, no way! That'd be racist!

[Elspode]

Originally posted by dar512
If they want to honor MLK day. Why don't they give an award to the student (white, black, or in between) who best exemplifies the principles he stood for?

Because if they gave it to anyone but an African-American, there is a high likelihood that it would be seen as an insult.

[wolf]

I find this incredibly amusing, as the awardee was probably the ONLY actual African-American in the class.

His other classmates were Americans.

(I think I've ranted on the hyphenated American thing before, so I'll stop here.)

[ladysycamore]

Originally posted by FileNotFound
I think if people want racism to go away, the first thing that must go is "racial pride".

That means affirmative action must go, that means "negro college fund" must go, that means "hisoricaly black" colleges must go and things like "Society of Black Engineers" and awards that only "Affrican Americans" are eligble for.

It's sickening frankly. You ever seen a "white college fund" or a "Society of White Engineers"?

Funny: the only people that I hear saying things like this are the ones that are not truly affected by racism...intesting.

Don't tell people to get over the past when it's still haunting their
present. "Jeff"

[russotto]

Right. Because only black people are truly affected by racism. And any black people who DO say such things are anything from abberations to hypocrites (if they've benefited from that which they oppose) to race traitors, right?

[juju]

Originally posted by russotto
Right. Because only black people are truly affected by racism.

She didn't say that...

[dar512]

Originally posted by ladysycamore
Funny: the only people that I hear saying things like this are the ones that are not truly affected by racism...intesting.

I don't think you have to be a horse to understand horse racing. I don't think you have to be black to be offended by racism.

But I didn't see any racism in this story. At least, I didn't see the racism you saw in it. I saw some kids trying to make a joke about political correctness, racial terminology and maybe reverse racism. If only African-Americans are allowed to get this award, isn't that racism of another sort?

I'd like to see a world where all people are able to succeed based solely on their merits, not on their skin color, nation of origin, or choice of religion (or lack of religion for that matter).

[FileNotFound]

I think I can honestly say that I am affected by racism when I get a smaller scholarship and am eligble for fewer scholarships simply because I'm white.

But of course thats not your idea of racism....no no no. Thats affirmative action!

Here's a little something for you. When I started my freshment year at Drexel in Information Systems in 2000, we have about 30 black/hispanic students with massive scholarships. It is now my 4th year (5 year program), fairly sure only about 10 of those are left. It gets better, they all had scholarships of some sort - yet the ones that I talked to had lesser SAT scores and school GPA than a friend of mine who had NO scholarship.

I'm not trying to say that black/hispanic studnets are stupid. I know they're not. But they do get the "easy" way in, get more benifits and yet claim to be oppressed. They get into colleges with lesser grades, lesser desire to learn, get scholarships and then drop out. Those 20 spots could have been filled by more deserving students and the money could have been better distributed.

Yeah I don't know racism at all...

[OnyxCougar]

Originally posted by ladysycamore

Funny: the only people that I hear saying things like this are the ones that are not truly affected by racism...intesting.

And how do you define "truly affected by racism"?

[FelinesAreFine]

Why can't we all just be Americans? What ever happened to American pride? I thought there was this huge fight for integration a couple decades back and all these black thises and negro thats are just segregating the nation. Why can't there just be awards for outstanding students where ALL students can participate and not just the blacks? It's sad, just sad.