Outrage as Arizona high school holds 'Redneck Day'One minority you are allowed to insult and excludeAn Arizona high school has sparked outrage from civil rights leaders after it held a 'Redneck Day' for students.
Yesterday's school-wide event at Queen Creek High School was designed to satirize a reality TV show called 'Duck Dynasty,' school officials said.
But the day's questionable title has offended some students, parents and local African-American and civil rights leaders who claim it serves as grim reminders of slavery and segregation.
According to the Arizona Republic, one student wore a large Confederate flag to school, which particularly upset critics.
'We all know the connotation of "redneck," Rev. Ozetta Kirby, pastor of Holy Trinity Community AME Church in nearby Mesa told the newspaper.
Steve Montoya, a prominent civil-rights attorney in Phoenix, said the Confederate flag was the most offensive part.
Tom Lindsey, the superintendent of the Queen Creek Unified School District, said the only intent of 'Redneck Day' was to spoof the characters on the reality show, which follows a family of duck hunters in Louisiana.
He said the student wearing the Confederate flag wasn't from Arizona and didn't appreciate the reaction the flag would receive.
Source
"Rednecks" Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman.
ReplyDeleteLast night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart ass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well he may be a fool but he's our fool
If they think they're better than him they're wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that's where I made this song
We talk real funny down here
We drink too much and we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town
And we're keepin' the niggers down
We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol' boys from Tennessee
And colleges men from LSU
Went in dumb. Come out dumb too
Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they're keepin' the niggers down
CHORUS
We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
And we're keeping the niggers down
Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free
Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down
CHORUS
Many countries dwell too much in the past, and none more so than the USA and a seemingly haunting memory of its Civil War even though that was almost 150 years ago, and the legacy of slavery that festers even to this day. It's one thing to remember the past lest its lessons be forgotten, and another to have the country's future crippled by its mere phantom, like some latter-day Hamlet!
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:56
ReplyDeleteWell said.
And yet, having job nowadays is to be less secure in employment than oldtime slaves, less secure in property than oldtime serfs, and taxed harder by orders of magnitude than the original rebelling colonials that told Georgie III where he could stick his sceptre. About the only way we're better off is....er.....never mind.
ReplyDeleteWhen did it become a "right" to not be offended ?
ReplyDelete8:23 A very insightful comment.
ReplyDeleteAs for Africa, colonialism may now be frowned upon, but independence has made it worse for most Africans, and even rather dangerous for the corrupt elites.
Whatever educational systems are present in Africa were due to the efforts to educate the population by the "evil" European colonialists, primarily the British. While the purpose of colonial expansion was to benefit the colonial power, it is undeniable that a number of the nations went from being third world beggers to highly productive regional powers. Unfortunately, now that many of these states are free from their colonial "oppressors", they have become enslaved by vicious war lords. Here in the US, blacks were freed from slavery, only to become enslaved by the government and the politicians promising them anything to get their vote.
ReplyDeleteYes: Many African and Indian/Pakistani railroads, roads, bridges, hospitals, legal and other civil administrations still rely heavily on the colonial bequest, and rely even more on direct financial subsidies today, though they spit in the face of the donors and investors, while even expecting their military help when the occasion arises.
ReplyDelete