Today's Meaningless Rant

by the world's least dangerous man

Opinion Journal, one of my favorite websites, had an absolutely stunning link in James Taranto's "Best of the Web" feature from Tuesday. Taranto points out that the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), which serves as the teacher's union for New Jersey's educators, has a brochure for download entitled "Getting Involved in Your Child's School." The brochure comes in three versions: a "parents' resource", a "Spanish version"... and an "African-American version." The African-American version, by contrast to the other English-language version, contains much less information (it's a full page shorter in length) and, to put it politely, looks like the remedial version of the brochure.

I ripped Trent Lott last month for his idiotic comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party, and I stand by my belief that Lott deserved to be forced out as Senate Majority Leader. However, the NJEA's decision to post a seemingly dumbed-down version of this brochure strikes me as far more pernicious. Lott's remarks illustrated rank stupidity on his part, but least Lott has the rather flimsy excuse that his remarks were off-the-cuff rather than prepared. The NJEA prepared a brochure and put it on its website. This means someone worked on it, someone approved the work, and someone put it up on the website. There's conscious thought at work here, which makes this more pernicious.

People said Lott's statement betrayed his true feelings, but what does the NJEA's production of a separate,"dumbed-down" brochure for African-Americans say? The NJEA seems to believe that the levels of reading comprehension among parents, if not their outright intelligence, can be determined simply by looking at their skin color (unless, of course, the NJEA wants to claim that the link for the "African-American version" is intended for blacks and whites with familial ties to Africa, but somehow I doubt even the most skillful PR spokesperson could make that claim with a straight face). This exemplifies a mindset even more sickening than that of Lott. Lott seemed to believe that the civil rights movement had caused "all these problems over all these years." Lott seems to think that without the civil rights movement, we might be a better society. This is insulting to African-Americans and the civil rights movement, not to mention the rest of American society, but it doesn't say that African-Americans are inferior or less intelligent. On the other hand, the NJEA seems to believe that African-Americans need a specialized version of the brochure -- one which will be shorter and easier to understand. This is a smack in the face to every African-American, one which holds them to a different, lesser standard based simply on skin color. And it's not just racially insensitive; it's outright racist.

Yes, there are significant differences between Trent Lott and the NJEA. Trent Lott is a U.S. Senator on the public stage, and needs to be held to account for his statements (and he has been by his party). The NJEA is a union and its reps aren't on TV as often as Lott. But it is an organization that represents the people who teach our children. If this brochure doesn't represent the values of NJ teachers (and I'll bet it doesn't), then the teacher's union needs to hold its leadership accountable. They deserve better. And so do New Jersey's children.