Sometimes, you wonder: Is this a “real” newspaper or The Onion
you’re reading?
Take, for instance, the lead paragraph of an article this week in The Journal Times
in Racine:
“Racine Unified has scaled back support for an annual Martin Luther King
Jr. Day celebration in part because of the organizing student group’s political
activism, district Superintendent Ann Laing said.”
Oh my. An MLKing event is being criticized because student activists are
involved. The civil rights leader must be turning over in his grave with
embarrassment at the school district’s stance.
It turns out that Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES) is spearheading
the MLKing event, which is on the MLKing holiday. YES is the student arm of the
non-profit immigrant and workers’ rights group Voces de la Frontera, and has
organized an MLKing Day celebration in Racine for the past three years.
The article in The Journal Times goes on to cite the complaints
against YES and Voces.
• YES supports immigrant rights and collective bargaining. (Does the
Racine school district realize that King was assassinated while in Memphis
supporting striking sanitation workers and their demand for union recognition?)
• YES supports in-state tuition for undocumented students who graduated
from a Wisconsin high school. (Such a measure passed under the Doyle
administration, only to be rescinded after Gov. Scott Walker took office.)
Voces organized efforts for students to go door-to-door on election days
and encourage people to vote. (Were Racine administrators asleep during history
lessons on the Voting Rights Act, one of the seminal struggles of the Civil
Rights Movement?)
The controversy started in the fall after right-wing talk radio host
Mark Belling in Milwaukee launched a campaign against YES’s involvement
in Racine’s MLKing celebration. The Racine school district, among others,
immediately started withdrawing support, even though they had backed previous
years' celebrations.
MLKing dedicated his life to organizing for political change. It’s a
shame that Racine school officials lack both civic courage and an understanding
of U.S. history — and feel compelled to listen more to Mark Belling than their
own students.
— — —
This blog is cross-posted at The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Purple Wisconsin project.
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