I don't believe you. Your innocent "observations" seem heavily tilted towards segregation.
I do not believe that Maine ever had segregated schools to "resegregate,"
That is correct, largely due to the fact that the 6,600 black Downeasters constitute a whopping .5% of the population, according to the 2000 census. There aren't enough of them to make much difference one way or another in most of the state. But racial tensions exist elsewhere in the country, too, and you seem to be calling for resegregation.
. But my comment went to the deliberate attempt to engineer "racial diversity," not the incidental presence of diverse peoples in the same school. There is an essential difference.
By allowing local Somali children to attend public school, how is the Lewiston school board trying to "engineer racial diversity?" Your comments seem tangential to the issue at hand.
By allowing local Somali children to attend public school, how is the Lewiston school board trying to "engineer racial diversity?" Your comments seem tangential to the issue at hand.
I do not believe that the Lewiston school board is the one playing the social engineer here. But the sudden infusion of a substantial number of children from a radically different background into this local school is analogous to the experiments--such as bussing--that have taken place under the guise of deliberately promoting "diversity," elsewhere. And, frankly, I do not believe that this Somali community just spontaneously moved to Maine. They came as a group, and do not appear to be really part of the established Lewiston community. Therefore, the question arises how to handle the situation.
That analysis needs to start with a recognition that diversity is not some sort of inevitable benefit. And it probably would be better in this instance, if they had a separate school for these children--one run not by the people of Lewiston, but by their own parents, who understand their traditional values. (Wasn't it because they were being picked on for their eccentricities, which supposedly led to their being resettled over here?)
Beyond that, of course, our whole immigration policy needs to be questioned. But it looks likes it may be too late for that in Lewiston.
William Flax