ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 10, 1996 TAG: 9611110086
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Racial hiring, promotion in schools discussed
The issue of racism has arisen in Montgomery County Public Schools recently with the transfer of a black assistant principal to an administrative position at the central office. The local NAACP has questioned the justification for the move and openly expressed outrage that there are no longer any black administrators in any of the county schools. As a friend of this former assistant principal, I can understand his disappointment since this was not a move he sought. It should not, however, be viewed as a demotion.
My concern is with the reputation of our school system, as the NAACP has suggested that racism is the reason we presently do not have a black principal or assistant principal. I believe these charges to be false for the following reasons:
During my 14 years in this school system, I have met many African-American employees, most of them teachers and most of them excellent educators. My school, Christiansburg Middle, has had an African-American administrator for most of its history. Bob Dobson retired a few years ago from a long and distinguished career. Wade Robinson was also a principal and headed the transition of our school into a true middle school before taking another principalship elsewhere in Virginia. The assistant superintendent of Montgomery County Schools, John Martin, also happens to be an African-American who would have strong support among many educators if he sought to be superintendent one day.
I hope that the NAACP is not advocating the need for quotas in hiring in Montgomery County, as race-based hiring and promotion is discriminatory. We should remember that in the NAACP's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education legal brief, it asserted its "dedicated belief that the Constitution is color blind."
Clarence Pendleton of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission has said that race-based privileges are demeaning to blacks and calls those who favor them "the new racists." I would agree.
The disappearance of race as a relevant category was the vision of Martin Luther King Jr. As a result of King's vision, white America dismantled its own system of race preference in the expectation of society becoming a nation of individuals rather than an assemblage of uneasy racial groups.
foundI believe it is time to stop discrimination in the name of equality. With a first-hand knowledge of the high caliber of black employees that Montgomery County has been fortunate to attract, I am certain that the NAACP need not worry about the county hiring the best candidates for the job, irrespective of race, sex or religion. Equal opportunity for all special privilege for none.
Wayne D. Carlson
Christiansburg
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB