This would bring teers to my eyes:
Source: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/27927085/detail.html
Could it be this black student who wrote these racial messages [[including himself) is trying to get people to think that a white student who wrote messeges to stir up a RACE WAR! at a suburban high school? Or does this black student a victim of being bullied that was race related? Any thoughts.
Just shows that most young people are idiots, be they black, white, or whatever. I was young once. You draw the conclusion. :)
Does remind me of this news item:
Neo Nazi couple discovers they are Jewish.
I live in the Seaholm-zoned area, and so was very disturbed to hear of this. Glad to hear the kid was caught.
Supposedly a special-ed student, and had some beef with other students. Really unfortunate how he choose to express his anger, but teenagers [[especially male teenagers) are often idiots.
Is his name Clayton Bigsby?
Ironically, they are going to charge him with a hate crime.
The bigger problem with this idiot's actions is that it may cause folks to question other legitimate cases of racism.
I think I'm most annoyed at how the media is trying to blow up this story during May sweeps particularly WDIV. They are the ones trying to play the race card and make you believe that everyone in Birmingham or more or less at this high school is racist.
It one idiot which shouldn't pass judgement on the other 1,000 students at this school, that is one of the best public high schools in the state, if not the nation.
I have a question rather than a conclusion. Why do you find it necessary to equate most young idiot white kids who weren't involved at all in the offense with the one idiot black kid that actually did it? Are you trying to dilute his culpability because he's not white?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray1936
There are about 80 black students at Birmingham Seaholm High School and 1134 white students. One black students wrote racial comments target black kids just for a RACE WAR! How stupid does that black student get. Most folks will NOT play race cards and we're tired of it. We Americans learn from the fear of terrorism and rise of school bullies and criminal prosecution will happen to any prep who damages the school's reputation. Most public schools is property of the federal government. Damaging and borthering anyone on federal property will be arrested to the fullest extent of the law. Even into federal prison [[ there will be little or no plea deals on federal crimes on the act of foreign or domestic terrorism.)
I was an idiot in HS, but I never did anything close to what this kid did. Maybe we need another word for him. Deluxe idiot?
Hopefully this kid gets the same punishment as a white kid would if he did the same thing.
I got what he said,most of us did some what is considered stupid things in later life when we were young ,no dilution there at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by coracle
It's unfortunate too because Seaholm [[specifically) and Birmingham Schools [[in general) already had something of an undeserved reputation as Whitey McWhiteville, with no diversity whatsoever.
This used to be true [[in fact, there were historically very few Catholics and almost no Jews, to say nothing of racial minorities), but Birmingham Schools are nowadays somewhat diverse, at least in regards to Whites and Blacks [[not so much for Asians- try Troy, Farmington or Bloomfield, or Hispanics- try Downriver, Waterford, Pontiac, or SW Detroit).
In fact, Birmingham Schools could have a majority black elementary school within a few years. The district includes Bingham Farms, Beverly Hills and a sliver of Southfield, and all those areas have been gaining African Americans.
Most blacks attend Groves, though, not Seaholm. Groves serves the non-Birmingham City part of Birmingham schools.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ejames01
You got it, Richard. Lighten up, coracle.Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
According to WDIV-TV, Courtney Thomas was bullied back in December by a white student who passed around a photoshopped picture of Thomas with a noose around his neck. The white student was suspended but the school did not bring the police into it. I wonder if Courtney Thomas wasn't trying to frame the white student by his copycat effort of racial intimidation to avenge being bullied. The school hasn't offered a response as to why they have treated the two cases differently.
The white student was suspended in December and this guy decides to retaliate in May ? lol
When I attended Seaholm in the mid to late 60's I think it was 100% white , or seemed like it . Groves back then , not sure about it but they had students that lived in Southfield . Pre Seaholm I attended Derby Middle School [[ Adams Rd . near Maple) and was suspended for wearing a light blue denim shirt that has '' State Prison'' stencil over one pocket and a serial number over the other [[bought it that way)
So they must not be very tolerant of shenanigans . If Seaholm would have reported the original offense , this probably would not have happened . Things like this should be made an example of right away to deter anything like this in the future .
I believe the racist graffiti was found in April.
Hey, my brother had one of those "prison shirts" back in the mid-60s. Back then, you weren't allowed to wear denim pants. Authorities claimed the rivets in the pants scratched the desk seats.
I admit when I saw this on the news, I laughed my ass off. I thought it was incredulous that a Black student would create a hit list of Black students and on top of that he would put his own name on the list. I suppose he meant to include himself to cover the fact that he created the list. Like I said, I laughed but I started thinking. Why would he do that, I asked. Why would create an race issue? And the answer was given during the newscast. He was a victim of racial threats and the school gave the student a slap on the wrist.
I think young Courtney Thomas wanted to bring awareness to a festering problem at Seaholm High. According to Danny, there are 14 White students to every one Black student so this is a school that is White. Now I hope to believe that the majority of White students at Seaholm don't hold a bigoted view of Blacks but we know some will have an negative opinion of Black people. That is expected but that does not mean the school should sit on their hands and do nothing. The question that should be asked is how many Black students at Seaholm have experience some sort of racial tension. As the old saying goes, "all that glitters, is not gold."
Something like this happened in Washtenaw County when I was in grad school -- either A2 or Saline.
I'm a relatively recent Seaholm grad [[2005) and find this whole situation sad. Whatever the details are, it's just disappointing to have your school in the news for this.
I always did find one thing about BPS to be odd and, frankly, stupid. Groves, the other BPS high school, had many more black students than Seaholm did [[Seaholm was like 98% white as recent as a few years back). The autistic program in BPS for high schools was located at Seaholm and open to many communities outside Birmingham. When I was at Seaholm, out of the 20-25 autistic students, 15-20 of them were black from Pontiac, Southfield, etc.
For the casual Seaholm white student, outside the couple black kids that were in your grade, your only interaction with black students was seeing the autistic kids in the hallways. It instilled horrible impressions amongst the student population. Why wouldn't BPS put the autistic program in Groves where there is a much greater diversity of students? The casual student at Groves would have more friends of many different races and wouldn't form conclusions of certain races based on the autistic program.
I'm not sure if it is different now, but it always troubled me...
If true, this is really, really troubling that the administration at Seaholm did not take this to police. Clear racial hate towards a black student that should 100% be reported to police. Not a good way for the principal who has been there for years to go out [[he's retiring this year)...Quote:
Originally Posted by eno
He tried to frame a racist. Sounds good theoretically, but apparently doesn't work out so well scribbled on the bathroom walls. In situations like this, you need to delegate acts of justified retailation outside the sphere of your legality. Should of posted the flyer jackass made of him here with jackass' name, address, and phone number to start a wave of internet vigilantism. I'm good for a couple of prank phone calls to mommy and daddy's work asking their boss why their son hates black people.
I love how the last few commenters have used rumor and heresay to deflect blame on the school and community.
What about all the lynching threats he sent to the school's black teachers? I'm sure he just wanted to warn them of the horrible dangers that awaited them in Jim Crow Birmingham, right?
Yeah, poor kid; the school made him do it. Obviously he's a victim of blatant discrimination, and the hate messages were just a cry for help...
Hmm, you're a homer and I can understand you attempts at defending Birmingham. I respect that but you are naive if you think this disturbing trend do not occur in this school. The space cadet who created the hit list was an idiot. There is no denying that but the fact remain that a White student did intimate this student racially. Again, I ask how many other students were intimated? I haven't been in high school in 22 years but I know that there was never one bully, one asshole, one nerd, one snob. There are always many and if Seaholm have someone who have racist views, you better believe there are more so again the question is how many Black students are intimated by these assholes?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bham1982
The blame lies solely with this Thomas kid. You can justify his actions all you want, but the fact is he needs to face the consequences.
If the sequence of events occured as noted in this thread, then there is a lot of blame to go around. What he did is completely unacceptable and he deserves to be suspended, if not expelled. However, you can't just ignore the fact that the school administration may not have taken the correct course of action when he was first threatened in the winter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bham1982
There are questions to be asked. Related to the December threat, a BPS spokesman claimed a school police liason was contacted regarding the threat, but police claim they have no recollection of that occurring. I'd find it very troubling if Seaholm did not report a racially offensive image with a black student that is being spread around the student body to the authorities. I find it even more disturbing if they claim they did report it, but they never actually did [[as the article seems to state)...
http://www.freep.com/article/2011051...cial-slur-case
Courtney "Isaiah" Thomas, the black teen who wrote racist threats at Seaholm High School was a victim of "Dixieland" style Jim Crow southern culture that was brought into the northern suburban city of Birmingham, MI. [[ an equivelant to Birmingham Alabama.) That motive pushed him to commit a racial crime against white people by using his own race as a backlash tactic to flare up a RACE WAR!
WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET
For a racial explosion is far more greater than an atomic explosion.
My prayers to Thomas family.
Neda, I miss you so.
I graduated from Seaholm in the late 90's. I think we had less than 10 black students in the school at that time, however there were no problems, at least apparent. Granted, there was nobody trying to stir the pot, from either race.
Groves has traditionally been much more diverse, since it pulled in students from portions of Southfield, West Bloomfield, Bingham Farms, Beverly Hills, Franklin. In fact none of Birmingham actually attends Groves. Seaholm pulls in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township, and a small portion of western Troy.
I had many friends at Groves when I went there, of many races. However at the time, Groves had some incidents, that may have been racially fueled. Typically you had some hot heads getting in some fights, but really in the end no big deal and nothing worse than any of your typical high school fights. I seem to remember a few good chick fights when I was at Seaholm, but anyways....
For the comment about the autistic program at Seaholm, the reason they put it there because they had the space. Seaholm back in the 1960-1970s had close to 2000 students, when by the mid-90s was down to about 1000 so they had an entire wing they could use for the program. They put that corporate conference center in at Groves in their underutilized space.
Believe it or not, incidents like this happen in a lot of schools. They don't always make it into the media. Bullying, threats, some racially/gender/orientation related happen in a lot of schools and are dealt with internally. However, because its Birmingham Seaholm, it becomes juicy, sexy news that the media can run with for ratings.
No, that isn't the question. The issue is this student's actions, not some allegations of past disputes.Quote:
Originally Posted by R8RBOB
This reflexive need to deflect blame and assign unequal treatment is extremely disturbing.
If this were a white student, you would have Jackson, Sharpton, etc. showing up to protest, and all sorts of invective about racist, Jim Crow suburbs.
But now the student was found to be African American, so his actions are apparently unimportant. We need to get to the "root cause", of course. Maybe his forefathers struggles forced him to do it!
We already know that Seaholm is extremely proactive when it comes to racist hate messages. After all, they were the ones who reported the threatening letters in the first place.Quote:
Originally Posted by stinkytofu
The issue is with the student's behavior. If there is an issue with Seaholm's response to racial incidents, then why have they been so forthcoming and aggressive these past few weeks?
My heart goes out to all the other children put on the Thomas hit list. Can you imagine their angst these last few months, or the angst of their families? The families had to wonder what kind of city they had moved into. They had to look over their shoulders at their neighbors as well as anyone else in the town. Likewise the larger community had to question themselves as to the source of the hate living within their midst.
The issue at question is why the incident in December was not reported to authorities. Is there a double standard? Since we don't know what that image looked like in December, until we know more about if that was threatening it's impossible for us to know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bham1982
BTW - we're in complete agreement about Courtney Thomas being suspended.
Yes, because of that incident. Thomas is suspended and charged with the prosecuter from the Birmingham Police Dept. The white student who posted a "Dixieland" style photograph to a Thomas was suspended. The racial incident and NOT being charged by prosecuter for the Birmingham Police Dept.
WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET!
Now that's segregation at work.
Neda, I miss you so.
The original issue with the racist drawing back in December didn't get taken to the police because there was no threat. It was handled internally. What would getting the police involved have done? Some schools realize that they are dealing with teenagers and use their disiplinary tools versus automatically refering every incident to the police.
The issue in April went to the police, because there was a threat and this kid told school administration to get the police involved. This guy reported the incident and asked for the police to be involved, yet in the end he was the one that created it! When there are threats involved, then that is when the police got involved.
As for this whole bullying thing and this kid being picked on, how come he has 899 friends on facebook, including from both Birmingham high schools.
Do you really truly believe there is segregation or the administration isn't trying to go by the book? They aren't dumb. The administration at that school is top-notch.
Well.....since the student is being charged with a crime then his actions is being addressed, yes?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bham1982
It is amazing how people like to dance around the ugly like you are doing right now. Your attempts to defend the honor of Birmingham is honorable but you really to give up the Jesse and Al hangup. Whites love to throw out Jesse and Al and I think is comical because Jesse and Al are not the leaders of Black America yet Whites continue to throw out these two as if they speak for us. [[truth be told, I would prefer native Detroiter Michael Eric Dyson)
If there was no threat, then I agree that Seaholm did not have to go to the authorities. His attorney said this though in the Freep article...Quote:
Originally Posted by DTWflyer
The school and attorney disagree on if there was a noose/chains in the image. If there was, then IMO that's a threat that should be reported to police. Frankly, I have no idea what's the truth so I can't say if it should be reported.Quote:
Thomas' attorney, Wendy Barnwell, said she has heard about an incident where a picture of Thomas was manipulated to show a noose or chains around his neck. She said other students saw it, and a white student was suspended. She is gathering more information about what happened.
I am not "defending the honor of Birmingham". I attended Bloomfield schools, not Birmingham, and I don't presently have kids. I also have some issues with Birmingham schools.Quote:
Originally Posted by R8RBOB
My point is that you [[and others) have responded to this incident in a very race-specific manner. I have no doubt that your reaction would be very different if the color of the assailant were different.
Well, truth be told, if the suspect was White, I would not reacted differently since the list contained nothing but Black students, however, since the individual who created the list was Black, then the question is why did he create a fake hit list? I would imagine that he was calling out for help. Help with a problem that the administration is not taking seriously but who am I to question what the administration is doing in their school nor question the mindset of a silly little boy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bham1982
You're an idiot, I'm an idiot, we're all idiots . . . paraphrasing Columbia, or was it ______[[just lost the name) from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The incident last year which targeted Mr. Thomas was indeed odious; however, it too carries its own backstory and qualifiers. According to the twitt-a-verse the photoshopped pic was an swipe at Mr. Thomas' penchant for throwing the victim card around school. Now, I'm not a parent of a Seaholm student, and have no love for the Fighting Maples, in fact I think the snooty factor there is buried in the red; but apparently the white kid was tired of Thomas' act about being persecuted.
You folks might be aware of local whiner, Greg Thrasher, the fool from Birmingham who sees a Klan rally at every white sale. Thrasher's tiresome act is on par with Thomas and his penchant for throwing the victim card.
This certainly does not absolve the white kid for his tasteless photoshopping, but it places it in a different light.
However, the real issue for Mr. Thomas is the punishment he might face for instilling fear in the lives of his classmates and their families. He terrorized families. Pretty serious stuff for a parent to send their child off to school with the thought in the back of their mind that that child might not come home. How many kitchen-table conversations centered on this fear. How many times did a mother jump out of her skin when the phone rang during the middle of the day? How many times did a father drop his son at school with a gnawing ache? What is the punishment to heal those wounds?
The answer is none. Nothing can salve those wounds besides time. No time in prison, no time with a shrink, no amount of community service by Mr. Thomas will fix this situation.
To be fair, the punishment for white or black offenders would be the same. I recall a couple years back a pair of Melvindale crackers burned a cross on a lawn and are now in Federal tennis camp now. Is that where Mr. Thomas belongs? Will the State spending $35K housing Mr Thomas fix things? Is that the equal, blind and fair thing to do? Everyone equal?
I don't think so.
If this is true that the white kid created the noose-photo for the reasons you said -- and not with the intention to inflict harm -- then you have to acknowledge that the black kid did not intend harm either. The black kid was making his own point, albeit using an ill-advised method.Quote:
Originally Posted by gnome
What? Tasteless photoshopping of a kid in the context of his playing of the victim carm would not equate to a threat. Threatening third party teachers with lynchings, etc. is miles away. It is irrelevant if the other kid wasn't intending anything. How do the teachers know? Not an exact analogy, but similar to you can't point an empty chamber at someone without their knowledge and then say because there were no bullets you never intended any harm.Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
A lot of people, especially black people [[for obvious reasons), will construe a picture with a noose around their heads as a threat.Quote:
Originally Posted by bartock
Wait a minute. You agreed that if it was in the context of Gnome's post and the kid did not intend to inflict hard other than emotional harm, I suppose, then Thomas was somehow in the same position. Thomas threatened - unequivocally threatened - several teachers while pretending to be someone else. It ain't the same.Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
I didn't agree with gnome. I said that if he's going to take the position that the white kid's intent somehow lessens his culpability then the same stands for the black kid. I haven't offered an opinion on what I think should happen to the black kid.Quote:
Originally Posted by bartock
Gee, wonder what you'd do?Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
Unrelated note, but this certainly wasn't a good month at Seaholm...sad...
http://detnews.com/article/20110531/...ick-Deane-dies