I'm amazed at how blithely people want to dismiss things like this as "politcal correctness", or "well-intentioned mistakes". I'm not saying burn the school down or anything, but come on: saying the kid overracted to seeing four people walking through the lunchroom dressed in full Klan robes? Only in a ninety-four percent white area: had they tried that down my way, I'm sorry to say the kids would have probably gotten jacked. It's reasons like this why I'm not a fan of black kids going to overwhelmingly white schools, especially in overwhelmingly white areas: there's a lack of sensitivity and awareness sometimes that can't be easily taught. It is inconceivable that a teacher of any race wouldn't think to inform her principal that she was using Klan robes for a film at school. It's less understandable that it never crossed her mind that marching them through the school might cause some issues. Yet it happened because the teacher and all the parents and kids are simply not tuned in to the world that blacks have endured, or the painful legacies that still linger. How does one teach common sense in the face of such woeful ignorance? She was well-intentioned, but clueless as hell.
What bothers me, what is the continuing strugge we have with issues of race, gender, etc., is the lack of consideration by people who can't seem to consider things outside their own experiences. You shouldn't have to be black to get this. I bet if the kids had been dressed like Union soldiers on the way to burn Atlanta, some of these "get over it" parents would see things differently. I bet if they'd worn SS uniforms, even non-Jewish whites would have been more sympathetic to any outrage. What if four big black brothers had marched by with fake guns and knives, saying they were going to re-enact a slave revolt where some whites were killed? Think the parents would be seeing "get over it"? The sad thing is, that we so often only seem to sympathize and empathize when it's something that directly affects our little racial/gender/ethnic/political group. Does the teacher need to be fired? Do we need to march? Probably not, but a conversation definitely needs to be had here. The former NAACP head who says it's a tempest in a teapot just sounds old and tired to me... ************************************************** By Kristi E. Swartz The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The reaction from last week's Lumpkin County High School history project was "blown way out of proportion," said students who gathered at the school Tuesday afternoon. Moore. "I think people are just making things up to get a little bit of attention out of it." Four students donned Ku Klux Klan outfits as part of a film project for teacher Catherine Ariemma's Advanced Placement U.S. history class last week. Ariemma escorted the group of white students through the cafeteria on the way to being filmed, not anticipating the reaction from a mixed-race student, Cody Rider, who told the AJC on Monday that he was outraged. While most students -- as well as those around town Tuesday -- said the reaction was unwarranted, Ariemma on Tuesday found herself at the center of an administrative debate as well as a media circus. The Rev. Markel Hutchins, a civil rights activist, said in a news conference after the meeting that Lumpkin County High School teachers would have sensitivity and diversity training. There have been measures put in place to make sure nothing like this happens again, he said. There also will be a student assembly in a couple of days to discuss the situation, and a town hall meeting will be held in a couple of weeks. Hutchins has encouraged the school system to further investigate and take disciplinary action, if warranted. Ariemma is on paid administrative leave. "We all must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will die together as fools," Hutchins said. Ariemma, who attended the meeting, did not speak at the news conference. Fifteen to 20 students and some parents were on hand, and several students hugged Ariemma. "Leave her alone," one woman said as she ushered Ariemma into a car. The population of Lumpkin County, located about 70 miles north of Atlanta, is 94 percent white, according to Census data. Dahlonega, with a population of about 4,000, is the county seat. Historic Dahlonega square was fairly quiet on a late Tuesday afternoon, but shop owners and visitors said they’ve been talking about last week’s incident “People were saying it’s a big to-do about nothing,” said Kate Munson, an employee at The Humble Candle. Gerald Eardley, visiting with his wife from Savannah, called the reaction, “political correctness gone crazy.” Geri Dunn said it was no different than watching a Civil War re-enactment. “I don’t think it would have been put in school if it was meant to be derogatory,” Dunn said. ”What she was trying to do was not a bad thing.” One older civil rights activist in that Atlanta area said the flap over the Klan clothing is a distraction from more urgent issues confronting African-Americans today. Ariemma may have erred by failing to inform her superiors about her plans, said activist John Evans. But even blacks stage reenactments of killings by whites, he said by phone Tuesday. “White folk murdered and raped and robbed black folk back in the day. It’s part of history,” said Evans, a former president of the DeKalb County branch of the NAACP. “Now, if you’re teaching history, aren’t you supposed to include that?” Evans, 77, now heads an activist group called Operation Lead and is a current vice president of the DeKalb NAACP though he said he wasn’t speaking for that group. He said he could understand why a black student at the high school would complain. “But now, you get older, and things like that are not very exciting,” he said. Instead, blacks should worry about making and saving money and building their own businesses, he said. “To be influential in this country you got to have yourself some coins,” Evans said. “We’ve got more important things to worry about than something that happened 100 years ago.” -- Ty Tagami and Marcus K. Garner contributed to this report.
