Column for Dec. 10, 2009

I almost got it out of my system after my last column, and then I saw another news report of more of the race wars being perpetrated by the NAACP. Racism will not end unless all parties, regardless of race, stop the bigotry.

In Wake County, I was thrilled to see the newly elected Board of Education decide to stop some of the insane policies that were going on in there. This included an end to early dismissal Wednesday, and it looks like they may stop the forced bussing of students across the county in the name of diversity instead of allowing students to attend neighborhood schools. I see little value in putting a child on a school bus and sending them to the other side of the county rather than allowing him or her to attend a school a whole lot closer to home. That wastes both time and tax dollars, and adversely affects families.

In Wayne County, on the other side of our fair County of Johnston, school administrators a few years ago had that same epiphany of brilliance and decided to return to neighborhood schools instead of resorting to ineffective and expensive bussing. Apparently the National Association for the Advancement of Crazy People believes that sending a child to a school close to home is tantamount to the re-institution of segregation. That's just a dishonest assertion.

Segregation was the practice of exclusion and separation. Going to community based schools is a practice of inclusion and equality. There is nothing exclusionary about attending school with whatever fellow students happen to be in your immediate area. Regardless of your background, financial status, or race, you get to go to a community school.

The NAACP argues that many schools in Wayne County are almost completely populated by Black students. I fail to comprehend to how this is segregationist. If the admission criterion is that you live nearby the school, then Black people must predominantly populate the neighborhoods serviced by said schools. If they are predominantly poor, then the proportion within the school population will reflect that, as well.

Ironically, if the school population is primarily poor, then more students will qualify for free and reduced lunch at the schools. When that school reaches the magic number percentage thereof, they get even more federal funding under Title 1 provisions under federal law. In theory, this will lead to better education and accountability for academic achievement.

State NAACP President "Reverend" William Barber claims that Wayne County school policies have resulted in "poor performance statistics, including lower graduation rates, higher dropout and suspension rates, and stiffer discipline for Black students". Barber further claims that some schools that are "100 percent African-American with maybe one or two white children."

If there were few white children in the neighborhood by percentage, then I would expect that fewer white children would be at some neighborhood schools. To be sure, Barber is not claiming that if there were more white children at these same schools that they would have better performance statistics, higher graduation rates, lower dropout and suspension rates, and lesser discipline for Black students.
I do not for one minute believe that Black students are less intelligent, by nature perform poorly, and are innately prone to behavioral problems. By way of example, white children are the minority at our own Selma Elementary School and overall school performance statistics have risen the past few years.

Anyone who believes that Black students (or adults for that matter) are inferior and need government (or NAACP) intervention in order to achieve equality of intellect, behavioral standards, and academic achievement is truly blind to the truth. That scorns Martin Luther King, Junior's wish for a nation where his children "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Throwing around terms such as segregation is simply a tactic to incite people into angrily supporting the agenda. The agenda is to continue to have sufficient racial tension to continue to have a raison d'être. If we all, regardless of race, treat those of other races or even our own with dignity and the belief that all men are created equal (I remember that phrase from somewhere in antiquity) then we will dampen the racism that unfortunately continues in our midst.