Resolution on Slavery?

[Kingsman]

Last two sentences of a recently-amended NEA resolution on "Right of Redress for Descendants of Slaves": "The Association also believes that the history of slavery in the U.S. was a grievous crime against humankind that has contributed to a continuance of institutional racism. The Association further believes that the descendants of those subjected to slavery in the U.S. have the right to seek redress for the injustices inflicted upon their ancestors." So, did the NEA give a backhanded endorsement of reparations or did it finesse the issue with a toothless statement of a "right"?

[Informed Citizen]

They get enough government handouts as it is.

[raycyrx]

Does that mean that all Europeans, Asians and others that were held as slaves (and their descendants) also will be compensated by their legacy owners?

[Kingsman]

I'd appreciate an admin. correcting the title. It's embarrassing to see my sloppy proof-reading. Thanks.

[johndobee]

There ya go. Now that I think of it, I didn't receive a single thin dime to correct that title! I demand my reparations!!
Seriously though, does any person of color REALLY feel they deserve to receive monetary damages for a wrong perpetrated against an ancestor that's been dead over 100 years? Really?
Institutional racism wasn't a result of the sin of slavery. Folks, it's been around since societies began to gather in groups. Racism has so much less to do with a persons color than it does about their culture. Study the tribes of the great plains. Many of them hated each other for no other reason than they weren't like each other in how they lived. It's simply human nature. It's part of being human. We group up, and point fingers at each other and scream, "well will you look at that Myrna, those dayum idgets next door have pink flamingos on their yard. How we ever gonna live next to them degenerates?".
If you look hard enough you'll usually see that those screaming the loudest for reparations, or crying racism, have a vested interest in keeping people from ever living with their pink flamingo neighbors. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the grand dragon of the KKK (whoever that may be now), all have a livelihood attached to keeping people seperate.
Sooner or later people have to just accept that their neighbors don't live the same lives they do, and move on. Until that happens there's always going to be an "ism" to point to and exploit.
The NEA has an interest in exploiting the "isms" keeping people apart. It gives them another tool in their toolbox whenever things don't go their way. Cry racism. Cry sexism. Pick your poison, it's all the same really. Us against them, and that's just how they like it (need it).

[johndobee]

I should point out the cheating debacle in Atlanta. I suspect this tool of racism is being put in the toolbox to help combat that. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-07-09-former-mayor-atlanta-school-cheating_n.htm

"I'm not here to defend Dr. Hall, and I'm not here to smear her," said Franklin, during an interview Saturday. "I'm here to say this is where we are now. We need to take this opportunity and move forward with it."

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal released a report Tuesday that Time magazine is calling "likely the largest cheating scandal in U.S. history to date." It showed officials at nearly 80 percent of 56 Atlanta elementary and middle schools examined cheated on annual student-performance tests, called Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.

[bob_rx2000]

I moved here from a suburb of Atlanta in 1993. The year before I moved here, the Atlanta public schools conducted teacher qualification tests and a whopping 40% of the teachers failed the test for their concentration. The Atlanta Constitution-Journal ran a large sample of the questions from various disciplines one Sunday, and I must admit that I came close to failing the English Lit questions. I passed the History and Math question samples with ease. The English Lit questions seemed a bit obscure to me, but then again, I don't claim to be an English Lit teacher.

The point here is that the Atlanta school system has known conclusively for nearly 20 years that they have a serious problem with the quality of their teachers. My guess is that no substantive efforts have been made to rectify the problem.

[Happy Mom]