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The Boston Globe ^ | 10-15-03 | Eileen McNamara

[johnny7]

WELLESLEY -- What does it mean that the teenager who scrawled a threat on a bathroom wall to burn down Wellesley High School so "there will be no blacks in our schools" is black himself? Why would a student, bused from Dorchester for 11 years to schools in this western suburb, choose to vent his frustration or rage or pain by assuming the persona of a white racist? When is a troubled kid just a troubled kid?

[camle]

it's a black kid. excuses must be found, rationalization must be discovered, he's a victim.

had it been a white kid? he must be punished. his hatred must be suppressed. put him in jail, expell him permanently, send him to sensitivity training.

no double standard here folks, just move on.

[Support Free Republic]

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[AnAmericanMother]

The kid did this because liberals in their patronizing "help" of "poor minorities" are sending the message "You are worthless without OUR help." They graciously allow him to hang around the doors of Paradise, but he knows the only reason he's there is because they allow him to shuffle forward and glimpse the good life purely out of pity and the goodness of their hearts and purely because of the color of his skin - not because he's a good and hardworking individual who can make whatever he wants of himself. The program is not about giving good kids a hand up - it's all about making the liberals feel good about themselves. He knows good and well his only value is as a prop for the Boston intelligentsia's self-esteem.

People who receive the message that they're worthless are really into self-loathing.

[Bigg Red]

It is hard enough to "walk that divide between two worlds," Kelton said, without feeling that every black student must answer for the actions of one.

**

What an idiot of a teacher. How do the actions of this one kid who is a jerk sully the reputations of the good black kids?

[Gorzaloon]

The program is not about giving good kids a hand up - it's all about making the liberals feel good about themselves. He knows good and well his only value is as a prop for the Boston intelligentsia's self-esteem.

Great point! I had composed a reply, but yours left me nothing to add.

[Bigg Red]

Excellent points, AAM!

[SpyGuy]

Why would a [black] student...vent his frustration or rage or pain by assuming the persona of a white racist?

Another absurd and contrived assumption by a liberal "journalist", in order to spin this story to fit the Left's world-view.

Of course, the most logical explanation is that the black student wrote the anti-black statement in order to cast blame on white students, thus portraying the school environment as a haven for white racists. Anyone who has followed the news over the past several years recalls at least several stories where this has been done by other black students in schools, as well as by black adults in their communities. (And it's likely that there have been even more cases where the news stories have been spiked.) But I guess this journalist doesn't pay attention to history...or simply choses to ignore it.

[OpusatFR]

"It is hard enough to "walk that divide between two worlds," Kelton said, without feeling that every black student must answer for the actions of one."

Yet, Blacks can demand that every single white be condemned because of the past.

[AnAmericanMother]

Guys, I've thought a lot about this. This country can't afford to discard all the poor kids in Boston . . . and everywhere else that an anti-learning, anti-achievement mentality has taken over.

I wonder if some variation on Booker T. Washington's plan wouldn't work better for these kids. . . . instead of an "us versus them" (having the white intellectuals doling out a few spots in a good school and bus a few kids over there), get together a group of no-nonsense, politically incorrect, and highly motivated successful black businessmen to start a program IN their community FOR the community. That would short-circuit the whole self-loathing thing right from the start - "look - I did it, despite all disadvantages, and you can do it too."

Might have to start with a good dose of practical, trades-oriented education side by side with academics, so the first groups of students could get out there and earn good money quickly - nothing like bringing home a fat paycheck to impress the younger kids coming along. (My dad made all us kids learn a trade as well as an academic specialty. I know this may cause some resentment in certain quarters as making students "second class citizens", but what the heck are they now? They don't know a trade, PLUS too many of them can't even read or write on a high school level when they graduate!)

[CalvaryJohn]

The kid's a racist little punk trying to stir up the very trouble he desires. Congratulations, Civil Rights Movement. This is the fruit of your labour, and IMO, exactly what you want.

[San Jacinto]

What does it mean that the teenager who scrawled a threat on a bathroom wall to burn down Wellesley High School so "there will be no blacks in our schools" is black himself? Why would a student, bused from Dorchester for 11 years to schools in this western suburb, choose to vent his frustration or rage or pain by assuming the persona of a white racist?

I don't know. But I do know this--It's Whitey's Fault.

It is probably all this delay in paying reparations.

[Leisler]

Bump!

Just liberals getting their ticket punched. The real people are just props. Basically this is a problem with the help story. A minor indecent at the liberal plantation
.

[randita]

get together a group of no-nonsense, politically incorrect, and highly motivated successful black businessmen to start a program IN their community FOR the community.

But then the white liberal elitists couldn't revel in the smug self-satisfaction of having "cared".

[GirlShortstop]

...without feeling that every black student
must answer for the actions of one.

     Yet, Blacks can demand that every single white be condemned because of the past.

I agree Opus... I thought the statement was awfully hypocritical as well.

[AnAmericanMother]

Aw, shoot, the businessmen ought to let the liberals give money, and have a big banquet for 'em once or twice a year, where they can feel superior and smug (but where the kids can't see 'em, except a few of the older star students who understand how the game is played and can be props without being harmed . . .)

Booker T. Washington played that game to perfection years ago.

[CatoRenasci]

Eminently sensible suggestion ... too bad it won't happen.

But, you're quite right, that's what blacks like Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver and many others did in the post-Civil War era in the South.

[misterrob]

Because sadly enough, people will use this as an excuse to demean the program and the rest of the kids are cast in a suspicious light, fair or not.

[JesseHousman]

When is a troubled kid just a troubled kid?

And when is he just a pain in the ass?

Self-denegraters, such as this one, possibly hate their race and know they are too lazy and, therefore, incapable of improving their station in life.

Or, he might simply want people to think that a white kid did it.

[AnAmericanMother]

Yeah, and in a perfect world folks could get all self-righteous like W.E.B. DuBois and say let's devote all time and effort to the "talented tenth" and let the others go hang.

But I think men like Washington and Carver, who (1) recognized the situation they were in rather than living in some idealistic fantasy world; and (2) figured out a plan to do the most good for everybody given the circumstances, did more to help the average black man or woman than all DuBois's fussing ever did.

It's a shame that the black 'establishment' has decided to follow the philosophy of DuBois rather than Washington et al.