The Problem
Too many black children were in the package. (By the last census, two-thirds of the 8100 residents of Ladera Heights are black.)
Few have dared to level the charge aloud.
Heaven forbid.
Racists walking free in our midst?
I dont know how many racists are in Culver City.
Enough, Enough
But I do know there are:
Enough to deprive 377 Ladera Heights boys and girls of receiving the quality of education white Culver City parents love to brag about.
Enough who hate the idea that their pristine children, smart enough to have been born with right-colored skin, could be tainted by associating with even more non-whites than already are here.
Can It be True?
In these times, in this climate that is more racially enlightened, more racially liberated than 55 years ago, it seems preposterous that children openly could be denied school entry because they are black.
Unless there is a piece of information I am missing, it is disgusting but true.
Counter-Intuitive
Hundreds of languages are spoken in this metropolis, and there are immigrants from every state on the planet, plus the moon, Venus and, for all I know, the sun.
Shame today.
Shame tomorrow.
Shame until this overthrow of justice is corrected.
Where It Began
A year ago last autumn, on one of the most shameful days in recent community history, the School Board and the thankfully now-retired Supt. Dr. Laura McGaughey perpetrated a moral hoax.
Pretending to seriously assess the prospect of assimilating 377 Ladera Heights children into the Culver City system, School Board members stroked their deservedly quivering chins.
Lets Make This Look Real
Clearing their throats to dress up their decision with a show-biz touch of authenticity, the School Board said, Ahem, ahem, ahem.
Picture a fat, baldheaded, overdressed, red-faced, suspenders-wearing, potbellied, loudmouthed civic leader bellowing into the microphone in the park on the Fourth of July.
Ahem, the Board resumed, we find that due to a lack of critical data, we must herewith reject the petition by Ladera Heights families.
No Surprise
This was as predictable as white Southerners in the 1950s and 60s voting down every fairminded measure that might vaguely aid black children or black adults.
On this day in Culver City, teeth-baring white supremacists cheered.
If Dr. Martin Luther King had lived to see this phony drama, he would have suffered flashbacks to Birmingham and Selma.
It Stings
The farce of a laughably reflective unanimous rejection by a sober-minded School Board is no funnier than any other racial insult.
The Ladera Heights Civic Assn. appeal to the state Board of Education has been dragged out longer than a Downtown signal light.
And no one is wagering on a favorable outcome.
Lets Try This One Again
School Board member Dr. Dana Russell whose image does not immediately evoke the concept of wisdom trotted out a durable whipping boy at last nights meeting.
Said it was an unknowable fact how many students would be transferring in from Ladera Heights.
Probably 80,000, Doc.
Back to the Color Purple
Hey, Doc, would you be equally worried if they were all white boys and girls?
Has anyone ever heard what happens to dentists who stand in the drenching rain too long?
