Hi, Jack!!! I found this curious article in the January 5, 1998 newspaper, which has caused me to do some thinking (oh, no)!
White Parents Resist Naming School for King (AP)
Riverside(CA)
Some white parents are fighting a plan to name a new high school after Martin Luther King Jr., saying it would be branded as a black school, hurting gradueates' college chances.
What do you think?
"It's a very difficult situation, becausee we're all going to come across as a bunch of racists, which is really not true," said parent Chris Blasnek.
The school in this city about 60 miles east of Los Angeles is scheduled to open in September 1999. It would be about two-thirds white. Flyers left on doorsteps recently urged parents to speak out against the proposed name when the school board votes on the issue today.
Some parents say that graduates of a campus named after King might be perceived as coming from a perdominantly black school, which they contend could hurt their college entrance prospects in some states.
"In some parts of the country, (King is) not looked upon as somebody famous," said Mark Van Meter.
"That's baloney," said Rose Mayes, founder and co-chairwoman of the Riverside Martin Luther King Monument Visionaries Foundation. "These people need to get a life. They need to go to some cultural sensitivity training." |
