LA Times – In a letter addressed to parents and community members, a South Los Angeles elementary school principal apologized Thursday for “questionable decisions” about which prominent African Americans to highlight in a parade marking the culmination of Black History Month.
Lorraine Abner’s letter did not name the individuals. But her apology came after three teachers at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were suspended while the Los Angeles Unified School District investigates allegations that they had their first-, second- and fourth-grade students carry pictures of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul at last Friday’s event.
“Unfortunately, questionable decisions were made in the selection of noteworthy African American role models,” the letter said. “As the principal, I offer my apology for these errors in judgment.”
LA TimesI don’t know about you, but for me Black History is Black History. If we remove one part of it, we are not telling the whole story. It is the whole story that makes history. We as African-Americans have had to fight to have our history included. Now it would be a little hypocritical for us to start excluding people. To now start removing people or making apologies is unacceptable.
RuPaul represents a portion of our community. We can’t celebrate our LGBTQ brothers and sisters? There was a time in history before the trial and acquittal when O.J Simpson was a hero. You remember those commercials. Dennis Rodman was one hell of a basketball player. I think that Michael Jordan could give you a list of reasons why he should not be discarded.
I’d also like to note that the tale of O.J is not equal to the stories of Rodman and Rupaul. Come on, people. LA, I thought you guys were more progressive than this. Oh no, I forgot…Prop 8. Ok, but yall do like basketball so Rodman is ok, right. Oh no, Yall only like the Lakers! SMH
