North Carolina's Wake County boasts one of the most diverse and successful school districts in the country. Now their conservative school board is changing that. The Last Word guest host Melissa Harris-Perry has details.
The fight for diversity in schools
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Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:34 PM EDT
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are you kidding me? first you start off that this is about paid for lunches / poverty argument then completely turn it around into a racial issue. the issue is this ridiculous bussing kids 45 mins away in some hope to achieve diversity. your biased inconsiderate "reporting" made me sick. needless to say this is the first and last time i watch your garbage.
You should watch, listen, and learn
As a teacher in Wake County, it is absolutely shameful! I was so proud of how far we have come in NC and now I am ashamed to be associated with this rich, white flight county!
it is about race, when it involves people of more than one race. There four different racial groups living in the area and one group receive most of the resources., while others are deprived. It is important to have diversity in schools and equal opportunity for all and not just a few. did someone hold a gun to your head forcing you to read this?
The issue is all about turning the educational system back to the segregated system days of old. Yes, the issue is all about race, and no amount of spin doctoring you want to spat out of your racist mouth will ever diffuse the issue.
Go back to FOX - famous fact free news of the world - Murdoch and Fox - hand in hand - lies, scandals and cheats - perhaps that is what you identify with best.
The attack on education is an abomination. Education and its systems should never turn a profit in the public sector. It is our investment in our children's future. BUT tea bagging republicans always wish to act as though GOD himself created capitalism and that we are in fact a true republic not a DEMOCRACY first. Education in America should be better then the rest of the world. Again, the world. BUT here you have it. America is again lackluster. The failure in the world as we try to lead because of self absorbed diluted individuals bought and paid for as entertainment by the uber rich. Why is there money in politics at all? Hmm
In fact when a Michelle Bachman says first that she is subservient to her husband as the reason for her being a tax lawyer and it doesn't jive. She reverts to she was doing it as a mole. To get at the enemy. Does she not have the education to KNOW she just outed herself as an enemy of the STATE? Why is it that she feels the need to infiltrate the tax system> On behalf of her flamming willed husband? The rock to her Gibraltar? I stand in disbelief that being educated is a bad thing to tea bagging republicans. In the equation that is the problem of government times action equals c squared. The variable being the tea baggers. How do you not then conclude that it is in fact the non constant tea baggers that are the problem to this government? As I have stated many times as my readers know the tea bagging republicans are destroying this government and in greater part this country from the inside out. Which is why they had NO problem holding the debt ceiling up until the inevitable downgrade that I predicted. Even after they raised it. And I knew about the investigation and I know why it was extortion.
But allow me to say this as my readers love me too. ; ] To have a presidential candidate openly say that she was infiltrating this government begs the question why? Why on Earth would that be justified? If she knows the law as she claims how did she not know she was setting her self up for worse scrutiny from me? Because her education sucks that is why. ; ] The tea bagging republicans were co opted from the start. And in fact are now nothing more then hate perpetrators who peddle the wrath of a non existent problem. Because in the equation of right and wrong in Washington it is them, the ONLY non constant that leaves no answer. No jobs. No plans. As they claim Obama is socialist he actually sides wit conservatives more often than not. YET they still find him deplorable which lends further credence to my assertion of the tea bagging republicans being hate filled and often times racist. People I know portray this in there words and actions on a daily basis as well. Why?
Because they are quite un educated. And it pains me to see good people misled. I never saw such a side from them growing up. Just as we the people never saw such as side of our breatheren other then where they were proud to show it. The hate and racism that is was and obviously will continue to be. ; ] Listen up people playing the professional victim only works on t.v. Not in big boy world. And in fact the big boy world will spit you out when the "liberal media" you CLAIM to hate ohh so much is the only actual dream you have carved out for yourself. Striving for there attention at every end. Riding in as the quitter who saves the day. Or the delusional best friend that USED to be a lesbian with a pray away the gay husband. Or maybe a FAUX preacher with two first names fits your bill? I do not assume to know. BUT what I do know is that logic and mathematics proves to conquer all. It is the only universal language given to us by God. And in doing so it was his assurance that people like the tea bagging republican party could never have the last word; ]
Cheers
Well articulated. Thank you
I wish MHP would stop seeing racism everywhere. The policy's purpose was to ensure economic diversity. Economic diversity can't be equated with racial diversity, simply because not all black people are poor and not all white people are rich.
Dorothea from Germany... That's because racism IS everywhere. Why are your eyes so closed????
The policy is right-wing propaganda. Lies. All lies.....
Let us not forget how a powerful, well-tuned propaganda machine could convince an entire country that another race is evil and therefore must be eradicated.
Learn history, PLEASE....
Dear proud liberal,
I am aware that terrible things happened in the past, in Germany as well as in the USA. However, this is HISTORY. Those days are long gone. The people who did that are not alive anymore. The current generations of white people in Germany and in the USA had nothing to do with the injustice that happened in the past. And therefore it is really unfair to put white people under general suspicion of being racist. Most white people (including you and me) are in favour of equal rights. Sure, racism does still exist and will always exist to a certain degree. However, racism is NOT everywhere and NOT everyone is racist.
"(...) could convince an entire country that another race is evil"
Do you truly believe that ALL Germans thought that Jews are evil? If yes, then you are the one who should learn history.
Dorthea, if this were a chess game, my advice to you would be to resign. Never mind that there are still a few aging Nazis around (I was privileged to see Simon Wisenthal here in the 1980's, and that wasn't that long ago); the underlying elements are still there, and your denials help them to survive and flourish. Follow the rhetoric at the Tea Party rallies here; the only difference between those people and Hitler was the language they spoke, not the meaning. Both groups used homosexals as scapegoats, for example. You don't appear to acknowledge this reality.
And no, all Germans didn't think Jews were evil (or gypsies or Poles or any others, to avoid the danger of minimizing the actual horror). Most were just in denial of what was going on, seeking to curry favor with those in power or survive believing they would be untainted or unscathed. Much as you are now...
Dear SL Cabbie,
I am NOT in denial and I DON'T condone or support discrimination in any way. I would never vote for a right-wing party and I also try to talk people out of voting for right-wing parties, because all people deserve equal rights. So, don't dare to accuse me of encouraging any kind of discrimination. It is NOT true and it's also a VERY hurtful thing to say. Judging people without knowing them is very uncool.
"Both groups used homosexals as scapegoats, for example. You don't appear to acknowledge this reality."
Of course, I know that. I just didn't mention it, because the discussion is about race, not about sexual orientation.
"Follow the rhetoric at the Tea Party rallies here; the only difference between those people and Hitler was the language they spoke, not the meaning."
I do follow the rhetoric of the Tea Partiers and there are indeed shocking similarities.
However, my initial statements refer solely to this particular incident mentioned in the video clip. And I stand by my point that economic diversity can't be equated with racial diversity and that racism in not everywhere.
I also want to mention that I really hate the common practice by several US Americans (Not you!) of equating everything they remotely dislike with the atrocities that happened during the third empire. By drawing such false analogies, these people belittle the suffering of the Holocaust victims.
Well, having grown up on Planet Utah, I've watched a whole lot of the Tea Party Crowd (our governor is a global warming denier). And so I don't think it's uncool to judge them since they're about as predictable and out-of-control as eighth graders in a junior high classroom (another area I have experience in). In fact, I've followed them back to the days of W. Cleon Skousen (one of Glenn Beck's mentors), and they thrive on two things: Apologists who excuse and accommodate their excesses and attacks on their arguments that are not exceptionally well-grounded. They are masters at morphing confrontations in to strawman constructs that they delight in setting fire to proclaiming victory for the forces of enlightenment. I've characterized this as a "propensity for carrying 'Do-It-Yourself-Crucifixion kits.'"
I will not belittle the sufferings of the Holocaust victims, but I feel it is appropriate to point out one common element of the power brokering tactics of the Nazis and the Tea Party types is the "Big Lie" that fuels their propaganda.
Not to make too much of a joke but, yes, there was a difference. The Nazis sent the SS after dissenters; the Tea Party crowd just hollers in loud injured towns about how persecuted they are and how rude it is to call them liars.
But both require scapegoats to fuel their essential elitism. Yesterday on Hardball, Chris Matthews featured two scholars who had investigated the Tea Party's origins, and they were, indeed essentially racist. The bigotry is masked in economic attacks, however, (Reagan's iconic "Welfare Queen" comes to mind), and that is the crux of Melissa Harris-Perry's analysis.
SL Cabbie, i agree with you.
all one has to do really is listen to pat buchanan-he says it pretty clearly, and i am sure he speaks for a lot of people. the fact that some republicans can speak so openly and unabashedly about their feelings regarding bigotry in relation to minorities (women included) tells me that this mindset is firm, and they actually see nothing wrong with it.
i found the interview of the two scholars very interesting, and so very different from what the baggers were telling us about themselves. i am neither surprised nor shocked as their actions all along showed us who they really are.
Ha i figured a bunch of you dems would get all idiotic here with your own idealism. You're like commenting on this from the outside. This slanted report fails to mention they're bussing kids who want to go to their local school with their friends down the street off to some school that needs to trade them. That situation is abominable, and to try to say "oh you're trying to re-segregate" is the call of the idiot reactionaries who are rightly being voted down by people who have half a mind.
And you are blind
Gimmie
"Half a mind" You must have voted "it down".
Ha i figured a bunch of you dems would get all idiotic here with your own idealism. You're likely commenting on this from the outside. This slanted report fails to mention they're bussing kids who want to go to their local school with their friends down the street off to some school that needs to trade them. Now working parents can't get involved in their kids school or even go there if their kid has been bussed 45mins away. The schoolboard is rightly trying to fix this. The previous situation is abominable, and to try to say "oh you're trying to re-segregate" is the call of the idiot reactionaries who are rightly being voted down by people who have half a mind. I've talked to people who have had to sell their home and move in order to get another chance at this ridiculous lottery. We have busses wastefully burning all across the city reappropriating kids to distant school. This idea was stupid in the beginning, no wonder you support it.
And you are blind....
Thank you for putting Mellisa on the air...she is the most refreshing voice since Rachel.
Find a place for her and we will watch !!!!!!
Quite attractive indeed. I almost have the nerve to ask her to follow me on twitter ; ]
Cheers luv.
The issue is about both economic and racial diversity. And many of the comments here fail to remember that. Economic diversity is important, and Harris-Perry transitions from economic to racial diversity, because when looking at demographic information, there are significant patterns that coincide between affluence and poverty, particularly when juxtaposed to living patterns. Ensuring economic diversity, results in improved racial diversity as a secondary consequence. Both I believe are valuable. All the upper-middle class black/white/asian/hispanics youth don't need to be at one school while the lower income Black/white/asian/hispanic youth are at another. By economic diversity, you get a fluid mixture of demographic diversity. Additionally, I grew up in an upper/middle class predominately White neighborhood, that had "some" diversity. From K-2 I attended a school 5 min from my house while lower income students were bussed in, form 3-5 I attended a school which was a 45 minute bus ride away in a lower income area. 6-12 I attended schools in an extremely affluent area that was a 20-30 min bus ride from middle class and lower income areas. I don't see the problem with bussing? What's so bad with children riding a bus for 45 minutes to school. What's so bad about sitting down, conversing with classmates or reading a book? They have to wake up 20-30 minutes earlier or go to bed 30 min to an hour later? They get home after school 30 minutes closer to when their parents get off of work, and have less unsupervised time? It may be just me, and my background of being bussed cross town, but I don't get it. ***FYI, I know a number of people who put their kids in private and charter schools. And A LARGE NUMBER OF THESE PEOPLE personally drive their kids to school 30 min to an hour. And that's without numerous stops to pick up other kids. Why is it alright to drive kids to private campuses that are distant from your "neighborhood", but unacceptable to bus them? Often the difference is the destination. I'll drive them out of the neighborhood to ensure they are around a predetermined controlled group of "certain" people (which might be economic, religious or racially driven, different reason for different families), but I won't let the city "bus" my child out of my neighborhood to be around an economic, religiously, and racially diverse community. Dr. Harris-Lacewell, again, makes a needed and intriguing observation!
Mellisa
Great work! Kudos to you!
I respect Lawrence a great deal but your are a close #2
The Tee's seem to want to "fix it" if it is not broken or as my take is fix it till it is broke..
Thought: is cable news in general and especially fox causing a great depression in attitude ?
Steve
Well, judging from all the noise here, conservatives do have consciences... Very guilty ones...
Garbage in, garbage out. I too am black and a former employee of an NBC station (WAVY 10). I'm nonplussed at how partisan this video is. You don't know my opponent nor I, yet you support his party's ideology of busing poor elementary and middle school children more than 20+ miles twice a day. It's no wonder that you chose to ignore the drop-out rate, unemployment, inability of parents to volunteer in their schools NOR which children of the former 'diversity' policy benefited the most.
Since when did a news station choose to accept another media's verbiage (washingtpost) as gospel rather than create its own? Venita Peyton (www.venitapeyton.com), Candidate, Wake School Board District 4
I don't like Rick Perry and I do like Melissa, but I got so tired of hearing "no relation -Perry" this week that I changed channels. Don't know why you have to keep saying it over and over again. Second night you started saying it again so I turned off my TV. I'll try MSNBC again next week.
Melisa, Good job!
I live in Wake county, metro Raleigh, transfer from Denver. I do not know what to make of the school issue, but on the surface it appears to be racist. I have no school age kids but I intend to be informed going forward. In my community the younger kids attend the elementary school about at the end of the community, but the HS kids are bussed. I know this though, the republican are the majority in the assembly, and democratic Gov Perdue has vetoed several issues and had those things overturned by two thirds majority.
I am worried that this nationwide republican mission will take us back to the 19th century, pre- civil rights.
I was glad to see you ask about should those Christians that are not evangelical right wing believers speak up in the political discourse. I think so if it can be done in a simple way and then move on. I am Roman Catholic as are many in the Raleigh area since 95% of Catholics here in the metro area are from elsewhere, mainly the North, in other words not Southerners, they tend to welcome racial diversity.
You are right the Pope did speak out urging government leaders to be just, and ethical in their decisions regarding those poor among us, "whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me." said Jesus. The Pope also commented that world governments should do all they can for the young people who need jobs. He also said that the greatest commandment that summed all the laws and the prophets was "Love God with your whole heart and mind and love your neighbor as yourself." This is the essence of Christianity. What we are seeing manifested by some so called christian candidates is religiousity, a using of religion for political cover. If you google, Presidents/religion, you will find most were not christian, mainly deists, George Washington being a Free Mason. Christians came later in the formation of America. In fact most of the founding fathers said organized religion caused much division and problems. But even now we must be careful since we have Muslims, Buddhists, and others besides Christians, so less is better, but remind the so called religious candidates what the main message of Jesus really was.
From: The Kidnapped's Progeny
No matter what happen, what you think or what you do......your religion, jimcrow re-aspirations, interest in free labor and desperate need to make the confederacy greater than the Union is its dream turned nightmare....and just so we are clear,......your ferocity is imagined in your own mind. And three things else you should know.....1) Jefferson Davis was a Westpoint Graduate, US Army officer, Congressman, US Senator appointed by the governor of Mississippi in 1847 and Secretary of war. 2) At no time was he ever an American President. 3) The Republican party as is today is like the Confederacy, in as much as its make-up and legitimacy, shall be banned by the American electorate for a hundred years. The confederacy was a compilation of adventurers with no fore knowledge odd to their unthought out circumstance.
Broh Napp
this augument is moot....for those who would deny knowledge to others....its to late....we are already educated and will educate your kids too, so that they want be dumb like you.