DISCUSS: 'Students disciplined for posters on King Day'

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:31 am

SOURCE: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u ... sid=981030

'Students disciplined for posters on King Day'

BY MICHAELA SAUNDERS
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A small group of Westside High School students plastered the school Monday with posters advocating that a white student from South Africa receive the "Distinguished African American Student Award" next year.

The students' actions on Martin Luther King Jr. Day upset several students and have led administrators to discipline four students.

The posters, placed on about 150 doors and lockers, included a picture of the junior student smiling and giving a thumbs up. The posters encouraged votes for him.

The posters were removed by administrators because they were "inappropriate and insensitive," Westside spokeswoman Peggy Rupprecht said Tuesday.

Rupprecht said the award always has been given to black students.

Westside Assistant Principal Pat Hutchings said the award has been given for eight years on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to a senior selected by teachers.

Rupprecht said disciplinary action was taken against the students involved but, citing student privacy policies, she declined to specify the penalties or what about the students' action led to them.

Karen Richards said her son, Trevor, who was pictured on the posters, was suspended for two days for hanging the posters. Two of his friends also were disciplined for hanging the posters. A fourth student, she said, was punished for circulating a petition Tuesday morning in support of the boys. The petition criticized the practice of recognizing only black student achievement with the award.

One of the school's students, Tylena Martin, said she was hurt by the posters and the backlash she said it caused.

Martin, a junior, said she is the only black student in her homeroom class, and the poster was on the door to her classroom when she arrived Monday morning.

Westside has fewer than 70 blacks out of 1,843 students this year.

Hutchings said she heard from several students about the posters Monday.

"Many students were offended," she said.

Karen Richards said her son and his friends were not trying to hurt anyone.

"My son is not a racist," she said. "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.

Richards said her family moved to Omaha from Johannesburg six years ago. Trevor, she said, "is as African as anyone."

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:21 pm

Whos the racist, the kid trying to get the award or the people offended by him because hes white?

Zilog B · Post by **Zilog B** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:25 pm

Well technically he was an African-American.....

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:30 pm

Originally posted by schlurpee
Well technically he was an African-American.....

technically, we are all human.....

Cypher · Post by **Cypher** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:36 pm

Originally posted by UOD
technically, we are all human.....

People are entirely too PC. Hyper sensitivity will never allow us to bridge our cultural differences.

koldchillah · Post by **koldchillah** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:39 pm

The dilemma of PC strikes again. Is not a white person from Africa an African American?

The school created the prejudice from the start by honoring only a black student on Martin Luther King Day. They should be honoring one student from each race and put them all up on stage TOGETHER to be honored as equals... That was part of MLK's dream.. togetherness!

Martin Luther King Day is NOT just a black holiday, its a celebration of a man who made great strides in bringing all races together..

Sure, he was black himself and much of the persecution and discrimination he was fighting was for the good of black people, but the overall effects go way beyond color.

Its a day to appreciate the tolerance that our nation has developed, not to single out black people and say "this is your day".. it wouldn't have become such a big national holiday had that been the case.

downhill · Post by **downhill** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:28 pm

Burke....discussion? What's your view of the story?

koldchillah · Post by **koldchillah** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:34 pm

Originally posted by John
The way my high school did it was to take the list of everyone who was on the 'free lunch' plan due to financial problems, and dole out awards regardless of race.

Although half the kids on the free lunch plan dressed better than me.

yep.. Florida has the free/reduced lunch scam as well. When my wife taught middle school she said over 70% of the kids were on free/reduced lunch plans but they all had the latest $100 nike's on and gold chains and crap..

That whole free lunch program is such a scam.. Its a bummer too b/c a few of the kids really do need the free lunch.. the rest are in it for the freebie b/c mom and dad work mostly under the table..

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:54 pm

Originally posted by downhill
Burke....discussion? What's your view of the story?

Yeah, does Burke have a view?

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 3:35 pm

I'll just say this, racism will never stop as long as people are seperted by race or color by people and organizations.

Such organizations like the NAACP is seperating people by race.

People have confused MLK's stance and twisted it to appear only as a 'black' thing of which it is most certainly not. It is about all races, coming together.

We must recognize that we are all 'Humans'.

torsten · Post by **torsten** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:15 pm

A little exposure of the slimy racism behind PC. &nbsp PC people want to have it both ways -- they want to hold onto the oh-so-sacred hyphenated group descriptions (except of course when European comes before the hyphen

), but they don't want to stay true to what the hyphenated term means. &nbsp All along it was about ethnicity/race -- as it always is for them. &nbsp It's just that using basic color terms doesn't suggest the loftiness and dignity that they'd like to lend to their preferred groups. &nbsp If, as the Westside spokeswoman said, they want to give the award only to "black" students, then label the award as such.

Roody · Post by **Roody** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:17 pm

Originally posted by cyPHer_138

People are entirely too PC. Hyper sensitivity will never allow us to bridge our cultural differences.

Agreed

ScottE · Post by **ScottE** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:22 pm

Everybody has the same begining and the same end. That is everyone is born and everyone dies. So how different can we really be?

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:22 pm

I ain't touching this with a 10 foot pole(not a "pole" person, but a wooden/steel stick

).

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:34 pm

Just passing through....

General_Jack_As · Post by **General_Jack_As** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:09 pm

reminds me of something I tried to do and got into trouble for at school. On campus we have a BSU, or a Black Student Union. Well i tried to join and was severly dissapointed when I found out one of the requirments for joining an extra curricular activity sponsored by our school is being a certain race. Then I tried to make our own club. I called it Krackers Kookin' Krutons. or the (KKK) For short. I made one of the requirments for joining was being white. And we were going to make our own white cooking club. Didn't go over well and my written proposal was seen as racism and I got a suspension for 5 days. I actually had a good laugh with my university counseler when she asked what the racism suspension was for....... The way it was described to me was that the BSU was not racist because they were in the minority. I say, thats bull****

cableboy · Post by **cableboy** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:02 pm

Originally posted by General_Jack_As
reminds me of something I tried to do and got into trouble for at school. On campus we have a BSU, or a Black Student Union. Well i tried to join and was severly dissapointed when I found out one of the requirments for joining an extra curricular activity sponsored by our school is being a certain race. Then I tried to make our own club. I called it Krackers Kookin' Krutons. or the (KKK) For short. I made one of the requirments for joining was being white. And we were going to make our own white cooking club. Didn't go over well and my written proposal was seen as racism and I got a suspension for 5 days. I actually had a good laugh with my university counseler when she asked what the racism suspension was for....... The way it was described to me was that the BSU was not racist because they were in the minority. I say, thats bull****

that's a riot

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:08 pm

we've gone from one extreme to the next

first it was white people persecuting black people

now the roles are reversing

can't we just balance it in the middle?

i guess not

if they can have a black union then i want a white union, gotta make it fair, right?

Massa · Post by **Massa** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:11 pm

Perhaps I can shed some light on this. I was born in South Africa and moved to Canada at the age of 7. Does this make me an African - Canadian? By the definition of the words, yes, i suppose. But i do not believe that i am. People argue to me that because i was born in Africa, that makes me more African than 90% of black people in North America. What can I say to this? I am aware of only one thing. It was the black man who inhabited Africa first, and the black man who is a "true" African. I hate to see this happening as it only serves to give a bad rep to more and more white South-Africans. In my opinion, an African - American or Canadian is someone of African descent, and that (beyond 7 - 10 generations) is not true of me.

CiscoKid · Post by **CiscoKid** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:18 pm

were white south africans british settlers?

I've always been of the mind-set that "African-American" was meaning the indignouse peoples of africa...not the imigrans...

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:21 pm

I think more people are prejudice than care to admit it. They play this "I'm not prejudice" game so long they actually believe it, and maybe even 'think' they aren't.

Thier actions speak the truth when they least expect it though.

CiscoKid · Post by **CiscoKid** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:21 pm

Originally posted by Massa
Perhaps I can shed some light on this. I was born in South Africa and moved to Canada at the age of 7. Does this make me an African - Canadian? By the definition of the words, yes, i suppose. But i do not believe that i am. People argue to me that because i was born in Africa, that makes me more African than 90% of black people in North America. What can I say to this? I am aware of only one thing. It was the black man who inhabited Africa first, and the black man who is a "true" African. I hate to see this happening as it only serves to give a bad rep to more and more white South-Africans. In my opinion, an African - American or Canadian is someone of African descent, and that (beyond 7 - 10 generations) is not true of me.

I agree with you on that point. IMHO, a person can claim a heritage only when married into that heritage

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:28 pm

Originally posted by CiscoKid
I agree with you on that point. IMHO, a person can claim a heritage only when married into that heritage

True like myself but ultimately it's the country granting permission.

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:42 pm

Originally posted by Norm
I think more people are prejudice than care to admit it. They play this "I'm not prejudice" game so long they actually believe it, and maybe even 'think' they aren't.

Thier actions speak the truth when they least expect it though.

as usual, norm speaks the truth.

Meggie · Post by **Meggie** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:36 pm

im not sure how i feel about this. i dont think there will ever be equality among races. the whole idea of trying to give opportunities to minorities in certain instances is an attempt to level the playing feild. whether white people want to beleive it or not, we do have whats called the "white privilage" meaning we get certain benefits that minorities dont.

just ask a 20 year old black male. i can almost garuntee that in a mixed society he will be pulled over more, questioned more and looked at more closely while shopping or whatever, then the white people in the same area.

Its societies fault i guess. we have certain stereotypes or whatever, that black males especially teenagers/young adults are violent, and/or on drugs. now im not saying everyone feels this way, but after taking a class (social psychology of criminal behavior) we talked a lot about what society commonly views as the victims and the criminals.

we did this thing in class, where the teacher described a scenerio:

an individual walked into a store, held the owner at gunpoint until an undercover police officer ran in and placed the individual under arrest.

Just about everyone in my class admitted that their first thought was that the victim, (the store owner) was middle eastern or asian, the criminal was a black male and the cop was a white male.

it shows a lot about society.

now although i got a little off topic. Im just saying that sometimes i think minorities deal with a lot more crap than white people do, and sometimes its nice to give them back something. Yea white people usually get pretty grumpy about stuff like that, and they always will. Same as minorities getting grumpy when white people get something that they dont.

i dont agree with it all but hey, i cant really give any sollutions to make it that much better for everyone involved.

sorry for the long post but its been a while