I would say this letter to the editor is “beyond the pale”, but that would probably be called racist too.
This one will make your head hurt…
Editorial reminiscent of 1960s
Hoo boy. Instead of going over everything that’s wrong about Tommy Bennett’s letter, I’m going to talk about everything that he got right.
(silence)
(more silence)
Now that’s out of the way, I’ll need a Big Board of Wrongness…
- To start with, he talks about “Danville’s recent assessment of the first-year performance” of Danville school superintendent Ed Newsome. I’m not sure how he thinks that the Register & Bee’s editorial board is anything that could be considered official. It was their opinion and they listed facts.
- Next, Bennett takes that Race Pimp Time Machine back to the 1960’s when horrible things happened in Danville with regards to race relations. There’s only one problem with that. It’s 2014. Stupid people did bad things then and those stupid people are mostly dead by now. I didn’t have a damned thing to do with these acts and I completely disavow them. Tommy Bennett is an up and coming Junior Race Pimp but he already knows the tricks. Paint Today’s White People with acts of racial disasters from almost 50 years ago even though that has absolutely no relevance to today’s society.
- “Race card” is now a racial term on Tommy Bennett’s world. My brain is hurting more now.
- He goes on to ask “why it is wrong for citizens, of any color, to attend a public meeting?” Well, there’s nothing wrong with it. Nobody has ever said there’s anything wrong with it, you idiot! Quit trying to make something out of absolutely nothing! GAH!
- “Much of the criticism of Dr. Newsome is akin to criticism of President Obama during his first few months in office.” – WHAT? Where in the hell is he getting this from? I’ve had a problem with Newsome trying to add layers of bureaucracy to the school system. That fact (Yes, I said fact. I deal in facts.) has nothing to do with his skin color.
- “Perhaps, I shouldn’t expect more from a town that still prides itself on being the last capital of such a defeated legacy.” – Then what the hell are you doing coming back to Danville over and over again after your business ventures in Chicago and other places?
You’ll notice that Bennett never addresses the actual issues about Ed Newsome. He just tries to make it Back vs. White. This is the stupidest and most infuriating letter that I’ve read in a long time. Tommy Bennett makes a strong move up the Southside Race Pimp Ladder-O-Shame with this idiocy. Danville’s black population should be just as ashamed of this letter as the white population.
Danville still has racists in our midst. They’re both white and black. I’ll be glad when all of them are gone.
Bruce, we get it. You disagree with any person mentioning race in a pro-black way when in your own coverage you couldn’t get past the first paragraph or so without mentioning you were the only white guy in the room.
You lose significant credibility when you single out a letter you happen to disagree with and nitpick it, calling it “beyond the pale”, when the letters section is routinely filled with the writings of barely coherent conspiracy theorists who make this area look horribly ignorant.
If you want this site to grow into what it can be, you need to shoot for a standard much higher than on par with the local fish wrapper.
I’m glad to lose that sort of “credibility” then.
I’ll attack any letter and have done so in the past but there’s a special place in SouthsideCentral’s hell for somebody blatantly using a double standard of racism in this manner. Tommy Bennett has made other idiotic charges of racism and you’ll be seeing an article about that soon.
The letter writer needs to stop living in the 60’s and join us here in the two thousand teens and see that the injustices of the past have been transformed into the excuses of the present.
Okay, now I’m now at a computer. Let’s nitpick the nitpick. 🙂
1) “To start with, he talks about “Danville’s recent assessment of the first-year performance” of Danville school superintendent Ed Newsome. I’m not sure how he thinks that the Register & Bee’s editorial board is anything that could be considered official. It was their opinion and they listed facts.”
I think the critique here is based on the newspaper-chosen title of the letter versus the way the quote above begins. The problem with that type of critique is again that the newspaper chooses the title of the letter. It’s not appropriate to attribute that choice to the author of the letter. This was Danville’s assessment of Dr. Newsome. By that I mean whatever fraction of the community is actually engaged in this issue.
2) Next, Bennett takes that Race Pimp Time Machine back to the 1960′s when horrible things happened in Danville with regards to race relations. There’s only one problem with that. It’s 2014. Stupid people did bad things then and those stupid people are mostly dead by now. I didn’t have a damned thing to do with these acts and I completely disavow them. Tommy Bennett is an up and coming Junior Race Pimp but he already knows the tricks. Paint Today’s White People with acts of racial disasters from almost 50 years ago even though that has absolutely no relevance to today’s society.
This wasn’t the race pimp time machine at all. It was what was deserved based upon the newspaper editorial’s position that the black people need to give the white people what they want or else. The or else is this supposed white flight to private schools that apparently the newspaper thinks only white people are engaged enough or affluent enough to opt for. Bruce can close his eyes all he wants to the newspaper’s ignorant position and pretend that the only idiots were in power in the 60s, but it has been laid bare.
The vast majority of white people really sincerely want race issues to go away because they are not themselves racists. I understand that. I want them to go away, too. The answer is not to attack any time somebody brings up prior bad acts, though.
3)“Race card” is now a racial term on Tommy Bennett’s world. My brain is hurting more now.
What he’s talking about is how any time somebody like Greg Hairston makes a statement of fact (which is what you just called the editorial’s ignorant position about white flight, Bruce) like if the Superintendent were fired the black community would be outraged, it’s dismissed as race baiting. It’s an attempt to make the issue not about what is really the problem by distracting from the true issue.
4) He goes on to ask “why it is wrong for citizens, of any color, to attend a public meeting?” Well, there’s nothing wrong with it. Nobody has ever said there’s anything wrong with it, you idiot! Quit trying to make something out of absolutely nothing! GAH!
Bruce himself felt the need to address this bit of whining on the part of the editorial board. The newspaper was clearly intimating that there was a problem with the attendance. The author made an inference. That doesn’t make him an idiot.
5)“Much of the criticism of Dr. Newsome is akin to criticism of President Obama during his first few months in office.” – WHAT? Where in the hell is he getting this from? I’ve had a problem with Newsome trying to add layers of bureaucracy to the school system. That fact (Yes, I said fact. I deal in facts.) has nothing to do with his skin color.
It’s not entirely clear what some members of the Board had against Newsome as Bruce has made clear himself. They’ll hide behind the closed meeting for personnel matters. That said, I agree that the letter went off the rails here.
6) “Perhaps, I shouldn’t expect more from a town that still prides itself on being the last capital of such a defeated legacy.” – Then what the hell are you doing coming back to Danville over and over again after your business ventures in Chicago and other places?
I imagine that he comes back to Danville because he wants to make it better and that he has gotten very frustrated by this horrid conduct of the School Board as a body. Is that a sin now, Bruce? In fact, I think here is a good place to suggest that a future article should re-grade the Danville School Board in light of the last meeting.
Lee Smallwood, you get 3 thumbs up in my book! Well written assessment…
Assessment? Defense? Whatever it is it doesnt make the cut. Hairston so much as threatened the board if “his” way wasn’t taken. So who now is the racist? Lee you are usually broadminded but in this case you have the blinders on. Newsome did this to himself, no one else. He attempted to operate his own little fiefdom and pass down edicts that were educationally unsound as well as plain stupid. Anyone who questioned his procedures was written off, punished, and even fired. Time and time again he was caught is lies yet denied it! This was no leader, no leader at all. Some very well respected teachers in the division have indicated that his attempts to bulldoze his way through have been a detriment to the district. He has no respect for the teachers, the students, the board, or the community. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out………
Looking at Newsome’s year from outside the school system I have noticed this: First of all he wanted to blow up the entire system and remake it in his image. This takes a lot of money. he wanted to hire a lot more high priced people to work downtown, some of which were just extra people who would not really contribute to the betterment of our educational system. The school board balked on some of these, and he still planned to create and fill these positions. I have been told he had cronies from out of slotted to fill the positions. Overall he insisted that he get everything he wanted in the budget.
Te issue of attendance at the school board meeting is this: Newsome himself made an effort to turn this into a racial event. He turned out a group of people who have never been to a board meeting before, and were there because they had been advised he was in trouble. It is worth noting that his backers in attendance were all black. Does anybody think that was was just a coincidence?
Lawyer Greg Hairston, head of NAACP, surely played the race card by trying to intimidate the board. At that point Mr Polhamus should have rebuked Hairston for making such an outrageous inflammatory remark, but he did not. He let him off easy. That is just too bad too
Buck, you are spot on correct. Did the school board know he was black when they hired him? Of course, they did. Then, how can anyone say it is racism to fire him? Why would the the black leadership in Danville stand for a superintendent who is not doing a good, no great, job for the children of Danville when most of them are black?
He was brought in to make major changes. That’s because major changes were and are still necessary. People who are disaffected because they liked the old ways are stirring this up. The comments section of these articles make that clear.
I love the premise that citizens showing up to a meeting is a problem…if they’re black. Would the same card be getting played if dozens of white people came in to ask for something?
The black folks showed up to support Newsome, not because he is doing a great job, but because he is black. I would vote to keep him if he were getting the job done, regardless of his skin color. . By the same token, he needs to go if he isnot getting the job done, again, regardless of his skin color.
Anybody who wants to fire him because he is black is racist.
Anybody who wants to keep him because he is black is racist.
He’s doing precisely the job he was brought in to do. How can he be doing a poor job?
Lee, he was not hired to ignore the wishes of the School Board. He has not paid any attention to budget guidelines. He has demonstrated a high degree of arrogance. The guy needs to go.
If someone white is not doing a good job, they are fired and we hear no outrage. If someone black cannot do the job, every other black person raises cane defending them just because it is a black person. Don’t you care whether a quality job is performed? There are plenty of qualified black people who do great jobs. I applaud them. But don’t get in an uproar defending the non-performers just because of their skin color. Demand excellence because you want a better school system not because you think only a black man understands black children. Obviously the black men sperm donors are the root of failure of the home life for these children all in the name of the “check” they get.
Exactly
Sue Davis decided she wanted to go play principal her last year, and that was fine with the school board. I don’t think you really want to play the white people are held to a higher standard card.
I was told that the students who vandalized G.W.were caught.The principal did not want to allow the students to march. This decision was overruled by Dr.newsome
Correct Ralph. Newsome directed they be called “pranksters”, not vandals. They should have been prosecuted for this act.