Hoggard weighs in on school board member Deena Hayes’ slave comments:
So Hayes was right in stating that a new “mingled” VSN program should not be created in High Point until we, “…have the talent and experience of a department that can help make that adjustment.” Because to do otherwise do will, naturally, “…produc(e) that sense of superiority and inferiority” that she fears.
But for her to summon up the demons of slavery in her otherwise justifiable comments was unconscionable and uneccessarily divisive.
Would it have killed Hayes to leave the slavery images in the closet and speak of “have’s and have not’s” instead? Instead of driving wedges, would it be too much to ask for her to see what can be done about placing more black children into the VSN program so the racial make up of the program isn’t so starkly different from the community as a whole?
I guess so, because she brings them out every chance she gets. But what does the rest of the school board think of Hayes? That the question one citizen wanted to know:
Why the loud silence from the school board? Many parents view the silence not only as shocking evidence that board members either agree with Ms. Hayes or are too cowardly to counteract her divisiveness. I asked (Terry) Grier after the meeting if he understood the poisonous effect of Ms. Hayes’ remarks and he said ‘I have to work with these people.’….Why the silence? Do you not take her seriously, or do you agree with her?”
That’s a good question. I find it hard to believe that supposedly level-headed board members would agree with Hayes’ extreme rhetoric. Yet time and again they push the boundaries of political correctness so far that I also find it hard to believe they don’t.
They sure don’t speak up. But by the same token, are they really expected to get into a dark-side-of-American-history pissing match with Hayes? That’s what she wants. It’s her way of showing her constituents that she’s doing something.
