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Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at........

jamesrage

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I do not think children should be encouraged to admire degenerates.

Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at L.A. Black History Month event [Updated] | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times
Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at L.A. Black History Month event

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressed shock over allegations that three teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school encouraged students to celebrate O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul during Black History Month.

The teachers have been suspended as the L.A. Unified School district investigates. According to officials, children at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were carrying pictures of the men at a parade Friday on the school playground.

"I am shocked and outraged by the actions of these teachers at Wadsworth Elementary School," Villaraigosa said in a statement. "These teachers undermined the school's well-intentioned celebration, and they did so at the expense of elementary school students. Their actions were not only cynical, but did a terrible disservice to the students, their families and all of the teachers who work hard on a daily basis to build trust and a productive learning environment."

Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms for the duration of an investigation. The suspension is without pay for the first three days.

"The superintendent believes there are better choices," Pollard-Terry said.

Other students were carrying pictures of President Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The teachers have not been identified and could not be reached for comment.

District officials did not provide specific details about what the teachers did, saying the investigation was still ongoing.

Some community leaders aren't satisfied with the suspensions and are calling for the dismissal of the instructors, who teach first, second and fourth graders.

"I just can't fathom what these teachers were thinking of except to make a mockery of African American history," said Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

The only person that remotely makes any sense would be Rodman because like him or not he was a good basketball player and thats not saying much. Everyone else is just WTF.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

The only person that remotely makes any sense would be Rodman because like him or not he was a good basketball player and thats not saying much. Everyone else is just WTF.
If the article is true about the teachers trying make a mockery of black history month then it makes perfect sense.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

The only person that remotely makes any sense would be Rodman because like him or not he was a good basketball player and thats not saying much. Everyone else is just WTF.

There are plenty of great Black basketball players out there.

I wonder what the motivation could have possibly have been, other than making fun of Black history month? Very poor judgment. :doh
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

There are plenty of great Black basketball players out there.

I wonder what the motivation could have possibly have been, other than making fun of Black history month? Very poor judgment. :doh

I can't really think of any other possible motivation. Even if you wanted to go with a basketball player for some reason, wouldn't pretty much anyone come up with Jordan first?

Mocking black history month. Classy.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Screw classy.

Everyone should mock black history month, as it is supremely deserving of mockery.

Does any other arbitrarily determined social grouping have a "history month?"

Why should this racist "celebration" be allowed in our supposedly increasingly less racist country?
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Sorry, not being up to date with US celeb news, I can understand the faux pas of OJ Simpson. But what have Dennis Rodman and Ru Paul done wrong? Why aren't they good role models?
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Screw classy.

Everyone should mock black history month, as it is supremely deserving of mockery.

Does any other arbitrarily determined social grouping have a "history month?"

Why should this racist "celebration" be allowed in our supposedly increasingly less racist country?

It got started because Blacks were basically ignored and oppressed for most of American history. Why, when I was a kid you rarely even saw Blacks on TV. You never had Black announcers, nor did you see blacks in any important jobs.

Then the civil rights movement opened things up and Black History month was started to try to boost their self confidence and to point out their accomplishments.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Sorry, not being up to date with US celeb news, I can understand the faux pas of OJ Simpson. But what have Dennis Rodman and Ru Paul done wrong? Why aren't they good role models?
I live here, and I'm not up to date with "US celeb news".

Hell, I don't even know who is famous right now.

Who gives a **** anyway?
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Then the civil rights movement opened things up and Black History month was started to try to boost their self confidence and to point out their accomplishments.

Does it make me a racist to think they're confident and talented enough to not need boosting?
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

It got started because Blacks were basically ignored and oppressed for most of American history. Why, when I was a kid you rarely even saw Blacks on TV. You never had Black announcers, nor did you see blacks in any important jobs.

Then the civil rights movement opened things up and Black History month was started to try to boost their self confidence and to point out their accomplishments.
Well, that's reasonable, to an extent, and I was aware of the reasons for it.
:ranton:
However, I think the situation is leaning to the other extreme. Too many arbitrarily determined social groupings are being venerated and focused on, simply because they ARE arbitrarily determined social groupings.

If we had a "great people in history" month, or something, it would make more sense. You could have randomly selected historical figures (wait, who determines who a historical figure is?) who would then be slathered all over TV and other types of media for a month.
Hell, you could do it all year, each month switching to those who were born in that month in a previous year.

Simply focusing media blather on a group of great/well known persons because they are black is, obviously, racist.

What about famous people of Asian decent? Latin? So called "Native Americans" (which, btw, is BS - any person born in the USA is a "Native American" - so what if your parents screwed up according to historians)?
:rantoff:

You get the gist of my opinions.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Why is he picking on Ru Paul?
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Does it make me a racist to think they're confident and talented enough to not need boosting?

A little bit, yeah.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

OJ is innocence! He was framed!
Tis impossible for "OJ" to be "innocence".

After all, if you are referring to the same "OJ" I think you are referring to, he (at least I think "OJ" is male) is a human male entity, and "innocence" is just a word arbitrarily defined to mean:
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence]Innocence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Innocence is a term used to indicate a general lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, sin, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence refers to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime.

So, obviously, you are incorrect.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Well, that's reasonable, to an extent, and I was aware of the reasons for it.
:ranton:
However, I think the situation is leaning to the other extreme. Too many arbitrarily determined social groupings are being venerated and focused on, simply because they ARE arbitrarily determined social groupings.

If we had a "great people in history" month, or something, it would make more sense. You could have randomly selected historical figures (wait, who determines who a historical figure is?) who would then be slathered all over TV and other types of media for a month.
Hell, you could do it all year, each month switching to those who were born in that month in a previous year.

Simply focusing media blather on a group of great/well known persons because they are black is, obviously, racist.

What about famous people of Asian decent? Latin? So called "Native Americans" (which, btw, is BS - any person born in the USA is a "Native American" - so what if your parents screwed up according to historians)?
:rantoff:

You get the gist of my opinions.

Yes, I agree about all that. I really think it is rather patronizing to have a Black History month, truthfully. I tend to ignore the whole thing.

But for these teachers to mock it like this was very unwise on their part.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Yes, I agree about all that. I really think it is rather patronizing to have a Black History month, truthfully. I tend to ignore the whole thing.

But for these teachers to mock it like this was very unwise on their part.
Well, true...But if they were doing it out of similar opinions to mine, then I salute them for their willingness to sacrifice their jobs (perhaps).
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Screw classy.

Everyone should mock black history month, as it is supremely deserving of mockery.

I do not think mocking it is going to encourage anyone to get rid of black history month.


Does any other arbitrarily determined social grouping have a "history month?"

Why should this racist "celebration" be allowed in our supposedly increasingly less racist country?
You have a valid point,black American history should be integrated into regular American history and those in the history books should be looked at as our forefathers regardless of race.Martin Luther King Jr., General Nat Turner, Fredrick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and others should be looked at as no different than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Franklin and many other founding forefathers. The father of Black history Carter G. Woodson hoped that there would no longer be a need for it
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Well, true...But if they were doing it out of similar opinions to mine, then I salute them for their willingness to sacrifice their jobs (perhaps).

Not when innocent kids are involved. Really thoughtless and irresponsible to drag the kids into their escapade.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

Not when innocent kids are involved. Really thoughtless and irresponsible to drag the kids into their escapade.
Not necessarily.
If they explained to the kids their reasoning, the history behind it, and so forth, and then let them make up their own minds of whom to carry a pic of, I would be all for it.

Maybe those kids could then teach their parents a thing or two.

But, yeah, the way it sounds they did it was a bad move.
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

You know, Black History Month could be celebrated with better role models than sports players. How about black physicists?
 
Re: Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at....

You know, Black History Month could be celebrated with better role models than sports players. How about black physicists?

Are you trying to say that blacks should look forward to being something other than assasinated, a slave, or a sports star?
 
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