The Fighting 44s

I’m not sure whether this is appropriate for a front page article for this site, but I believe that if my educationally underprivileged African American students can make their voices heard by the millions of people, it is instructive for those of us in the Asian American struggle.

Last year, as some of you know, my school lost multiple students. Three current students and one teacher were killed over the course of a few months. Add in former students and the number swelled to eight members of our community killed.

For the first time, the central administration of our massive school district took notice and saw fit to nurture a pity-laced media blitz which had a “we are great people for trying to help these poor kids in this hellish environment” theme.

Not surprisingly, this caused our attendance for the following fall to drop markedly. As a result, in the middle of the semester, twelve teaching positions were cut, forcing our students to go through another cycle of loss. Survive adversity in a tough environment and what’s the response? Support? No, more obstacles placed in your path.

The students decided to express their frustration through written letters to the CEO who had promised them support through this tough time.

This morning those letters were published in the Chicago Tribune. Please follow this link to read them and give your impressions. Then let’s discuss how to do the same for Asian American issues.

Sincere thanks!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-julian_thinknov18,0,7004636.story

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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