CHATHAM STUDENT “SLAVE AUCTION”
CONTROVERSY DRAWS ATTENTION
TO UPSWING IN STATE, NAT’L RACISM
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Activists and community leaders in Chatham County are demanding that the Chatham County Board of Education take decisive action to quell an alleged series of racist incidents, which include no less than white students “selling” Black classmates at so-called “slave auctions.”
The alleged incidents came to light when Ashley Palmer, the white mother of a bi-racial son, Jeremiah, charged on Facebook earlier this month that he had been “sold” by white classmates at J.S. Waters Middle School baseball field in Goldston,
The school is 68% white, 12% Black and 12% Hispanic.
“Our son experienced a slave auction by his classmates and when he opened up we were made aware that this type of stuff seems to be the norm so much that he didn’t think it was worth sharing,” Mrs Palmer wrote on Facebook March 4. “His friend “went for $350” and another student was the Slavemaster because he “knew how to handle them.” We even have a video of students harmonizing the N word.”
When Mrs. Palmer complained, the white student was suspended for one day, but then “accidentally” hit Jeremiah four times with a baseball bat afterwards.
“Since when were children so blatantly racist? Why is this culture acceptable? [Chatham County Schools] was made aware and is intervening but hug your babies especially the ones that are subject to racism by students and faculty. Parents teach your kids that this behavior isn’t ok. Teach them also that SILENCE IS COMPLICITY! Laughter is even worse! Thankfully Jeremiah is a strong unapologetically black young man and I’m so proud of how tactfully he has handled these repulsive situations. He is stronger than ever and we will continue to do our part to make sure every racist child and faculty member is reported for every blatant act and microagression he experiences!”
Palmer later added that she and her husband, Eddie, are working with the Chatham County Public Schools superintendent, and the school principal. The system sent letters to the school’s parents, assuring them that racism was ‘unacceptable,” though it remained vague as to what had transpired.
It’s the latest episode of racism against Black students that is capturing the attention of the state and nation, though it seems to have escaped the attention of conservative leaders like Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who, along with fellow Republicans, has not missed the opportunity to charge that teaching how racism is a constant feature of American history is ‘bad” for students.
In this case, say critical observers, racism is not being taught to students, but is being imposed ON students, African-American students specifically in rural Chatham County. Parents and progressive activists want to see a decisive end to it before it gets worst.
On Monday, various parents and a coalition of local groups who call themselves CORE (Chatham Organizing for Racial Equity) held a press conference, and went before the Chatham County School Board with a list of demands to account for Ashley Palmer’s son being racially bullied “in the presence of [school] staff and faculty, while being filmed.”
Upon further digging, it was determined that several other Black students were victims of some of the same racist treatment.
“These [white] students were emboldened to not only commit brazen and overt acts of racism but to retaliate further and continue their aggression after serving a perfunctory one-day suspension,” the CORE press release continued, referring to the alleged baseball bat incident.
CORE is demanding that offending white students be made to apologize to their targeted Black classmates and the school community for their actions; that child trauma counselors who are skilled in racial trauma be available to Black students targeted; and that the school system student code of conduct be revised “to designate racist and discriminatory remarks as hate speech separate from the current bullying policy with corresponding consequences that match the severity of this abuse our children face.”
CORE also wants school personnel fired for racist remarks and behaviors, and a review of the school administration’s previous response to past racist incidents to determine their effectiveness.
“Until Chatham County Schools implements these community-driven recommendations, our community will continue to see no dedicated commitment to dismantling the culture of racism in our schools,’ the CORE press release concluded.
Monday night, the Chatham County School Board listened as concerned citizens packed the meeting room while several speakers, including other Black parents of other targeted students, talked about the pain their children also experienced.
Supt. Anthony Jackson publicly apologized to those negatively affected, as the board unanimously voted for policy changes to guard against future racist acts by students or staff.
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OBAMA’S COVID CASE
GIVES BLACKS PAUSE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
He is middle-aged, in relative good health, and has had all of his vaccination and booster shots for COVID-19.
And yet, former President Barack Obama remains quarantined from the rest of the world for a few days after announcing Sunday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
Obama, 60, experienced “a scratchy throat for a couple days” but otherwise was feeling fine, and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, has tested negative and had also been fully vaccinated and boosted.
"It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down,”the nation’s first Black president reminded all.
And there lies the rub, especially for African-Americans who see mask mandates dropping all around them, COVID infection and death rates dropping, and the nation overall trying to move on beyond the pandemic.
Despite a societal movement back towards normalcy, even someone like former Pres. Obama can still contract what is a debilitating, if not for some, deadly disease.
Meanwhile, according to recent reports, China says it has thousands of new cases. The World Health Organization warns that the Russian war in Ukraine threatens to make the pandemic worse on the global stage.
And here in the U.S. the head of Pfizer says Americans may need a fourth booster shot of vaccination, something that Pres. Obama might now attest to.
During a recent Black history month virtual symposium titled The Village Speaks; A Candid Conversation about COVID-19 and the Pandemic, four local African-American physicians from the Raleigh-Durham area came together to offer their perspectives on the current state of the coronavirus in the Black community, and how best African-Americans should still protect themselves, contrary to general signs that they can relax their guard.
To start, all four agreed that racism is still a key factor in how Blacks contract the coronavirus, and are forced to deal with it.
According to Dr. Leroy Darkes, an internal medicine specialist practicing in Garner/Raleigh, one of the reasons why blacks cannot relax their guard with COVID is because of the “vicious cycle” they’re in.
By the time some Blacks contract COVID-19, they have already been suffering from “poor health outcomes,” says Dr. Darkes, which make them susceptible to maladies like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer - all of which can corrupt one’s protective immune system.
“We suffer from what we don’t know and don’t do,” Darkes warned.
Dr. Julius Wilder, gastroenterologist with Duke Hospital in Durham, says another factor unique to African-American and other communities of color is that their families are large, so there are more people in a household in close quarters for any disease, including COVID-19, to be transmitted.
Also, the type of work many Blacks find themselves doing involves working with many others in factories, retail and public utilities, again making transmission easy among subjects.
The result has been the fact that African-Americans have died at three times the rate of whites during the ongoing pandemic.
Dr. James Smith, a veteran psychiatrist in Raleigh, says enough has not been said about the mental health of African-Americans, and the community’s inability to deal with grief, anxiety and depression when it comes to deaths from COVID-19, many of whom were elders either in the home, or in nursing homes.
Dr. Shawna M. Reshard, a pediatrician practicing at Duke Primary Care Clinic in Durham, talked about how the impact of COVID-19 on children is still being studied, and that she still has questions about rescinding mask mandates in the public schools.
Dr. Reshard added that at the beginning of the pandemic, health care professionals were overwhelmed and had to innovate how services were delivered to patients in need (ex. doing testing in cars). That need to innovate may still exist in the Black community.
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WILL THE U.S. SUPREME COURT
RULE AGAINST NC GOP AGAIN?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The ink is barely dry from the last U.S. Supreme Court decision that essentially told North Carolina Republicans “no case” when it came redistricting last week, before they will be back in front of the same nine high justices next week, trying to get a major judicial sign-off on thelr scheme to reinstate voter ID.
It all boils down to this - when it comes to fighting for the 2018 voter photo identification law in court, NC Republican legislative leaders don’t trust the state’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein to do it, and would rather do the job themselves.
Attorneys for House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger will be arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court next Monday, March 21st in a federal case involving the NC NAACP, that they have a legal right to intervene in the state’s ongoing voter ID case.
Specifically, they want attorneys from the NC State Attorney General’s Office off the case, so that lawyers for GOP legislative leaders can vigorously represent their clients in fighting to protect the 2018 voter ID law.
Their problem? Lower courts have already ruled that as far as they’re concerned, Attorney General Stein’s office is adequately doing it’s job as the state’s attorney, in this case representing the NC Board of Elections, and the courts see no legal reason to remove it.
What’s at stake is whether or not the voter ID law will go into effect this fall in time for the 2022 midterm elections, something the GOP sorely wants to see happen, especially now.
With last week’s surprise High Court ruling essentially upholding the Congressional redistricting map redrawn by order of the Democratic-led NC Supreme Court, in addition to the redrawn legislative map that no longer hurts incumbent Black lawmakers, NC Republicans now are counting on voter photo ID restrictions to give them some advantage in districts where the Black vote could help a Democratic candidate defeat a GOP opponent.
Republicans will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court Monday that North Carolina law give them the right to choose which officials will defend the state’s sovereign interests in federal court. Again, lower federal courts have sided with the state attorney general on the matter.
With arguments being heard Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide this case by this summer.
Interestingly, this is a process case, as to whom in NC state government has the right to represent North Carolina at trial.
The N.C. Supreme Court is also hearing two voter ID cases, one dealing with the legitimacy of the 2018 constitutional amendment that spawned the law in contention called NC NAACP v. Moore, and a third, Holmes v. Moore, that challenges the law itself as racially discriminatory.
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