ON TARGET COMMENTARY

                                                                          6/6/16             by Dave Gunn

 Southern Segregation Exposed!

       In recent weeks high schools all over America held their graduation ceremonies.  They were all pretty much the same, with happy graduates, proud parents, and boring speeches.

     However, things were very different in Cleveland, Mississippi.  There, the Eastside High School – a public high school - held the graduation of their racially segregated class of 2016.  This is not new for Eastside High School, for each graduating class for the last 50 years has been comprised of one race.  And no, there are two races in Cleveland, Mississippi.  However, Eastside High School is, and has been racially segregated.

     Now if you are thinking, “Those nasty white racists need to get with the times,” you would be wrong.  The Eastside High School is a completely segregated black high school, and that is the way they want it.

     In the distant past Cleveland had two high schools – one for whites and one for blacks.  Then, in the 1960’s a federal court ordered the town to integrate its school system.  The court left to the town the method in which it would achieve the mandated integration.  It was agreed that students would be allowed to attend whichever school they chose, so that the integration would be more natural.

     None of the whites wanted to leave their high school.  However, some of the blacks did want to leave their school and go to the white school, which caused that school to be integrated.  That left the black school with a smaller enrollment but a completely black enrollment.  This arrangement worked well for the town for the last 50 years.

     Now federal judge Debra Brown has ordered the town to completely desegregate both schools.  In her ruling, this meddling judge wrote that the town had failed to deal with its segregated past, had violated the civil rights of the children, and that the school district had a duty to see that no more students suffered under the burden of segregation.

     What the judge did not explain was why the town had to deal with its segregated past, since no one was forced into a segregated situation.  I would like to ask this judge a few questions.  How was it a violation of any student’s civil rights to allow that student to go to the school of his choice?  To the contrary, isn’t it more a violation of their civil rights to make the black children go where they don’t want to go?  How will the white children, who are already in an integrated school, be served by sending them to another school to achieve what they already have?  Who is suffering?  Not the children who are attending the school they want to attend.

     Here are some more questions for the judge: How is it not racist to assume that black children cannot learn anything unless they are seated next to white children?  Is it not racist for liberals to consider black teachers less competent than white teachers?   Is it not racist to assume that an all black school cannot be just as excellent as a white or integrated school?

     As with most liberal policies, this was a solution in search of a problem.  However it does prove one thing.  There are no public schools in America.  What are called public schools are really government schools.  If they were public schools, the public of Cleveland, Mississippi would have their schools the way they want them, without some nosy federal judge dictating how they will be operated.

[Dave Gunn is the nom de plume of Dr. David E. Gonnella, pastor of the Magnolia Springs Baptist Church in Theodore, Alabama.  The opinions expressed are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the church or its membership.]