Yup because it is racist to call a group of people heckling a black man animals ... wait what? NAACP is just pissed we might not have bussing any more. We might save 5 million a year but but but our schools won't be integrated. (yeah cause that is working)

This sounds like the NAACP is reaching a bit....

(yeah cause that is working)
#1 | Posted by TaoWarrior

Made a big difference to me, Tao.

Maybe all the difference, looking back.

Hag are you really sure it did?

I don't know your situation but in my daughters it actualy made things worse. Not to mention the lack of sleep of having the extra bus ride. When your clothes come from goodwill and you are a teenage girl you feel very self concious around a bunch of rich snobs wearing designer labels.

I'm a white guy who would never have been around black people growing up were it not for integration, so yeah, it made a difference to me in the long run. Would my family be what it is today were it not for that seed being planted so long ago (admittedly, a horrible analogy)? I can't say.

Now, I don't know if the reverse is the case. Most black people in America don't have to wonder what white people are like. We're kinda everywhere and unavoidable no matter where you live.

people act differently when they are in packs than when they are on their own.

FTFY.

It's called a mob mentality and, oddly enuff, you seem to achieve it without rest of the mob.

Yer a Mob of one.

See also: WOB.

Be Well.

Hag,

Since I am the minority in my neighborhood I don't think bussing my white kid to a richer white kid school really does much for anyone. Really I don't care, my daughter gets the benifit of a rich PTA, but I think the idea of spending 5 million a year on bussing when budgets have to be cut is a bit silly.

"Black people act differently when they are in packs"

Oh that's hi-larious. Nothing beats god racial humor. It's so original and hip.

Did I miss something reading this article? I didn't see any racism, explicit or implied. It's probably inappropriate of a school board member or any public official to refer to citizens as animals (I say probably because I wasn't there and don't know if they were acting like, well, animals), but I didn't see racism in the article. Was the entire crowd or the majority thereof black? Hence the apparent assumption of racism? Is the NAACP accusing the member of racism or merely of being inappropriate? Finally, what makes this news beyond the region? Precedent-setting regarding schools? I'm not saying this is the criterion for deeming this moment important, but much of America doesn't face dilemmas like this. In many places, there's one elementary and one high school, or multiple elementary and one HS. (Part of why parts of NCLB make no sense.) In my town, there are three elementary, one middle, and one HS. My kid walks 300 feet to go to school. Interestingly, we are a "school of choice," so kids from other parts of town do sometimes attend our school, but their bussing is maybe a few miles. Tangentially again, the idea of "community-based schools" has currency in many places. Often, citizens and educational thinkers praise this idea and practice--put power in the hands of the locals to determine how their schools should be run, etc. And in some places, yes, it can lead to single-culture schools that get the shaft. I've read about that. But you know, when I grew up in small-town New England, people of color were mostly not present, so my experience of diversity was limited and wouldn't have been changed by any amount of bussing (well, maybe to the nearest city 20 miles away), and the same is true of where I teach. We have more cultural diversity than I did growing up because the world has changed a bit and because I teach in a town that is on its way to becoming a bedroom community for a large medical center and college not far away--and professors and healthcare professionals represent a wider range of cultures and ethnicities than do our longtime locals.

Prag,

I see it as newsworthy because of the over-reaction by the NAACP.

As far as the issue goes it really is a non-issue. Wake County is very diverse across the county so community schools would not likely become homogeneous. There are both poor and rich black and white in any zone where a school would be. Downtown reclamation projects have turned many places a couple blocks from the worst ghetto into exclusive communities.

When this school board started looking at transitioning to community schools the NAACP descended on Raleigh like the second coming, screaming that it is racist to end bussing. Not looking at the demographics of Raleigh and how community schools could in fact serve a cross section of the area. Now that it has been divided up it is obvious that no one is getting the shaft and the schools will have more money to spend on education due to cost savings in bussing and children will not have to ride on the bus an hour or more each way the NAACP and certain elements in the area have resorted to tactics like this to stop it from happening.

Frankly I have no vested interest my oldest is in high school and can get a deferment to stay in the same school if she wants, my middle is in the gifted child program so can pick from several schools with that program and my youngest can go to the same school (they try and keep siblings together). So whatever it has no effect on me but I think that the elements that are agitating to spend more money in the hopes of a false diversity are the ones being reactionary yet they accuse the other side of racism.

Outside of the area however I think the only point of interest is the silly reaction of the NAACP to an unwise statement by a member of the board.

Not sure if it's related follow up. It shouldn't be related as she is state not county board but who knows.