In our school newsletter, which is published every Friday, the Principal put a little blurb about Abraham Lincoln last week. Yesterday she forwarded to the entire staff an email from a parent, thanking everyone who was involved in the newsletter for doing such a great job. The parent also wrote this:
"Thank you for mentioning President Lincoln in there as well. He seems to have gotten lost in the "black history month" so it was good to see you mention him."
I have to trust my gut reaction to this statement, which was that this statement is a veiled racist rant. I understand that I live in suburbia (people have decorated the OUTSIDES of their houses for Valentine's day, by the way), and that there are few people of color, even fewer of whom are black. But I am still jarred when people say and do things like this, and I am ashamed to say it has happened more times than I care to admit. It makes me think I need to move away from here. The quotation marks around Black History Month and the fact that the words aren't capitalized, combined with the insinuation that a white man isn't getting the attention he deserves add up to nothing more than plain bigotry.
I also have to wonder why the principal didn't see this? Did it even occur to her that the statement might be considered racist? Did she stop and think before she forwarded it to everyone? I doubt it. She's so entrenched in this community, she probably didn't even notice the racist undertones. That's what happens when racist behavior is considered acceptable in your community. I need to get out of here.
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