By Sam Riddle
Special to the Michigan Citizen
The EAA should be abolished for firing the teacher who used a broom in an attempt to restore order to her classroom. It is the parents of those youngsters who need to be explaining themselves instead of trying to find straw broom welts on their children’s back for TV cameras. There should have been some respect inflicted on the hind side of those boys long before they reached Pershing.
Detroit teachers walk into a classroom battlefield every day to report for duty on the frontlines, working against all odds to educate our children in Detroit. The attitudes of too many parents and their wild azz children (who parents refuse to even try to raise with some sense of discipline and respect) hinder what little education might be available.
I understand the role of poverty, racism and the screwed-up democracy-destroying EAA, but at some point we must take some responsibility for the insanity that passes for parenting. What in the hell was that scape-goated teacher to do, but use the broom to try to stop the classroom fight? Walkie-talkies were out of order as the class and teacher were held hostage by mayhem. The main perp said his favorite teacher deserved to be fired for not seeking outside assistance. KMA. Had she pulled out a gun would she be hailed as a community heroine? Oops, these are all Black folk cutting up; that wouldn’t play in a school, nor should it.
A tweet: “N Harlem saw former Prez-Det City Council — I said nothing publicly — but if U say it, it’s out there — Sorry, Charles.” There are no private conversations. I never spoke with Ross; didn’t have to. Felt that Pugh’s workplace was his biz.” Yep, about a month ago I did speak with former Detroit City Council president Charles Pugh in a Harlem restaurant, but I made no public disclosure of that encounter. On an hour ride with someone I’ve known nearly 30 years, I did mention I had seen Pugh. Should have kept my mouth shut. There are no off-the-record conversations with anyone hungry to cement their role at one of these TV stations. It wasn’t Ross Jones, but that made little difference.
The “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) Aunt Jemima slavery skit was not funny, but a manifestation of the institutional racism that permeates the entertainment industry. Millions of Africans died on the Middle Passage to America.
Jewish people would not allow you to poke fun at the Holocaust without the most severe of repercussions, yet America was allowed to laugh at one of man’s most inhumane acts against man — slavery.
If you had no problems with SNL, we should rescind the order banning the Clippers’ owner from the NBA. We must never forget nor get over slavery: The effects are still felt through assertion of white privilege, Black self-hate and the American economy that was built on the backs of free labor with no reparations.
We must never let haters cause us to lose hope or dislike ourselves and never let haters make you weak in your faith. Keep the faith. Stay on the battlefield.
Sam Riddle is political director of Michigan National Action Network. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/sam.riddle or Twitter at twitter.com/samriddle.
