News-Record.com

Kewl!! Great to see you guys featured in the article. I for one am glad the N&R offers this service, it's nice to see what people think about the issues at hand.

Now for something serious, is Jennifer married??? :o) Great picture of you two.

Bruce,

Do you want to provide a member ID s anyone can see it without having to register?

Bruce and/or Jennifer,

I already posted this suggestion at Allen Johnson's blog, but it seems to me that it would be worth posting Ciara Lilly's editorial-page column, "An encounter with racism at Southwest," either on his blog or yours (or both).

As with anything posted on a blog, it might attract some negative, unproductive comments, but it also might generate some healthy discussion.

I made a brief post at my own blog about Ciara's column, but I believe the News & Record's blogs attract more attention.

Sincerely,

Hardy

Ciara wrote an excellent piece and I appreciate Hardy for bringing it to people's attention. While my students know how I feel about racism or any words or act that seeks to belittle another person, I often don't realize what students are facing throughout their school day. I preach that what matters is their character and talents while having to recognize the hate, fear, and ignorance that exists in our society. It gives me hope though that students like Ciara are willing to stand strong and speak out. She is right that only by recoginizing the problem can we begin to address it.

I would also like to point out that teachers and principals also face racism. I know of an African American principal who was ignored in the mornings when she tried to get a certain group of white students out of the hall and on the way to class. One of the white principals would tell the students the same thing and they would move on. A close white friend of mine was even told by a parent that her child didn't have to listen to her because she was a white teacher.

Unfortunately, acts of racism at any school are neither as rare as we would like to think nor are they limited to a certain group.

Andi,

I totally agree!!! Unfortunately, this young woman's piece, while being well written makes it seem that racism is unique at Southwest, and that things are peachy keen at Andrews. we all know that Southwest is not the perfect school, and that it's students are not perfect students. However her experience could have easily been the same at any other school where she was in the minority. As far as Andrews goes, a white student who attends andrews might write a similar article about how he or she might be treated by the majority. Let's not start a race war by focusing on one school; lets look at the whole problem in the context of a county system that is made up of students from all kinds of backrounds.

The way I read Ciara's piece I took it to mean she was trying to draw attention to the problem of racism and the racism she felt she encountered at Southwest (a school often in the news for positive things rather than negative). I do not believe her intention was just to paint Southwest in a bad light. Rather, she wanted to point out that Southwest has its problems too like many schools such as Andrews that often has its problems publicized.

I've worked at a school here in Guilford County where African American kids were the majority and I heard racist remarks too often against the few white and Asian kids that went there. I even knew of a Sudanese kid who was made fun of by a group of African American kids for being too black!

Racism can occur at any school regardless of whether the majority is white or not. I hope Ciara's editorial will get people to talk about race issues in all schools, not just Southwest.

Side Note: I had to go to a workshop on race and discrimination issues last year (not the Crossroads Ministry one). The comment that came up repeatedly was that the teachers on our staff got along great and were able to talk about race openly. It was the students that really needed to be at our workshop.

Ms. Lilly was writing a piece for a "Minority Journalism Workshop". She chose to write about what she perceived as racial encounters. Does anybody else think that maybe she embellished just a little to get it printed?

I was in Target yesterday and an African-American was working the register. She told the African-American in front of me to have a nice day but she didn't tell me that. Maybe I should report this to the manager of the store. I will tell him/her how rude she was to me, that she rolled her eyes at me, that she snatched the money from my hand, etc. Could sound completely true without hearing the other person's side of the story!

Jennifer,

Can you elaborate on what this "Minority Workshop" is about and why the N&R feels it necessary to offer it only to "minorities". Who exactly is allowed to participate? Isn't it racist to only have a workshop for "minorities"? I'm sorry if you offer a "Majority" workshop that I'm not aware of.

Jennifer,

By chance, could Deena Hayes be involved in this Minority Journalism Workshop?????

Liz,

If you look at the newer posts on the Chalkboard there is a section now about the Minority Journalism Workshop.

However, we also now have a teen page that is open to any area teen. "The 'Boro" should debut around the same time that school starts. While not the same experience as the workshop, the teen page will give students an idea of what it is like to be a journalist.

I'm offended that a "white" student cannot get the same experience that can be found in the "Minority Journalism Workshop".

If you held a "whites only" workshop we'd have another civil war on our hands with Skip Alston and Dot Kearns leading the way.

I'm finding it hard to understand the N&R's blatant reverse racist agenda with this workshop.

If Ciara was so mistreated by this teacher, why did she take another class taught by him the following year? She conveniently left that out of her "creative" writing.

Chris, I don't totally fault Ciara because I don't believe she wrote the entire article. Would anyone be surprised if some creative editing was done by someone on the School Board, the School Administration or the N&R?

This is one of three News & Record blog posts on which Ciara Lilly's column has been discussed.

My response to her piece is titled "My Flood Of Reactions To Ciara Lilly's 'An Encounter With Racism At Southwest.'"

Feel free to read it and respond.

Sincerely,

Hardy