Register Guard Letters to the Editor
Th 4/22/2010

Race-based sessions are racist

As a parent of eight children of color, I recently received an invitation to attend four interactive sessions designed for parents of African-American students. My children frequently are solicited by teachers, counselors and by mail to attend race-based events and meetings.

I am offended that the Eugene School District would promote racism. Any organization or meeting that is race-based is by definition racist.

Would the school district promote interactive sessions with the parents of white students? Absolutely not! The district would be taken to task for promoting racism. Any district employee that promoted such an event would be disciplined, and perhaps appropriately terminated.

In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. said he dreamed that his four children one day would live in a nation where they “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Further, he said he hoped that our country would be “transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.”

Are these principles lost to the educators in our community? The civil rights movement was about integration and equality. Shame on the Eugene School District and anyone who promotes racism and the separation of races in the name of education.

Racism is fundamentally wrong and should not be taught, promoted or tolerated in Lane County schools.

Rick Jackson