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- Apr 20, 2018
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Many have ridiculed Ms. Smith and posited that she's a racist/bigot. Rick Santorum, not intending to chide her, noted ironically that she's "traditional Mississippi." Um, yeah, that's an apropos depiction of one who (1) has alluded to her zeal for attending lynching to which a close associate might invite her, and then, amid the controversy of that remark and ostensibly denying she meant anything offensive (essentially trying to "play it off" as a slip of the tongue, merely poor diction), (2) donned Confederate garb and remarked, "This is a must see. Currently on display are artifacts connected to the daily life of the Confederate Soldier including weapons. Mississippi history at its best!"
Now one might plausibly construe the first remark as merely inauspicious; however, the combined impact of the Confederate attire and tacitly referencing the Confederate period as being "the best" of Mississippi's history poignantly suggests otherwise. But then along comes clear evidence that she was raised in an expressly anti-minority setting and, as it goes with "apples and trees," she embraced that BS, moreover, propagated such notions.
It recently came to light that MS US Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith attended what's called a segregation academy -- a private school created in the wake of Brown v. Board and, more importantly, Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, the school's raison d'etre being to allow whites to send their kids to schools that have no Black students. Such schools are at the heart of the nexus between a certain genre of southern Christian fundamentalism and racial animus against Blacks specifically and minorities, "brown people" in general.[SUP]1[/SUP]
One might say that Smith's having attended a segregation academy was her parents' doing and it wouldn't be right to hold that against her. Fair enough, but what did Smith do? She sent her own daughter (class of '17) to one in their town (Brookhaven, MS), Brookhaven Academy.[SUP]2[/SUP] She knew Brookhaven is a segregation academy, yet she sent her kid there anyway.[SUP]3[/SUP] There's no "passing the buck" on that.
Has Smith denied harboring racist attitudes? Of course, she has. Would one expect her to have admitted to them? Hell, no. But actions speak louder than words and her actions scream far, loud and clear that she has no issue with and will palter and prevaricate in the interest of segregationists, racism/-ists, racial bigots/-try, and the like. If there were at one point a legitimate case one could make that Smith might not be a racist/bigot, that time has passed for Smith has now shown us that she no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt about her biases.
Note:
Now one might plausibly construe the first remark as merely inauspicious; however, the combined impact of the Confederate attire and tacitly referencing the Confederate period as being "the best" of Mississippi's history poignantly suggests otherwise. But then along comes clear evidence that she was raised in an expressly anti-minority setting and, as it goes with "apples and trees," she embraced that BS, moreover, propagated such notions.
It recently came to light that MS US Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith attended what's called a segregation academy -- a private school created in the wake of Brown v. Board and, more importantly, Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, the school's raison d'etre being to allow whites to send their kids to schools that have no Black students. Such schools are at the heart of the nexus between a certain genre of southern Christian fundamentalism and racial animus against Blacks specifically and minorities, "brown people" in general.[SUP]1[/SUP]
One might say that Smith's having attended a segregation academy was her parents' doing and it wouldn't be right to hold that against her. Fair enough, but what did Smith do? She sent her own daughter (class of '17) to one in their town (Brookhaven, MS), Brookhaven Academy.[SUP]2[/SUP] She knew Brookhaven is a segregation academy, yet she sent her kid there anyway.[SUP]3[/SUP] There's no "passing the buck" on that.
Has Smith denied harboring racist attitudes? Of course, she has. Would one expect her to have admitted to them? Hell, no. But actions speak louder than words and her actions scream far, loud and clear that she has no issue with and will palter and prevaricate in the interest of segregationists, racism/-ists, racial bigots/-try, and the like. If there were at one point a legitimate case one could make that Smith might not be a racist/bigot, that time has passed for Smith has now shown us that she no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt about her biases.
Note:
- See also:
- Brookhaven Academy is among the worst private schools in the US, landing in the bottom 18%. Other metrics:
- 30 of 31 in the ranking of best MS STEM high schools.
- Lincoln County, which is where Brookhaven is, is ~30% minority, mostly black, yet the school, which isn't particularly pricey (~$5K/year) has 0.03% minority enrollment.
- Contrast that with Choate or Kent (a Christian school), which, though far pricier, is also far and away more diverse and a far better school, though it's not hard to find a far better school than Brookhaven Academy.
- It's not a matter of Blacks lacking the money for as Carney's 2012 dissertation showed regarding Andover, attracting minorities is merely a matter of will.
- Compare with:
- West Lincoln (a K-12 public school in Brookhaven)
- If you've wondered about the raison d'etre for so-called school choice, check out the spending per student in "whatever" state and then look at the tuition for segregation schools. The money diverted from public schools is more than enough to pay the tuition at segregation schools like Brookhaven, Leake Academy, and other segregation schools.