If this weren’t so sad it would be hilarious.  Because I speak my mind (and the truth) about identity politics, certain critics have labeled me a “racist.”  The best line I’ve heard so far is what someone said recently on local Haitian radio.  I was referred to as “the racist Republican friend of [Florida House Representative] John Patrick Julien who hates Haitians.”

The fact that Mr. Julien happens to be black and Haitian is apparently lost on the dimwit who made that statement.  In case you miss the irony, think about this.  If I am a friend of a black Haitian, wouldn’t it stand to reason that I’m not racist and that I don’t hate Haitians?  Duh!  I guess actual reason has nothing to do with Haitian radio.

If some people think I’m a racist, imagine what they must think of the Florida State Board of Education!  As reported on October 12, 2012 by CBS Tampa in Florida Passes Plan for Racially-Based Academic Goals, “the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent.”

Okay, now go back and read that again in case you missed it the first time around.

In essence, the Florida State Board of Education claims that it simply cannot expect black students to keep up academically with whites, or especially, Asians.  Not to mention Hispanics.  As a result, it appears that the education bar has been lowered for those students whom the Board of Education considers intellectually inferior.

This is a blatantly racist policy.  Yet, somehow, I’ll be called a racist for pointing out the obvious.  Have at it.  Shoot the messenger.  Knock yourselves out.

Meanwhile, you might wonder if the NAACP has anything to say about this blatant discrimination against black children.  Oh, they had a comment, all right.  According to CBS News, the Washington Bureau director of the NAACP merely said that this policy is the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Ya think?

Now that you mention it, yes I do think.  I also think this is way more than “soft bigotry.”  This is hard core racism at its most heinous.  I would also think that the NAACP, as well as black community leaders, would have been storming the Florida Legislature and demanding equality for black children.  Paging Al Sharpton!  Where’s Al when you need him?

By adopting these “new benchmarks,” the Florida Board of Education claims it is helping “to close the racial achievement gap.”  WHAT?  Gee, I’m sorry, but it sure seems to me that by telling young black children that, compared to their white counterparts, they have little chance of succeeding because they happen to be black only serves to widen, not close, the racial achievement gap.  Not to mention screwing with their self esteem.  When you tell a child that you don’t expect much from him, you’re saying he’s incapable and unworthy.  You are giving him permission to fail.

Little wonder so many black children feel discriminated against and ill equipped to compete in the so-called “white man’s world.”  They have been sold a pack of lies and told by a broken education system that they simply aren’t good enough or smart enough.  If no one expects you to succeed, would you even bother trying?

So here you have it, folks.  I’m reporting this story about racism in the Florida public school system.  Yet, somehow, I’m the one labeled a racist and called “the racist Republican friend of John Patrick Julien who hates Haitians.”  And, according to Haitian radio talk show host Rothschild Anderson, Mr. Julien “hangs out with white Republicans and forgets he’s a black man.”  Yet, somehow, that’s not a racist comment.  Yeah, right!

I suggest that if the likes of Mr. Anderson are interested in combating REAL racism they should start by contacting the Florida Department of Education and demand that the Florida Board of Education stop discriminating against black children by raising the bar for the education of ALL children.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”