It was actually the school’s head of security. And, yeah, when you forcibly remove someone from an event you get the people who do that to do it. Would have happened to a white student?
We really don’t know, but:
Stern graduation standards seem to be applicable to many creeds and colors.
And the US constitution was deployed to get Citizens United, but that doesn’t mean we should throw out the constitution.
Oh, but on the contrary, nothing is “racist…” ever.
Didn’t you know?
It’s just all part of some big cosmic “card game,” no matter what entire communities and a metric fuckton of statistics say.
Well, clearly @bjones1 gets to be the arbiter of deciding what’s racist and what isn’t…
Clearly.
I remember wearing my sorority colors, letters, and a gold holographic poodle on the top of my mortar board when I walked at my undergrad ceremony.
All I can remember about my HS graduation is that I wore a cream backless halter suit and high heel sandals, and that the only people who didn’t get to walk was the fool who showed up drunk to commencement. Even then, neither security or the police were called in; our principal handled it quickly and quietly before anything could escalate.
No, they aren’t subjective. Legally some hate speech may be protected, but none of this is subjective. The three tests that the supremes listed are objectively measurable.
I don’t know about “coincidence”, as this wasn’t some kind of random event, and yes, I absolutely do believe that in a situation where a white student was threatening to disrupt a school event and in the absence of an obvious alternative they would call the police.
There is little question that there is structural racism in schools that results in disproportionate arrests of students of color; for example, schools with high proportions of POC are more likely to have zero tolerance policies than other schools. They are also more likely to have a permanent police presence (the modern term is “school resource officer”) at the school. However, not every disciplinary action taken against a student of color is an example of racism.
Between people on the right hating teachers because they inculcate lefty values, people on the left hating teachers because they’re authoritarian racists, and people in legislatures hating teachers because they expect to earn a living wage, I’m surprised anyone enters the profession any more.
His blackness certainly was threatening.
You think that one person can’t take pride in something that another finds hateful? On the more sedate list of examples, I suggest you research debates regarding the Confederate Battle Flag.
I’ll take that as a "yes’.
Yep. They actually threw out all the black students. They just forgot to mention that part.
I prefer to base my arguments on the documented facts rather than on my gut feelings. But that’s just me. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but racism exists. It does. Calling the cops on a kid over this… It wasn’t okay. He has the right to run his mouth. The threat of ‘disruption’ was a threat to some one’s definition of order, not a threat of violence.
What occurred WAS violent. being ejected by the cops, as well as not being allowed to graduate with your class over a difference of opinion, are violent.
A school district is a political subdivision of the State of California, not a voluntary association. It is, in fact, the state.
Me too. The fact is that this student refused to comply with a directive at a school event (not just running off his mouth, as you suggest). Some people have a gut feeling that this was a racist act.
The problem with gut feelings is that they are often born of prejudice. This also holds for gut feelings about teachers.
[quote=“AcerPlatanoides, post:134, topic:78756”]
Calling the cops on a kid over this… It wasn’t okay.[/quote]
I don’t like it either, but I can’t think of an alternative now, and certainly wouldn’t have been able to under the circumstances. What do you think you would have done in this situation, assuming that “let the student wear his kente over the robe” was not an option?
No one involved speaks about any kind of violence. No one said Holmes was threatening to anyone or anything aside from the official sense of order. The young man was in violation of their rule, which they enforce on everyone else (see Sacremento Bee article), he tried to end run them and didn’t quite make it. He got kicked out.
And Holmes was calling his Mom while being escorted out. There was no violence described. They met him coming off stage, he went willingly. He even shared a little moment with (another, black) security guy.
So an uncool experience, but it doesn’t sound like it meets my standard of “violent” on either side. Just a battle of wills.
And apparently no one called the cops. There were cops on the scene attending to something a coronary somewhere else at the event. Holmes’s escorters were school (maybe district?–Holmes doesn’t seem to recognize them as school security) security folks who were on the scene already for . . . just this kind of thing.
Police were involved because symbols of blackness were adorned. Versus other “dress code violations”.
Really? And what do you know about other “dress code violations” that were allowed to pass?
None of them involved police removing the offender from the ceremony.
You know that for a fact? Were there any? Was it the police? Has this sort of thing ever happened in past years? Tell me everything you know that the rest of us don’t that gives you all this keen, unambiguous insight into these the motives of everyone actually involved in this case. You could probably give Nyree Holmes a few lessons about what really happened to him. Enlighten us.
