Do As They Say, Not As They Do

The Doctor's ride

Okay, I'm really starting to think that The Doctor has rounded us all up, shoved us into the TARDIS (its bigger on the inside!) and transported us back to the 1950's, 'cause this surely can't be the 21st-century we're living in.

PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AR) - A high school southeast of Little Rock would not let a black student be valedictorian though she had the highest grade-point average, and wouldn't let her mom speak to the school board about it until graduation had passed, the graduate claims in Federal Court.

Kymberly Wimberly, 18, got only a single B in her 4 years at McGehee Secondary School, and loaded up on Honors and Advanced Placement classes. She had the highest G.P.A. and says the school's refusal to let her be sole valedictorian was part of a pattern of discrimination against black students.

Wimberly says that despite earning the highest G.P.A. of the Class of 2011, and being informed of it by a school counselor, "school administrators and personnel treated two other white students as heir[s] apparent to the valedictorian and salutatorian spots."

Wimberly's mother is the school's "certified media specialist." She says in the federal discrimination complaint that after her daughter had been told she would be valedictorian, the mother heard "in the copy room that same day, other school personnel expressed concern that Wimberly's status as valedictorian might cause a 'big mess.'"

McGehee Secondary School is predominantly white, and 46 percent African-American, according to the complaint. Bratton says that the day after she heard the "big mess" comment, McGehee Principal Darrell Thompson, a defendant, told her "that he decided to name a white student as co-valedictorian," although the white student had a lower G.P.A.

Bratton says she tried to protest the decision to the school board, but defendant Superintendent Thomas Gathen would not let her speak, because she allegedly had "filled out the wrong form. Instead of 'public comments,' Gather [sic] said Bratton should have asked for 'public participation.'" The superintendent told her she could not appeal his decision until the June 28 school board meeting; graduation was May 13.  (The superintendent's name is spelled Gathen in the heading of the complaint, but is spelled Gather throughout the body of it.)

The last African-American valedictorian in McGehee School District was in 1989. Wimberly says the school discourages black students from taking honors and advanced placement classes, "by telling them, among other things, that the work was too hard."  (more:  Courthouse News Service)

What the ever-lovin' fuck?

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, notice that nowhere in the article did it say that the white student or his parents turned down the undeserved valedictorian spot?  POC hear all day every day about how they are constantly taking things they don't deserve from the world at large (jobs, welfare, Medicaid,  air), but when white people get things they clearly don't desrve, it's all good.  You know...things like legacies, VP nominations and $700 billion dollars in taxpayer money.

No conservative (or anyone else for that matter) that ever spouts the whole "personal responsibility, pull yourself up by your boot straps" tripe should ever be taken seriously again (not that they should have in the first place, mind). It's become patently obvious by now that they really don't mean it and never have.  They will only ever stand by this fallacy if POC stay in their places, otherwise, it's really just a non sequitur.  These people long for the good old days in a way that borders on obsession.  They daydream of a time when there wasn’t a black president, a black First Lady or a Latina on the Supreme Court.  They would love to not have to think about their undeserved privilege or worry about any challenges to the status quo.

Personally, I think they realize that they're not living up to their own hype--and that the world is finally catching on.  They've sensed a disturbance in the Force and have fanned out in full Sith-mode to squash the Rebel Alliance with a desperation that's almost frightening.  Or pathetic.  Or both. 

They're so afraid of their self-anointed superiority being questioned, they're willing to go to any shameful lengths to stay at the top of the heap.  Even if it means taking out a few million of their own to do it.