According to Jake Jacobs of the MACON TELEGRAPH, a popular, effective, hard working Central High School teacher, Greg Dougherty, is about to be fired because he played in a student-faculty basketball game wearing an Afro Wig and staining his arms a shade of brown.
He is currently on suspension; allegedly the Bibb County Board of Education is investigating the incident. Dougherty has ten days to reply to the accusation.
On the surface, even in the racially-charged atmosphere of our local schools, the sentence seems harsh. On the one hand we spend millions of dollars on Michael Jackson paraphernalia cheering as he altered both appearance and skin tone, appearing ever more white year after year.
On the other (hand) we have the almighty forces of political correctness and hyper sensitivity, which have added an eleventh commandment that transcends the original ten, THOU SHALT NOT OFFEND.
There is an exception. It is OK to offend white males. They, after all, are fair game for everybody including white females.
We do not know enough about this single incident to make a fair judgment at this time. We have, however, a sneaking suspicion that Ms Sharon Patterson and the BOE have exhibited in the past enough example of ‘craven cave-in’ that Dougherty’s termination may have been done in haste, or under pressure, or in an effort to head off possible unpleaasantness in the Black Community.
Those who know me, know that I am no racist. I bill myself as ‘an equal opportunity bigot’, whose satire cuts in all directions. That means that there are times when Black Individuals (e.g. Jesse Jackson, Koffi Annan, Barbara Boxer, the local NAACP to name just a few) get skewered for their actions, attitudes, and stupidity….just like the white folks who are objects of similar jibes and jabs. Satire is a great equalizer.
According to the paper, the specific charge levied against the teacher is something called ‘mimicking an African-American’. This has got to be one of the most moronic phrases Ms Patterson or her cohorts ever came up with. “Mimicking an African-American”. How About ‘mimicking an Arab fundamentalist flying an airliner into the twin towers’; or ‘mimicking a Kamikaze pilot at Leyte Gulf’; or ‘mimicking a red neck’?
What? Sorry, I forgot…expressions like ‘redneck’ and ‘trailer trash’ are ok, those folks are white and, therefore, fair game.
It is no wonder that Bibb County has trouble keeping good teachers. If this single incident is going to cost a fine classroom exemplar his job, while all through the system sit doing little or nothing are hundreds of sub-standard teachers.
We need more information, of course, but right now it appears on the surface that the local Board of Education has once again caved in to the overwhelming forces of political correctness.