Company line at Hopewell will not resolve race problems
This recent racial hate-chat incident at Hopewell Valley Central High School moves way beyond the school’s 2018 Black History Month menu that included fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese.
Still angry that they did not include black eye peas, collard greens, and other black family delights but perhaps time will end the misery-drenched hurt felt here.
The 16-year-old Hopewell Valley Caucasian student who put up several Snapchat posts that could gain him instant membership to the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Nation organizations needs help.
Ahh, sweet racist behavior. The antisocial gift that keeps on giving hate as critics suggest a cockeyed belief that discussions and opinions about race, hurts our nation’s chances of racial resolution. We keep sweeping race problems under the rug until the heaped residue resembles the elephant in the living room.
Hopewell Valley Regional School District Superintendent Thomas Smith in a letter to parents this week acknowledged that a Hopewell Valley Central High School student posted “disturbing and hurtful” messages on social media while outside of school.
Come on, Mr. Smith. We all know the words— niggers, lynch, monkey. Hopewell Valley kids and parents know them. Trenton parents and offspring have a familiarity of these words that have the potential to produce sting and debilitation.
Smith contended, “The actions of this student do not reflect the values of our district or our community.”
Let’s hope not but a presentation of the company line opposite posts shared with other students by the alleged perpetrator, poisons the well, so to speak.
Racism exists as a cancer and remains our nation’s primary social problem despite pressures for media members to remove the topic from discussion.
Racism flourishes, even more boldly since the people elected Donald Trump to deliver their beliefs about Mexicans, African Americans, Muslims, and Latinos although members of these groups understand that detractors employ other nasty words as descriptions.
Difficulty exists for minorities — people with limited power — to execute racism which remains a tool for those in power. Disgust directed toward the majority results from anger, distrust and hurt that derives from being oppressed; from systemic agendas created to derail upward mobility, discount equality; even curtail the right to vote — a critical tenet of democracy.
Baye Kemit, father of the African-American student targeted by his Caucasian peer, told The Trentonian that school district officials urged him to “tone down the tenor” of his Facebook posts regarding this incident.
The request reflects an atypical response delivered to people suffering from present and post-traumatic stress disorders caused by racism. This, hey, we know you’re hurting but limit your voice about the pain disconnects from reality.
Kemit, a longtime acquaintance, reached out with this email Monday evening.
“The racism at HVHS is beyond abhorrent. It’s beyond overt. The administration deals with each situation as isolated as to ignore the broader social climate at the school,” Kemit wrote after eyeing a Snapchat post that referenced his son as a “monkey.”
Kemit said he shared two phone calls with the student’s father whom he described as “oblivious”. The father cleared his son of being a racist.
Kemit told The Trentonian the conversation continued with this exchange.
‘So what do you define as a racist?’ ‘Well I don’t know. What I know is it’s not like my son is out here trying to kill [people].’ … This is a wake-up call for white America for white privileged Americans, to dig down deep and understand their own privilege,” Kemit wrote.
The father should understand and accept that his son posted hate-speak messages including a greeting of “Sup, niggers? Who wants to be lynched? and “F*+k Niggers.”
The Smith letter to parents included this information.
“The decision by a student to post these disturbing and hurtful images underscores the need for us to continue our efforts to improve equity and cultural competency in our schools, and our community. … We are committed to working collaboratively to raise awareness so incidents like this do not occur again.”
Apparently, according to Smith, one can eliminate racism by employing a competent attorney or wordsmith.