NAACP addresses cheerleading (suspend local cheerleading because squads are all white)

News-Record.com ^ | 9-13-02 | MARK BRUMLEY

[Michael2001]

ASHEBORO -- The Board of Education took no action Thursday on a request by the local NAACP to suspend all cheerleading after the chapter president complained that all of the students on the middle and high schools squads are white.

Wesley Fennell, the president of the Asheboro/Randolph County branch of the NAACP, asked the board to suspend cheerleading activities until a better way of selecting team members could be developed and implemented.

"The current selection process has resulted in the total elimination of African American cheerleaders from the Asheboro City Schools system," Fennell said.

The city schools have cheerleaders for sports teams at Asheboro High, and South Asheboro and North Asheboro middle schools, Fennell said. Total African American student enrollment in the system is 14.6 percent. Another 21.9 percent are Hispanic.

The board did not discuss Fennell's concerns and gave no indication of how it might handle them. Superintendent Diane Frost instead provided a copy of a letter she sent to Fennell on Aug. 30.

"Our goal is to provide a wide array of extracurricular activities for our students," Frost's letter stated. "We hope students will choose to participate in at least one school activity every year, because there is a strong correlation between participation and high student achievement.

"We encourage any student who is interested in cheerleading, or any other activity, to pursue it. We strive to have an inclusive process, and certainly encourage participation from all groups of students."

Fennell said he has also learned that no African Americans participated in selecting cheerleaders. He said that the college cheerleaders brought in to help judge high school tryouts come from predominantly white universities. He said the system should also bring in cheerleaders from historically black colleges.

"This could have served as an opportunity to expose this school system to potential future minority teachers, and to expose Asheboro school students to positive role models of all races," Fennell said.

Fennell complained that the $18 fee charged for Asheboro High School's Blue Comet Cheerleading Clinic to be held later this month could exclude low-income students from participating in cheerleading. The principal told him that no student would be excluded because of an inability to pay the fee, but Fennell said he was concerned that students who couldn't afford it would be too embarrassed to admit it.

"This certainly seems to contradict the concept of an inclusive process," he said.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Will somebody please pass the watermelon?

[mafree]

if you look at participation of blacks in high school and college athletics, black women are underrepresented

It's really hard to participate when your pregnant or raising young kids, even with their grandmother.

Excuse me, most high school and college age Black women are not pregnant and don't have children. I didn't back then (and don't now).

[Howlin]

Sounds like he wants "cheerleading stamps."

If they do away with this, I hope they do away with homecoming queen and all that; most schools in the South now have complete black homecoming courts because the blacks all ban together and vote BLACK, but somehow that's not racist.

[sweetliberty]

What ever happened to the good, old-fashioed response to busybodies like these...."it's none of your business!"

It is high time we started marginalizing these groups and rendering them irrelevant. This mentality is way out of control. It seems to me that we have been pushed too far and it is time to start pushing back.

[sweetliberty]

" I forgot that requires the GPA to go with it rather than straight percentage of enrollment."

Just a matter of time. They are already working on getting standardized tests dumbed down sufficiently to "balance" college enrollment and the appearance of success. Next will be to require that the grading system be neutralized to the same end.

[sweetliberty]

Those white girls are obviously wearing a representation of the Confederate battle flag therefore they are obviously racist. < /sarcasm >

As to white representation in predominantly black schools, haven't you realized yet that the same rules do not apply to them? I mean, they can even get away with having an all black prom so that their blackness and cultural traditions can be celebrated. What do you think would happen if WE tried to do that? The NAACP, Jesse Jackass and the ACLU would be on us like flies on horse sh*t.

[sweetliberty]

Looks more like a spread in Playboy than a cheerleading squad.

[sweetliberty]

"The NAACP continues to perpetuate the welfare class by trying to extort on the behalf (and on the backs) of black people, while simultaneously telling them in so many words that there is no need to excel."

And the thing is that they are insulting their own people by their actions because they are essentially telling them that they are indeed too stupid to excel in a white world but that's okay because we will see to it that you don't have to.

[sweetliberty]

"It took thousands of dollars worth of dance and gymnastics lessons over a course of years to get good enough to win a spot at the try-outs."

Things sure have changed since I was in high school. All you needed then was to be able to jump pretty well, shout loud and live in the right part of town. I think you had to buy your own uniform, but the school provided the pom poms and megaphones.

[sweetliberty]

"we need some short Asians on college basketball teams"

....and at least one hispanic lesbian in a wheel chair.

[sweetliberty]

"most schools in the South now have complete black homecoming courts because the blacks all ban together and vote BLACK, but somehow that's not racist."

Sounds like they've learned well from the liberals/democrats.

[Brad C.]

The junior high my daughter attended just relaxed the grading standards for the Honor Role to accommadate all. The two years she attended, close to 60% of the student body was on the "Honor Roll", and very few really belonged there.

[Fintan]

Fennell complained that the $18 fee charged for Asheboro High School's Blue Comet Cheerleading Clinic to be held later this month could exclude low-income students from participating in cheerleading.

Yeah. It would be a real bummer if these "low-income students" had to give up their cell phones, pagers, $150 manicures and the twice-a-week visits to the hair salons that they all seem to be able to manage financially.

[thegreatbeast]

You wrote, " Make the clinic free to all students." No, YOU make the clinic free to all who are interested. Don't ask the taxpayers to pay for your pet projects. If it's so important to you, you underwrite the clinic!
Some one said something about black females were not playing lacrosse and other sports but did not list BASKETBALL. Why?

[Robert A Cook PE]

"Expand the cheerleading squad immediately by adding qualified Black and Hispanic students. Make the clinic free to all students. And add minority teachers to the committee that chooses the cheerleaders. Nuff said. It's fair, just do it....

You forgot something.

"And make sure that exactly the right percent of blacks get picked for the squad... regardless of qualification of the judges or talent of the competitors. ....That's only fair, just do it."

/ sarcasm off

[meyer]

To "meyer" Re: your comment to my post on the NAACP addresses cheerleading post 73 of 93: You said, You forgot the (/sarcasm) tag. My comment to "meyer": I wasn't being sarcastic, I meant what I said!!! cheers, cie

Well, the reply was copied in a totally different thread, but I thought I'd bring it out here.

You're totally wrong - the school's duty is simply to teach. It is up to the student as to whether they perform adequately so as to be acceptable to other honored positions. The school has no duty to meet quotas. Fairness involves opportunity perhaps, but the school doesn't need to spend additional resources on some students due to their race.

[Michael2001]

Wow, you really are an insensitive guy

[Dante3]

This makes the honor roll meaningless.

[Brad C.]

Absolutely so, I could not believe it when I saw it. We actualy had a small problem with my eldest daughter, who didn't have a lot of drive when it came to school work. When it came time to enroll her for Junior High, we went to the Open house at the school. We were told by the teachers that they were going to do everything they could to make sure that our child developed into the person she was meant to be.

We then went to an Open House at the local Catholic school, where we were told that upon completion of the 7th & 8th grades, our daughter would have a complete understanding and knowledge of mathematics, english, and science normally taught at the high school level. They also said that she would be well enough prepared to start looking at entry level college courses if she felt the desire to do so. Needless to say my eldest attended Catholic Junior High.

We attended the High school graduation ceremonies for two years at both the public and Catholic schools. I pointed out to my wife (the Catholic in the family) that although the graduating classes were very small at the Catholic school, all but 1 student out of the graduating seniors had full scholarships to major schools. The public school that graudated some 400 students a year had maybe 2 full scholarships, and a 1/2 dozen partials. Grim indeed.

[tsomer]

Touche'. I recant.

But I can remember a time.
I was teaching drawing in a community college, in what you'd call an "urban setting,." I had about 14 students, most were 18-20 year olds. All save one were mothers. The exceptional one, the one with promise, was pregnant by the end of the semester.

It was heartbreaking.