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 The Pain of being Black 
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Time magazine did an article on Clarence Thomas when he was selected to the Supreme Court. There were the typical comments made that the only reason Thomas made it was because the President needed a minority to attract votes. There were also comments from the black community that Thomas was an Uncle Tom who sold out his race. I saw the same thing in Cedric's situation. Why is it so hard for people to accept a successful person of color? There is always a tendency to say that they made it because of affirmative action or there is always the comment that the person is trying to be white. Cedric, not only had to overcome the white bigotry, he also had to overcome the resistance of his own race. The system that runs things is not going away and the system can not be changed from the outside. Minorities must work within the system and make changes that will allow more access for minorities.

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John Parsons


Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:24 am
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John,

What also gets me is the fact that racial profiling is still happening. This plays right into what you are writing about. When some white police officers see a black man driving a nice car, their first reaction is, it must be stolen or let’s stop them and search for drugs. Shawn said it best in class. She brought up the point about the father coaching his son on what to do if he is ever stopped by the police. This is an issue that most white families don’t have to deal with. I believe the issue is just cut and dry racism. People cannot accept the fact that there can be hard working intelligent black people of success in certain areas. Maybe this is a simplistic point of view.

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Andy Palmer


Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:14 pm
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It is just not blacks experiencing racism, but Hispanics too. I have a student whom I am particularly worried about. He is a Hispanic child who has been with me for two years but moved to a new school just last week. Over the two years, this child's attitude became positive toward school, he started putting forth effort, and was beginning to make some progress academically. I have written about the diversity at my school before so I'll only say that the student fit well in our population. He moved to a predominantly white school with very little diversity. Unfortunately, the teachers, students, and parents at his new school are not very accepting of other races and cultures. The SIMS Operator at my school is also the SIMS Operator at this student's new school and she said that it was truly a struggle to decide which teacher would be the most accepting of him and his siblings. How can educators feel this way?!?! My thinking is that they need "to pack up and go on to the house." The reason this family had to leave our district is because the trailer park they were living in is honestly a dump and the landlord will not make any upgrades, which is another whole can of worms!

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Sandra Burchette


Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:29 pm
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I had an interesting conversation with three black students today. They told me tales of how they are followed at Walmart, pulled over and in one instance when three black students and two white students had a food fight in our cafeteria, only the black students were made to help the janitor. These kids expressed their pain and anger to me, yet they stressed that parents teach them to expect this. Why are so many of us so uninformed? Today for the first time, I felt that this is nearer to me than I knew.

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Kristine Kelley


Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:22 pm
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All of these are tales that make one want to either draw up or lash out. My question is what do we do? I feel John is on track about changing the system from within. How do we as school leaders promote a new line of thinking. I honestly thought when I was the age I am now that the problems would be gone. It was very naive of me. I, along with most of white culture, do not realize the extensiveness of the bigotry. Could character education classes even touch this subjuect in a noticible way?


Sat Feb 19, 2005 7:59 pm
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I wonder if we are teaching character education or do we have characters teaching? Will there always be someone to take the spot of the current minority group? Can you change in 50 years what took 200+ years to establish and is school the place to try? I certainly hope I work in schools that do try to model respect and honor the individual.

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Chris Sardler


Sun Feb 20, 2005 7:43 pm
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Kristine....I think so many of the "majority" population are uninformed because it is possible for them to go through life and know nothing about another culture. It is possible for many White people to be successful in life without knowing anything about those who are non-white. On the other hand, it is not possibe for someone like me to become a success without knowing about the white culture. I think some teachers are excluded because we teach students of all races and we learn about other cultures "by default".

As I said in class, my parents taught me what to expect and what I'd have to do to be successful in life. Many minority parents - black, hispanic, etc. - teach their children the same.

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Shawn Clemons
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Bunker Hill High School


Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:01 pm
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Shawn, I'm concerned with your comments here and in class concerning parents teaching their children to expect bigotry. I hope I'm not stretching when I say this, but to me it is similar to what the Japanese did to the Okinawans in WWII. They told the Okinawans to expect such terrible things from the Americans that when the Americans landed on the island on April 1, 1945 the Okinawan women threw themselves and their children off cliffs and into the ocean. I understand the need to prepare our children for what to expect in the world, but I fear this behavior invites our youth to expect and look for the wrongs and mistreatments that they have been conditioned to expect. Would it not be better to teach skills that help them overcome any type of obstacles that empede their success or to build up their self esteem so that when they experience bigotry that they can see it as of reflection of the offending person and not themselves?

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Phil Thompson


Sat Feb 26, 2005 3:56 pm
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Our jobs involve so many more things than just teaching a body of knowledge to students but, despite our best efforts, it is almost impossible to overcome the negative beliefs that children are taught in their homes. The one thing that we can and must ensure is that issues such as racism are not modeled in our schools - we must demonstrate that we care about the success of all children, we must be bold enough to speak out against those who express racist views and we should be careful not to "self-segregate" when the staff gets together. At the very least, we may be able to show our students another perspective - that others do not share the racist views they may have heard at home. Sandi Johnson


Sun Feb 27, 2005 11:40 am
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Phil....As a minority in this country, we must be on guard. Teaching a minority child what to expect in life is survival. I don't think this is similar to what the Okinawans experienced. By teaching minority children about life in the US, they're not being taught that every white person is a bigot and will mistreat them. They are taught not to take everything and everyone at face value. In turn, children can more easily overcome obstacles, because they have been fore-warned. Also, bigotry is not a reflection of the one being offended but the offender.

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Shawn Clemons
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Bunker Hill High School


Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:28 am
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I believe that the bigest problem with bigotry is that it is a part of our society. I am not saying at all that it is a good thing, our society has many faults. On the other hand, we need to think what we can do in each of our cases to change the attitude of those around us. We can't change society, but if we make a positive impact on those around us, hopefully the tide will grow and things will change. We do not know how things got to this position, but we know it took a long time and repairing the problem will also be a time consuming task. Start now, work hard, do your best in the areas you can.Ken

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Ken Robbins


Fri Mar 04, 2005 10:30 am
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