Because of a potential court fight in the very near future I will not mention the city, or school district in question. Two years ago I lead a small but very effective contingent group of parents in our fight against a high school, a town, and a very passionate group of tradionalists who did not want to depart from a high school mascots nickname that was very offensive to African Americans.
In my quest to seek a resolution, I met with the school board officials on a seemingly positive meeting to address the situation.
They even agreed that the name was offensive and that think it needs to be changed but that they wanted to wait a while until a new high school was completed and opened and that the locals would not dwell as much about the change.
Fast forwarding here a bit, eventually I met with the superintendent 2 months later to no avail. Things hit a wall as they didn't show any inclination to do anything. It then was posed to me that I needed to show other African Americans were as passionate about this as I. At the Superintendents requests I emailed him the list.
After trying to get media exposure w/o success I finally got a break one day after nearly giving up and asking God to handle it.
When I picked up my son that evening he had a number from a local newspaper editor that had read about my quest on the schools's website and wanted to talk to me.
On the website the school district twisted my story around to make me out to be someone in support of the very thing I was there in the first place to change. In my mind it was an attempt to cause those who were with me to question my intentions, committment and to view me as untrustworthy and a 'Uncle Tom'.
I responded very angrilily to the school's communications director who did not respond back but then the superintendent stepped in and told me from now on to deal with him.
After the local newspaper ran the story, the story went all the way around the country. The school board because of the exposure and public opinion reacting negatively then gave in and voted 7-0 to change the nickname.
This created an outrage in the community by the hundreds they crammed in the school board meeting to voice their displeasure.
After this, my son's were retaliated in the school's year book one's picture was listed the other omitted. Where the other was omitted(my son's are twins, so it's pretty hard to mess this one up)
Where the other was omitted, the school put an article next to my one son regarding the nickname's change and the opinion of the schools starting quarterback referring to me in a bad light next to my son.
After this name change I me and my family were singled out by a high school student and called a very offensive name. I filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights. Then there was racial discord at the school a kid's life was nearly taken because the name change had spurred hate by a very well known racist who the school even acknowledged as a racist.
The community was so angry with me that my two son's who played football on the high school team were snubbed by the home announcer of our games. He refused to call their names
whenever they made plays during the game. The locals still
wore their old nickname jersey's and etc... and would make
a point to annoy me but I would not let them think it bothered
me.
The mother of this kid who nearly lost his life pulled her son out of this school after the schools principal refused to show any emotion to do anything. This caused me and my group to get together and address the school board again.
The school board of this town has created the impression that it's just me and the locals who are white bash me in the newspapers
when there was other black parents there addressing the board. My complaint with the OCR while filed by me actually covers other families and the school district knows this but they still want to spin it as if it's me.
In my opinion, creating this puts me at risk. Even though they know that there are other black people with me. They have never said that there are other people they seem to want the community to think it's me and me only. I had to get the local newspaper to write a retraction to tell the truth because the school board wouldn't or cared to let people know it's the truth.
Meanwhile, there is alot of people in this town that would not mind if I came up dead. I feel defamed, do I have a shot here?
In my quest to seek a resolution, I met with the school board officials on a seemingly positive meeting to address the situation.
They even agreed that the name was offensive and that think it needs to be changed but that they wanted to wait a while until a new high school was completed and opened and that the locals would not dwell as much about the change.
Fast forwarding here a bit, eventually I met with the superintendent 2 months later to no avail. Things hit a wall as they didn't show any inclination to do anything. It then was posed to me that I needed to show other African Americans were as passionate about this as I. At the Superintendents requests I emailed him the list.
After trying to get media exposure w/o success I finally got a break one day after nearly giving up and asking God to handle it.
When I picked up my son that evening he had a number from a local newspaper editor that had read about my quest on the schools's website and wanted to talk to me.
On the website the school district twisted my story around to make me out to be someone in support of the very thing I was there in the first place to change. In my mind it was an attempt to cause those who were with me to question my intentions, committment and to view me as untrustworthy and a 'Uncle Tom'.
I responded very angrilily to the school's communications director who did not respond back but then the superintendent stepped in and told me from now on to deal with him.
After the local newspaper ran the story, the story went all the way around the country. The school board because of the exposure and public opinion reacting negatively then gave in and voted 7-0 to change the nickname.
This created an outrage in the community by the hundreds they crammed in the school board meeting to voice their displeasure.
After this, my son's were retaliated in the school's year book one's picture was listed the other omitted. Where the other was omitted(my son's are twins, so it's pretty hard to mess this one up)
Where the other was omitted, the school put an article next to my one son regarding the nickname's change and the opinion of the schools starting quarterback referring to me in a bad light next to my son.
After this name change I me and my family were singled out by a high school student and called a very offensive name. I filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights. Then there was racial discord at the school a kid's life was nearly taken because the name change had spurred hate by a very well known racist who the school even acknowledged as a racist.
The community was so angry with me that my two son's who played football on the high school team were snubbed by the home announcer of our games. He refused to call their names
whenever they made plays during the game. The locals still
wore their old nickname jersey's and etc... and would make
a point to annoy me but I would not let them think it bothered
me.
The mother of this kid who nearly lost his life pulled her son out of this school after the schools principal refused to show any emotion to do anything. This caused me and my group to get together and address the school board again.
The school board of this town has created the impression that it's just me and the locals who are white bash me in the newspapers
when there was other black parents there addressing the board. My complaint with the OCR while filed by me actually covers other families and the school district knows this but they still want to spin it as if it's me.
In my opinion, creating this puts me at risk. Even though they know that there are other black people with me. They have never said that there are other people they seem to want the community to think it's me and me only. I had to get the local newspaper to write a retraction to tell the truth because the school board wouldn't or cared to let people know it's the truth.
Meanwhile, there is alot of people in this town that would not mind if I came up dead. I feel defamed, do I have a shot here?
