[This was edited. Heavily. I was in a white-hot fury when i first wrote it.]
Via the Anchoress comes one of the more offensive stories that you’re going to read today. Short version: there’s an African-American woman* from McGehee, Arkansas. She was working to be valedictorian of her local high school and maintaining a 4.0, but became a single mother junior year; so she redoubled her efforts and clawed her way up the academic ladder (via AP classes) to regain the best grade point average… and was made to be c0-valedictorian with white student. School officials gave her family the runaround on why, reportedly; as the school district apparently has a reputation to routinely shunt African-American students to supposedly less challenging academic tracks, this is perhaps not that surprising.
The special wrinkle, of course, is that McGehee, Arkansas is a Democratic town in a Democratic county in a Democratic Congressional District in what is largely a Democratic-run state – executive and legislative… and this is where I had to throw out most of the post, because I went on to say some exceptionally rude things. But I should accentuate the positive, instead: thank God the woman kept the baby.
Helps to remember that that sort of thing is the important thing.
Moe Lane
*I think that recognition of adult status has been earned, here. Also, name redacted out of privacy considerations: I think that she’s going to have enough problems as it is.