[d-embed][/d-embed]
Good to see the Morning News has been reading Learning Curve. In a tut-tutting editorial, the paper expressed its disappointment that “trustees appointed two family members and an old-guard administrator” to the home-rule commission. They were, of course, right to do so.
But the editorial doesn’t stop there. It also calls on new board member and placard specialist Joyce Foreman to “channel [her] energy and compassion productively, looking for ways to pull people together rather than drive them apart.”
Well, sure. While we’re at it, let’s ask whiskey to cure cancer. I’d like that, too.
Listen to this clip [Foreman_Tyrant] (taken from a DISD board meeting, in which Foreman was addressing current trustee Lew Blackburn) and tell me how productive you think Foreman will be.
Re-read this lovely tale from her blog, wherein Foreman called City Councilman Dwaine Caraway “[Mayor Tom] Leppert’s head Negro watcher,” and tell me how productive you think she’ll be.
And let’s not forget her greatest hit in the Cheap Shot 100: When she told Superintendent Mike Miles (at the 2:31 mark of the video at top), “Just because you’re my color doesn’t necessarily mean you’re my kind.” Again, how productive do you think she’ll be?
Let’s focus on what she’s saying when she criticizes Caraway and Miles: That these men are not black enough for her. It’s one of the sickest, most despicable things a self-serving bully can say. What she’s saying is that if these black men place value on anything other than protecting her friends, well, that just proves they’re not really black anymore. She’s saying that they must have some Uncle Tom in them.
Think how damaging that is for young black men to hear. Think about how hard teachers and parents have to work to dissuade young black men in devastatingly poor neighborhoods that they can’t succumb to such destructive, hateful accusations just because they want to be strong-minded, independent young men. And think about those young men, all-but-abandoned by people like Joyce Foreman and those who fell in line with her job-protection program, seeing someone who spit this sort of venom become a trustee.
Then think about asking her to channel her energy and compassion productively. While you’re at it, buy a lottery ticket. Because, hey, why not?
