It’s Racist Not To Support Our Anti-War Rally!

01 Dec, 2005 by John Hawkins

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If you want to see an example of towering liberal arrogance, then turn your eyes to Boston:

“School Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant rejected a request to close Boston schools tomorrow, when black leaders and antiwar activists plan a rally honoring the anniversary of Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus 50 years ago.

Organizers of the protest have demanded that all city offices, including schools, be closed tomorrow so that employees can participate in the march. Tomorrow will mark the 50th anniversary of Parks’s historic decision, a catalytic moment in the civil rights movement in the United States. Parks died Oct. 24 at the age of 92.

Councilor Chuck Turner of Roxbury blasted the decision and said the move will leave the school system open to accusations of racism. But officials said that the anniversary is not a recognized holiday and that anyone who does not attend school will be marked absent.

”I believe that Rosa Parks was passionate about the importance of education and equal access to opportunity and that she would want children to be in school and not miss a day of learning to celebrate what she did,” Payzant said in a letter to Turner.

”Too many of our high school students already have excessive absences and can not afford to miss an additional day of school.”

Earlier this fall, the City Council approved a measure urging businesses to close Dec. 1 to allow employees to commemorate the civil rights hero. Then, as leaders mounted a campaign for a ”day of absence” from work, school, and shopping to protest issues including racism and the war in Iraq, Turner wrote Payzant to ask him to call off school for the day.

After Payzant denied the request, Turner wrote the superintendent calling the decision unconscionable and saying that Payzant had allowed students to have excused absences for past events.

”To keep the schools open and penalize those who chose to commemorate such an historic occasion is going to expose the City and School Department to unnecessary ridicule and create a level of anger, confusion, and sadness that will cast a shadow over a celebration that should be a high point of the year,” Turner wrote in the e-mail. ”Unfortunately, your decision will also be characterized as racist, based on the definition of institutional racism — disparate treatment of people of color.”

First of all, if you want to have a march for Rosa Parks, have it on the week-end when the kids don’t have school and most people don’t have to work. To have the event on a Thursday and then demand that the schools close to accommodate YOUR SCHEDULE is beyond obnoxious.

That is bad enough.

But, perhaps even more offensive is the way that these clowns are using Rosa Parks’ memory to promote their own agenda. They’re talking it up as a Rosa Parks’ march and claiming that it’s racist not to shut down the schools to support it, but if you take a look at a flyer for the event (.PDF File) you’ll see that it’s actually an anti-war/pro-liberal rally. Among the slogans on the flyer are, “Bring the troops home now,” “Military recruiters out of our schools,” & “Cut the war budget.”

If you want to have a march to honor Rosa Parks, do it on a week-end. If you want to have an anti-war rally, fine, have one. But to mix the two and then claim it’s racist not to shut the city down to support it is simply asinine.

Hat tip to Tongue Tied for the story.