OPINION
The Chronicle i
Ernest H. Pitt
Publisher Emeritus
1974-2015
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Send us your
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living your
Black History
Last year, the city of Winston-Salem held cere
monies as officials placed historic markers in several
neighborhoods, including two historically black
ones. Easton now has a historic marker and so does
Reynoldstown. After The Chronicle reported on the
Reynoldstown ceremony, a 101-year-old woman
wrote to the newspaper to give a taste of how she
saw living in that neighborhood years ago.
Adeline Richardson Hodge wrote: "I enjoyed the
article about Reynoldstown. I saw, in the news, the
unveiling of the historical marker for Reynoldstown.
"My father worked at R J. Reynolds in the chew
ing tobacco department. He applied for a house as
soon as they were finished and we became one of the
first black families to move into Reynoldstown.
"Our address was 901 Baltimore Street. That was
the one street for blacks. The sidewalk was paved
and the street was covered with cinderblocks. A
board fence separated the street for blacks from
other streets."
She wrote some more words about her life in
Reynoldstown and mentioned that she was 101 years
old.
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http://www.wschronicle .com/2015/12/letters-editor
reynoldstown-ncea-cooper-endorsemeqt/
We want more people to tell us stories about liv
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Black History!
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White girls' shirts spell out
Ni**er - Sur*ris*!, Sur*ris*!
Bill
Turner
Guest
Columnist
Six white high school
seniors in suburban
Phoenix posed - giggling
and snickering, girly-like -
for a photo that was posted
on Snapchat with a not
too-subtle presentation of
the racial slur traditionally
applied to black people in
America. It mattered!
These students have
left themselves quite a
visual legacy, one that
hounds the millennial gen
eration: that awkward posi
tion whites (and others,
many black) are in when
ever Ni**er comes up in
the lyrics of the music to
which they listen to so
attentively. Some are
enraged that the five-day
suspension was levied in
the first place, maintaining
that the matter is much ado
about nothing, that the girls
had a Randy Marsh (from
South Park) moment, no
harm intended nor done.
Others, those calling
for firing the principal who
levied the punishment,
opine that the suspension
was insufficient for the
offense.
We neither have to look
too far back nor too far to
the left or right, whether
looking on the big or the
small screen - as well as
online and in print - to see
a medley and montage of
the extraordinary racist
inheritance to which these
girls fell heir.
Could the girls have
been channeling the words
of Gov. Paul LePage of
Maine, who earlier this
month warned his citizens
of "guys by the name D
Money, Smoothie, and
Shifty. The type of guys
that come from
Connecticut and New
York. They come up here,
they sell their heroin, then
they go back home.".
Continuing, he said,
"Incidentally, half the time
they impregnate a young,
white girl before they
leave. Which is the real sad
thing, because then we
have another issue that we
have to deal with down the
road." That would take a
lot of T-shirts to spell out,
one letter at a time.
Like the pulsating
backbeat of a rapper's
delight, these kids are hear
ing and seeing, daily,
politicians who trumpet
cruel and racist immigra
tion policies.
Racial tensions
between minorities -
whose numbers are rising
exponentially - and the
white population are at an
all-time nigh. Systematic
racism and white privilege
- where race matters in
negative ways in the econ
omy, in politics, education,
health care, and incarcera
tion rates - are unwel
comed explanations for
behavior like that depicted
in the schoolgirls' ill-con
ceived photo that bombed.
And then there's the all
white Academy Awards
show bearing down on
these adolescents. They
are what they see. They
become what they do!
These girls' individual
act of racism reflects noth
ing different than the
assumptions and practices
that have driven racialized
politics in America since
the 1600s. Ni**er.
Sur*ris*!, Sur^ris"'!
Whether subtle and less
visible or the blatant dis
plays of racism - both have
negative impact on the tar
gets of the belittling - and
those who take aim at "The
Other."
At the turn of this cen
tury, James Allen pub
lished a book on white
Americans, shown in the
North and South, posing
like the girls of Desert
Vista High. In "Without
Sanctuary: Lynching
Photography in America,"
the photos depict whites
giggling and grinning at
black men being lynched
and burned; portrayals of
the well-known idiom, "A
picture is worth a thousand
words." I am not particu
larly surprised by the pho
tos of white girls at Desert
Vista High School depict
ing the N-word. It shows
how far we've come, and
yet how far we have to go.
Surprise. Surprise.
Dr. Bill Turner is a
noted educator, writer and
thinker who called
Winston-Salem home for
many years. Reach him at
bill-turner@ comcast net.
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jjy NBCT
These are the students wearing the offensive T-shirts.
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