Old Post

I wish I’d found this old post back when the Gates drama was happening.

I want to try to remember it because sometimes when people say, “would this [bad thing] have happened to a white person,” I think, “well, yeah, probably.” Sometimes; not all the time.

This is from Why Oh Why, which isn’t really much worth visiting anymore, but used to be quite a looker in her day….

—BEGIN OLD POST!!!!!—

There’s so much to say about this story, but it’s all so obvious that I almost don’t want to say it. Almost.

Basically, this little girl tells the California Education Secretary that her name (Isis) means “Egyptian Goddess.” I imagine that she’s wrong, but what the hell.

So HE says, “It means stupid dirty girl.” Which is actually kind of hilarious. In fact, I could see saying something like that to my niece, but maybe not THOSE words exactly. And it’s my niece, not some random little girl. And I’m not the secretary of education.

She repeated her claim, and he said, “Hey, that’s nifty.” ALSO kind of hilarious, but still, you wouldn’t expect it from someone in his position. No one says “nifty” without irony these days.

Now there’s this big furor about how he should be fired, because he must not be the right guy for this particular job. Maybe he should. I don’t know.

Here are the wonderful things. I can say “wonderful” without irony:

1. The mom says this: “Obviously it hurt her feelings, but she didn’t take it personally. She knew he was wrong and she let it go. I’m not going to sue them for therapy bills.” [She also said, “I got the impression that she didn’t think he was very bright.”]

I love this woman. He may not be the man for the job, but the damage that he did to the girl is pretty minimal.

2. Democratic state Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally scheduled a protest by civil rights organizations, saying: “a little African-American girl. Would he have done that to a white girl?”

Except that she IS white. HA HA HA HA HA HA! Like, a little blond girl who the KKK would embrace with open arms if her name weren’t Isis.

Now that Dymally’s office has figured out the race, they cancelled the protest and said: “Race is not a factor in this issue. It is time for us to move on.”

But if the girl were black, then the ASSUMPTION was that race was a factor. The first thing to do if he says something wrong to a black girl is to call him a racist and demonstrate.

I still do enjoy the news some days.