Penalty on the Field. Unnecessary Use of the Race Card. Penalty - Setting Us Back 50 Years.

Sorry for the long title but I thought it was a good one!

I have been researching this matter and maybe I am missing something. The Montgomery Public Schools is in the process of selecting a new Superintendent. There were many candidates including the Interim Superintendent, who is a white male.

The board has whittled down the selection to two finalist - two black females. They are Samantha Ingram, superintendent of Fairfield County Schools in South Carolina, and Barbara Thompson, superintendent of New Glarus Public Schools in Wisconsin.

Now, allegedly there have been public comments made that the City Council President Charles Jinright and County Commission Vice Chairman Reed Ingram about the selection process for finding a new Superintendent. I am not sure what they said and personally don't really care. More than likely whatever they said was due to the fact that the person or persons they would have liked to be Superintendent were not selected as a finalist.

Now with all that being said, our "Champion of Injustice", State Representative Alvin Holmes (sarcasm) decides to shoot off at the mouth saying that "officials should stop bringing race into Superintendent search". I do not remember race ever being brought into this matter until he opened his big a$$ mouth. Those of you who follow my blog might remember an earlier entry I made regarding Mr. Holmes, "OMG! Who is Dealing? Here Comes the Race Card." The finalist were narrowed down some time ago. Why rant off about it now? The Montgomery Chamber of Commerce would like to send a representative on the site visits of the two finalists but people are opposing that. Did I miss something or are both finalist black? Where is race involved? Who cares who goes on the site visits, as long as it is not costing me money as a taxpayer? I can be almost certain that the next Superintendent of the Montgomery Public Schools will be a black female. Am I wrong?

School board member Eleanor Dawkins said the site visits have become controversial because the democratic process didn't go the way some members of the community wanted it to go in favor of Clay Slagle, the white interim Superintendent. "Because the vote didn't go the way they wanted it to go they want to go on the site visits to try and find a reason why these candidates are wrong or why the vote was wrong," Dawkins said. Who the hell is "they"? White people? What can the Chamber of Commerce do to stop this process if they send representatives on the site visits? Holmes has chimed in and said that the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce represents "silk stocking, country club millionaires in this town, and does nothing to help west Montgomery." (In case you do not live here, West Montgomery, is the "black side of town".

Holmes also announced that he would bring the Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and other civil rights leaders to protest all over the city if there is a block to appoint either of these finalist.

Again, we (black people) did not ask for a crusader to come to our rescue and cloud up the relative peace with stupid rhetoric and playing the "race card". I am not one to play that card myself but there is a time or a place for everything, and this was not one of those times or not remotely close to the place. I have no preference of who is Superintendent as long as my child can actually learn something to that will provide the launching pad to be anything she wants to be in life.