January 25, 2004
@ 05:47 PM

From Jamie Zawinski we learn

 Student Caught In Racial Controversy:

OMAHA, Neb. -- Four Westside High School students are suspended for promoting a white student for an African-American award. Flyers featured junior Trevor Richards, a South African native who moved to the United States in 1997.

Trevor said he is as African as anyone else.

This is just ridiculous. The kid is obviously African-American if the words are expected to be taken literally. Of course, like most euphemisms the words aren't meant to be taken literally but instead are supposed to map to a [sometimes unrelated] concept. I hope the kids take the school district to court.

Idiots.


 

Sunday, 25 January 2004 20:34:48 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Brings to mind the "eenie meenie" case. See

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,78139,00.html

http://volokh.com/2004_01_18_volokh_archive.html#107488103781926621

http://www.oxblog.blogspot.com/2004_01_25_oxblog_archive.html#107502606956261448


Tim Tabor
Tuesday, 27 January 2004 03:06:50 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Reminds me of the story a Moroccan friend told me about his brother naively showing up at an African-American club meeting in college. It was not what he expected, and he was not what the other attendees expected. Yet, he was arguably more "African" than many other attendees.
Wednesday, 28 January 2004 16:43:25 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I'd be just as willing to laugh at the stupidity of all this were it not for one small thing - this kid is a white South African emigre, and given what life was like in that country right up until 1991, it isn't entirely safe to assume that he was just trying to make a harmless point. Not all white South Africans should be written off as bigots, but if you grow up in an environment saturated with racism, it shouldn't be surprising if you acquire a bit of it purely by osmosis.
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