Sometimes progress is obscured by the dust raised by controversy, dust the winds of change soon blow away. Perhaps there is more progress than meets the eye in the alleged recent racist incidents at Platte County R-3 High School.
Bill Graham
As The Citizen has reported, a document with racist diatribe was making some rounds and discovered in November at the school. More recently, a noose made out of a shoestring was hung in a bathroom stall. Both made the broader KC news. School officials have issued press releases decrying the incidents and saying they will not tolerate harassment anywhere in the district.
I believe them, mostly because my two children had a very good journey through the district with the teachers and administrators. I was impressed with their skills.
But I also believe the majority of Americans, and most Platte Countians, decry racism and meanness of any kind towards another person. I certainly do. We may have varying appreciations of this or that type of culture. But almost everyone appreciates kindness and respect towards an individual.
Is our county perfect in an imperfect world? No. Are there incidents? Yes. But while the change towards tolerance and diversity is not yet perfected, the progress of tolerance rolls unceasingly on.
We had no unpleasant racial incidents in my high school days in west central Missouri. That was because we had zero diversity. But what we did have was plenty of meanness. People would tease, snub and sometimes insult others. Not everyone all the time. But enough you knew it was there. And it was almost always an ego power trip of some kind, or an effort to establish status by placing oneself above another for some superficial reason. Sometimes it was insecurity caused by perceived differences. So much of racism is for some combination of those same reasons.
My sympathies go out to students and their families harmed by the recent incidents. And I also think about those who feel an added worry about this crazy world.
But they should take heart. The slave-holding sympathizers lost the Civil War. A century later, Jim Crow began a retreat. Today, diversity is far more front and center than in my youth: in sports, journalism, government, business, and the arts. Intolerance and hatefulness may still find a way to cause troubling skirmishes now and then. But those who embrace intolerance lost the war long ago.
I also hope we realize how much pressure school administrators and teachers are under in this day and age. Students carry in their laptops and cell phones connections with all the world has to offer, good and bad. We think of them as learning their lessons or trade skills, playing sports, singing in concerts and acting in plays. Most do all those things. But pressures from all the world’s tensions have a way of seeping into every corner of American life, including schools.
The pace of modern life and the near instantaneous communication via social media seems to amplify all things. But maybe that works for the good, too. When trouble is aired in public, and dealt with openly, a wound is not allowed to fester.
I do cringe a bit at metro-wide news coverage style used by TV and newspapers that simply refer to Platte County High School. The whole county needlessly gets referenced. I am old school and add the R-3 to the school name. That’s from the style used by my former journalism employer in earlier days, but I also think it is a handy reminder that there are four school districts and five different high schools in Platte County. And those schools have a lot of teenagers from varying backgrounds learning to cope with life. Parents, teachers and school officials all share a challenging chore of keeping young people on a positive path.
Schools serve and manage students and families very well now, considering the challenges originating beyond the school walls. Perhaps they do so better than ever.
It’s up to the rest of us to do our part by treating all people with kindness and understanding in our neighborhoods and communities. Water douses fire. Kindness and respect douse hate.