Jump down, spin around, pick a bale of cotton

 Jump down, spin around, pick a bale of cotton

 

Gotta jump down, spin around,  pick a bale of hay.  Some of you might remember the old folk song.  It seems it might be coming back to life.

A federal lawsuit claimed an Illinois teacher gave Black students a bag of cotton- and ONLY Black students- after a lesson on slavery.

The racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against a teacher at Julian Middle School in Oak Park Illinois.   The lesson involved all students putting their hands into a box that supposedly contained raw cotton from cotton plants.   The teacher then gave the 2 African American children a separate bag of cotton for them to take home.   No white child was given the separate bag of cotton.   The incident caused an outcry at a Board meeting.   Numerous parents said their children had experienced racial discrimination in the district was this was the last straw or piece of cotton.

At the meeting, parents spoke about many different instances of overt racial bias.  Representatives of the local NAACP were also at the meeting and said it was their intent to also file a compliant with the U.S. office of Civil Rights.

The lawsuit said that Oak Park school administrators held a meeting with the teacher after the incident.   Administrators explained that the use of cotton in the lesson had not been “approved” by the school district.  The teacher allegedly cried during the meeting with her principal and said she didn’t think it “would cause any harm”.  It is difficult to figure out just what she thought it would do to those two students.  And why were they treated any differently than the remaining white students?

Another question that needs to be asked is where has the local NAACP been during all these months when Black families have been complaining about racial bias and harassment.   Are they just waking up to the need to do something?

The NAACP asked, “why are Black families not taken seriously when they report something?”   The same question could be asked of the NAACP.   What caused them to finally wake up to the issue?

Maybe the school district and the teacher are not the only ones ignoring feelings. Maybe folks need to jump down, spin around and pick up some good sense.