A report out of Ann Arbor, Michigan simply defies belief. Apparently, an elementary school took students to hear a successful scientist speak on how one becomes a successful scientist. Astonishingly, though, since the scientist was white, the principle, who is also white, did not allow black students to go along. He felt they would not be able to relate to what was essentially a white experience.
I think we can all agree that this man is either incredibly stupid or deeply bigoted, or both. In either case he should not be the principal of a dog kennel let alone an elementary school.
The principal even allegedly belittled a Muslim girl who complained about being excluded from the trip.
He defended his decision to irate parents of black students by explaining that those who were selected to go on the field trip were members of a club exclusively for white students who the school felt needed to have an experience that would expose them to successful role models. As such, black students would be out of place. As you might imagine, this did little to mollify the parents.
Perhaps you think this episode is so bizarre and outrageous that you doubt that it really happened, but you can read about it for yourself here.
I don't know why this story isn't national news and this principal isn't being pilloried in the press.
Well, that's not quite true. I think I do know why. I cheated by switching the races in the story. In point of fact, the principal, students and scientist were all black and the excluded students, including the Muslim girl, were not. In our race-obsessed society, and the media which services it and abets the obsession, it makes a huge difference which race is being favored and which discriminated against. The story has gained little purchase in the media, I suspect, because discrimination against white students is acceptable, or at least understandable, in the ideological waters in which they swim.
This is the sort of attitude, however, which only serves to exacerbate racial friction in this country. We'll never get past these frictions until we get over our preoccupation with skin color. Indeed, in my opinion, one way to tell if one is a bigot is by reflecting on your reaction to this story. If you were outraged by the way the story was represented in the above paragraphs but not so outraged when you learned the truth then you're probably a bigot. You can also tell if someone is arrantly liberal if he thinks the race of the students and the principal in this tale should actually matter.
RLC
