Black students ordered to give up seats to whites

[undergroundrailroad]

Black students ordered to give up seats to whites

Status of Red River Parish bus driver is unknown

By Vickie Welborn
[e-mail]


August 24, 2006


COUSHATTA -- Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.

The situation has outraged relatives of the black children who have filed a complaint with school officials.


Superintendent Kay Easley will meet with the family members in her office this morning.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also is considering filing a formal charge with the U.S. Department of Justice. NAACP District Vice President James Panell, of Shreveport, said he would apprise Justice attorneys of the situation this week. He's considering asking for an investigation into the bus incident and other aspects of the school system's operations, including pupil-teacher ratio as it relates to the numbers of white and black children, along with a breakdown of the numbers of black and white teachers employed.

"If the smoke is there, then there's probably fire somewhere else," Panell said in a phone interview from New Orleans. "At this point, it is extremely alarming. We fought that battle 50 years ago, and we won. Why is this happening again?"

Easley would not comment much on the allegations Wednesday, saying it is a personnel issue. She acknowledged that she has investigated the claim. And she confirmed that the bus driver did not run her route Wednesday, nor would she today.

[MadMaddie]

1. It has started again....and narey a whisper.....

* has ushered in a new era of racism....This is unacceptable!!

[flamingyouth]

2. I was talking to my mom about this

She's going to be 65 this December... sometimes she gets really down about the world, especially when stuff like this happens. She said, "I feel like I've worked my whole adult life to help things get better and now things are going backward." It's depressing and enraging.

[bliss_eternal]

3. I've wept over that very thing...

Having bushco in office for four years and seeing what he and his cabal are capable of, I felt we all had sufficient proof of the monster that he is.

I felt we also had evidence of his desire to take back movements of the 20th century that gave rights to many people, specifically civil rights and women's rights.

It is depressing and makes me angry, too.

[bliss_eternal]

4. This administration is to blame...

it has created a warm and fuzzy climate for the hateful among us.

Seeing * turn his back on people the way he did with Katrina, putting a bigot on the Supreme Court, his declaration of war on rights for the glbt community,the way his admin. has worked it's ass off to dismantle women's rights--all of it says that minorities (gays, blacks, latinos, women, etc.) ARE second class citizens and it's ok to treat them any way you damn well please.

There's a certain kind of person that is going to socially thrive under such an administration. They may be broke, but at least they have someone to blame thanks to *. Now they can freely exact their own forms of torture and punishment on those they feel are somehow taking something from them by their mere existence. * and co. practically put a stamp of approval on it.

I know it's probably long gone now, but I recall reading an article that someone on DU provided stating that hate crimes against interracial couples (and people of color in general) has risen during the course of this admininstration. That speaks volumes to me.


I hope that this post is clear--I'm kind of loopy right now from antihistamines.

[wildeyed]

5. Perfectly clear.

I read the other day that this admin is packing the civil rights division of the justice dept. with political hacks with little or no civil rights experience. So you can break the law with impunity now.

The Bush administration has filed only three lawsuits -- all of them this year -- under the section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits discrimination against minority voters, and none of them involves discrimination against blacks. The initial case was the Justice Department's first reverse-discrimination lawsuit, accusing a majority-black county in Mississippi of discriminating against white voters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Some days I can barely breathe, I am so anxious about what we are losing with this admin. Hope you are feeling better, Bliss.

[bliss_eternal]

8. Thanks, wildeyed...

The really sad thing is for those of us that could see the handwriting on the wall, times like this are even more frustrating. It's like you saw it coming, but couldn't do a damn thing to stop it...

Yes, I knew they were capable. Sending black children to the back of the bus? Please. I've read of crosses being burnt on interracial couples lawns during this administration. Like I said in my prior post they've created a climate that says to the intolerant, "...it's ok."

I wept the day he held that press conference about eradicating gay marriage and putting it into the constitution. Why? Because I knew what that meant for all of us.

All those arguments that people use the bible to make against gays, I've heard the same arguments made by the kkk and white supremacists against the existence of people of color--specifically blacks and jews. They too can find chapters and verses in the bible that they believe say to them that we, as people of color are somehow less than and should be treated as such. All the crap about illegal immigrants, sorry--but more smokescreen to divide us and create an enemy--someone people can blame for why they don't have this or that...

It's like Coretta Scott King said, none of us is free until all of us are free...

Sorry, didn't mean to go on a tangent. The whole thing just fills me with so much emotion. Those poor children--they shouldn't have been treated that way. No one should... Yet if you go to my "Best of DU thread, and read the one about the racial experiments in schools,... no one wants the precious little white children to be treated with such abuse, even for a short period of time for the higher purpose of teaching them how wrong it is to treat anyone that way. Yet the same people aren't as quick to speak up when black, latin, jewish or glbt people are treated such a way...

Please wake up world...please...

[Brewman_Jax]

6. This isn't new

in truth, Reagan and the entrance of the neo-cons into government in the '80's did a lot to roll back hard-won civil rights and social acceptance gains. His rant of "Cadillac-driving welfare queens", which has been since debunked, resonated with a scared white populace wetting itself over the fact that black people have rights, can vote, and can be your neighbor. Bush*, like Reagan before him, has helped foster the attitude that "those people" have no business being where they shouldn't be, and action can be taken to correct that.

[bliss_eternal]

7. True--

but I still see some of that Cadillac, welfare queen stuff--mostly on the internet. Most wouldn't dare say that kind of crap out in public, at least I haven't heard anyone say it. My point being that once the seed was planted by Reagan it sprouted and grew--today they have fox news which continues to perpetuate such beliefs.

When I see those kinds of statements it brings home the fact to me that there are still people in this country that don't know anyone of color, I mean really KNOW. Because they don't know, and make no effort to, their only exposure to people of color is through television (entertainment, the news, etc.) and maybe some limited interactions through dining, shopping, their workplace and/or work or services provided to their homes (cable repair techs, service people, gardening, etc.). It's easy to buy into stereotypes and blanket statements when you haven't taken the time to learn about people.

People base so much on such limited views--they think what they see is the entire story and it isn't. Such assumptions are no more true that every caucasian being just like the kkk, or saying that the bush admin is representative of all republicans(which I have to remind myself sometimes is NOT the case).

I'm hoping and praying that the ACLU files a suit with the school district on behalf of the kids that were forced to sit in the back of the bus. If I don't hear this is the case, I may have to call them myself and ask them if they plan to do something on their behalf.

[wildeyed]

9. I had an infuriating conversation with my in-laws about "those people".

In this case "those people" were muslims, who, according to my in-laws are all violent and support the terrorists. And you are right, if they actually knew any muslims, or anyone at all who wasn't protestant, middle class and white, they would know this was a false assumption. But they live in their own little world and I don't believe there is much that will ever change that.

[bliss_eternal]

10. I'm sorry...

...I know how frustrating such conversations can be. I feel your pain. I've had similar conversations with a relative of dh's (in-laws)about illegal immigrants. What's really sad is when people are dems/progressives(like this in-law), yet they fall for the rw talking points on such issues.

I cringe when anyone says "they" or "those people" so such discussions don't go far with me. I'm at a loss as to why they wouldn't get that by now. LOL!

[wildeyed]

11. These people are far from progressive.

I need to get better at talking to them about their beliefs. I get so angry, it is hard for me to have a civil conversation. The words "stupid" "ignorant" and "bigot" keep popping into my mind and want to come out of my mouth. Not the way to win hearts and minds. My FIL did not talk to me directly for about two years after I clobbered him regarding a comment he made about Mexicans.......

And my Aunt-in-law, the one who started the conversation re: Muslims says at the end, Well this is getting too heated. We should stop now. Besides, clearly your minds are made up and can't be changed by facts. I actually bit my lip. Hard. Not to make a snarky comment about the average Fox News viewer's grasp of the facts.

The problem with this wing of the family, in addition to the mental challenges they face, is debate is frowned upon. My family, mostly progressive, we have it out with great glee on all subjects political, and after we can be friends again. but my husbands family does not like dissent in any form. Sound familiar?

[bliss_eternal]

12. Oh yes. I hear you loud and clear...

most of my in-laws are quite uncommunicative. There are a few that are open and communicative, and progressive to boot so that helps. We've stayed in contact with them. The aunt in law is the one that feels free to share her views on immigration. I've shared I disagree and try to leave it at that. She's one of those people that just HAS to have something to complain about, know what I mean?

Sounds like there wouldn't be much you could say to those people that they would be open to hearing. How frustrating! I hope that you don't have to spend a lot of time with them. That would be miserable.

I like that my uncle in law sends us e-mails complaining about how the repukes are ruining the country--that rocks! He's also disgusted that two of dh's other sibs are repukes and he bashes them frequently which is also funny to me.

[bobbieinok]

15. a woman student + her husband were from Israel; they were Palestinians

and Catholic. She told me that a woman student who had become her friend flat out refused to believe she was Palestinian b/c 'those Palestinians are evil and cruel.'

[Swamp Rat]

13. I hope the families of the children sue the bus driver.

Jeebus!

[bliss_eternal]

14. Me too, Swamp Rat...