White African-American boy not 'black' enough for award The Omaha suspension of a white high-school student originally from South Africa is sending shock waves across America as debate rages over who can claim rights to the term “African-American.” The case centers on Trevor Richards, a junior at Westside High School, who moved from Johannesburg to Nebraska six years ago. Richards and his classmates, 16-year-old twins Paul and Scott Rambo, were booted from classes last week after distributing posters touting Trevor as a candidate for Westside High’s “Distinguished African-American Student” award on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “The posters were intended to be satire on the term African-American,” Scott Rambo told the Omaha World-Herald. Principal John Crook says the posters were disruptive. “It was offensive to the individual being honored, to people who work here and to some students,” Crook told the paper. “My role is to make sure we have a safe environment, physically and psychologically. We can’t allow that kind of thing to be hung up on our walls.” Records from 2002-2003 indicate only 56 of Westside’s 1,632 students were black, and some in this year’s student body were reportedly upset by Richards’ poster. Ironically, the first two recipients of the student award were white. “It was not intended at the beginning to be one race only,” Clidie Cook, who helps organize the annual event, told the World-Herald. But Westside officials pushed to change that, feeling the spirit of the honor meant giving it to a black student, and by 2001, the ministerial alliance in charge specified it was for blacks only. Since the suspensions last week, the issue has been picked up by the Associated Press wire service, and has become a hot topic for columnists, talk radio and Internet messageboards. “There is no room at the inn for the viewpoints of conservatives, libertarians, Christians, or constitutionalists in the public indoctrination system,” says David Huntwork, a conservative activist in Fort Collins, Colo., who criticized the squashing of “this gallant expression of grass-roots activism.” The ABC television affiliate in Omaha, KETV, has been swamped with comments on its Internet messageboard. Among the postings: I attend Westside and I am in support for Trevor. Trevor is one of only maybe one or two other people that are actually from Africa. Trevor is more of an African-American than any other “African-American” at Westside. It is also wrong that there is an award for only black students when every other award at Westside is for everyone and everyone has an equal chance to receive those awards if they try. link
Them crazy, them crazy - We gonna chase those crazy Baldheads out of town Chase those crazy baldheads Out of our town.
who was handing out the award? jalen rose? : Please redirect to the south african hotties thread in the hangout:
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Was just gonna post about Bob Marley In how there's the big reverence of his BLACKCENTRIC message and his push for equality for BLACKS. And how Rasta is the family religion, music is family business on the Jamaican end Though his actual WHITE father's family line with the MARLEY name, they're just regular typical caucasians living in Florida. Are THEY not "black" enough to get in the Rasta and reggae ?
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The dangers of being overly politically correct. What's wrong with "black"? I remember during the 2008 campaign, you had people like Stanley Crouch saying Obama was neither black nor African-American, those terms being reserved for slaves and their descendents.
I lived in Omaha at the time and knew this story was old; but let's just be clear that if you're white, from South Africa and have roots their deeper than three or four generations; your family's got black blood on your hands. As a black person I think the award is a little weird, but those white kids are just being snarky little bigots.
Freeman's argument is naive in that he assert non-blacks are somehow constricted to caring about black history in only one month. It's really the one month or nothing at all.
since you agree, i assume you know the definition of bigot or is tolerance of a particular group contingent upon your convenience?
The kid is an attention w****, possibly racist But that being said, i've always found the term african american to be downright stupid. The vast majority of black people in this country have never been anywhere near africa, nor have their parents or grandparents. This kid is in fact african american how is he not eligible, just say outstanding black student and this little idiot couldn't have done this. And does anyone else find the idea of this award strange to begin with. Maybe because i was raised in inner city schools where black people aren't rare, but i could never imagine giving out a race specific award. Nothing really wrong with it i guess, but sure seems odd.
Yes, this is true...to a certain extent. I'm white, from South Africa, and my family has lived in South Africa since the 17th century. Certainly, there is black blood in me - my family has traced all that. However, as a white South African, my family is also complicit in apartheid - the brutal segregation and oppression of those with black skin. 'African-American' is a term used to emphasize that black people in America's history does not begin with slavery, it begins in Africa. A large part of my white South African heritage involves oppressing that very type of individual. So for a white South African to claim the mantle of African American is very, very insulting.
