They say Trevor made a mockery of MLK Day say guilt-ridden liberals and white apologists

Radiofree West Hartford ^ | January 24, 2004 | David M. Huntwork

[PoliticsInCT]

Trevor is a junior at Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day Trevor, along with a couple of friends, decided to orchestrate a campaign that he be named the recipient of the "Distinguished African American Student Award" for next year. In the best American political tradition, they printed and plastered throughout the school about 150 posters showing a smiling Trevor giving a thumbs up and encouraging votes for him. The award has been given for eight years on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to a senior selected by teachers.

There was only one slight problem. Though Trevor was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, he is white. This apparently did not sit well with the powers-that-be at Westside High School. In very short order, Trevor and his band of merry men found themselves on the receiving end of disciplinary action. Though the punishment of the other students has not been publicly disclosed, Trevor himself was suspended for two days. This was his reward for publicly spoiling the spirit of this inspiring award on no less than the holiest of the politically correct holidays.

I suppose an insignificant punishment for unsanctioned poster hanging may have been in order but the resulting punishment was certainly out of proportion to the crime. The students were not officially disciplined for the hanging of the posters themselves but for the particular ideological message that was contained on them.

Even more disturbing and serious was the punishment of another student for circulating a petition the following day criticizing the practice of recognizing only black student achievement with the award. This gallant expression of grassroots activism was swiftly squashed by the now on-guard school administration that was boiling at the audacity of mere teenagers hanging, as they put it, "inappropriate and insensitive" posters in this culturally aware and enlightened society.

There is no law that says one has to be "appropriate and sensitive" (as defined by who?) but the speech codes in public high schools and college campuses are mercilessly used to strangle any suggestion of dissent of the policies and ideologies of the Left.. Never mind that Trevor is more "African" than any other student attending his high school and is probably more knowledgeable of African culture than the other 1,842 students combined.

Continued

[cyborg]

These people need to GET OVER IT!!!!! They're just upset someone came along and knocked over their racial applecart.

[leadpenny]

Your first post. Welcome to FR. You here to stay?

[beaversmom]

I heard this story on the radio the other day. I say Trevor file a lawsuit.

[Kirkwood]

I don't think he was mocking MLK day. He was mocking the way society labels people. Some labels work pretty well (like liberal and conservative), but some labels like African-American are irrelevant.

[Dead Corpse]

You are not authorized to participate in this Two Minutes of Hate. Report to the Ministry of Love for an orientation session.

[Tribune7]

School choice is the solution. If administrators depend on happy parents for their salary, they'll stop being petty tyrants.

[Prodigal Son]

I'd like to see more made out of this. I've always wondered what would happen if a white from Africa asserted his African-American status.

[Night Hides Not]

There was at least one store at Grapevine Mills Mall that celebrated MLK Day. It was a women's store (don't remember the name) that exhorted women to celebrate MLK Day by going in for a free bra fitting!

I say that deserves a snappy salute! Or do I have to report to the Ministry of Love, too?

[beaversmom]

School choice is the solution.

I agree with that. I make the Homer Simpson noise when I think about vouchers.

[cyborg]

Actually, of all those that have, they've been given scholarships,etc. but that's college not high school.

[dts32041]

I suppose JFK is ashamed of his wife's African American heritage.

I never hear that mentioned on his campaign.

[jimkress]

He dared to mock BuckWheat's birthday? Oh the horror!!!

[Condor51]

How un-PC. Didn't this white boy know that only blacks can be true African-Americans? Regardless of the fact that none of the 'African'-Americans in his school are really from Africa, except him of course.

And I wonder what the idiots at the school would have done if say an Egyptian student ran for the 'African'-American award? Last I checked Egypt was still in Africa. Wait, I know, he'd have to run for the Egyptian-African-American award.

Yep, being a pc race-pimp certainly does get complicated at times!

[alloysteel]

The generally accepted rule here in America is, that if you declare yourself to be part of some racial or ethnic group, then you belong to that group. You don't even need to provide the most tenuous connection. If you say you are Irish, you are Irish, even if your name in Chang Mei-Ling or Adnan Korsian. Even with as little as one-64th Cherokee descent, you have people claiming to be "Cherokee", or you can simply claim a name like "Luke Warmwater", sit around in front of a tepee, and wear a headband of feathers with a Pendleton blanket draped over your shoulders.

Americans are a pretty mongrel bunch. Trevor COULD have some African anscestry, or be descended from someone who once lived in Africa.

[Dead Corpse]

A bra fitting?

:-/

Er... OK. I guess it depends on who is doing the fitting...

[ladylib]

And then go right to the "reflection room" and reflect on what you learned from the "Ministry of Love" and while you're there, put some condoms on the bananas for the next sex ed class.

Honest, in some districts it's called the "reflection room" instead of a detention room.

[cyborg]

I agree. If they based it upon ethnicity then he's more African-American than a lot of people who refer to themselves as such. His family grew up in South Africa and he spent his early years there.

[Dead Corpse]

There is the rub. Trevor was BORN in AFRICA.

This makes him an African. He moved to the US with his parents and is now a US Citizen. That makes him an African-American.

He just isn't BLACK. They don't want us thinking about RACE. Just the image of an oppressed people. Even if they haven't been oppressed by anyone or any institution still opperable in the US. It isn't about equalizing the scales anymore, it is about turning the tables and making their racism work for them.

Affirmative Action? Call it by what it really is. Affirmative Racism.

[Guillermo]

A few years ago, the U of Michigan paper ran a story about South Africa, which referred to some of their citizens as "African American South Africans" (As opposed to "White" South Africans.)