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at the University of Alabama.... AND "elsewhere" Dr. John Todd's "editorial" reply to two opinion-pieces in a November 2000 issue of "The Tuscaloosa News" (Alabama). Selected from the on-going INTERNET BOOK, "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets" ( http://www.terrific-tabs.com ) by John N. Todd III, M. D. (link)
11/00; 6/01; 8/01; 1/02; 3/02; 4/02; 5/02; 7/02; 9/02; 10/02; 11/02; 12/02; 1/03; 2/03; 3/03; 6/03; 7/03; 12/03; 5/04; 7/04; 2/05; 11/25/05 See related titles, from this website, linked below Affirmative Action for ALL -- regardless of SKIN-COLOR (link) AND: Public Schools in Alabama (link) And SEE: Ebonics and Albonics (link) See also: TRACKING in public schools (link) And: A+ COALITION for Education, in Alabama (link) And: Taj Majal Public Schools (link) And: MORE Local TAX from productive citizens (link) CLICK HERE to go to the "FRONT PAGE" of "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets" CLICK HERE for ALPHABETICAL INDEX of this entire WEBSITE CLICK HERE to EMAIL your thoughts to the author This opinion-piece was written in response to an op-ed essay in the Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News, in November 2000. Gobbledegook. That's what many of your readers are saying about Dr. Bauch and her "anti-racism" program, as portrayed in her article in Sunday's Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News. Thank goodness a number of well-known University of Alabama professors conspired to compose a rebuttal to Dr. Bauch, and to her plan to hire "Crossroads Ministry" to instruct the "white" members of the University faculty in how they should "atone" for their "sins" of racism. I was fascinated to read that, according to Dr. Bauch and "Reverend" Barndt, "racism is exclusively a disorder of white people." Apparently, Dr. Bauch is planning to "reform" the discriminatory attitudes of the University faculty, during the next 10-20 years -- by employing "Crossroads Ministry" (at taxpayers expense). Presumably, after this "reformation", the newly-awakened and edified faculty will inculcate all University students with the doctrine of "Reverend" Barndt, the guru of Crossroads Ministry. The people of Tuscaloosa wiil probably then be next in line, if the "whites" ever admit their ignorance, misconceptions, and sins-of-the-past.... and then adopt the University's new, informed understanding of "anti-racism", and sophisticated multiculturalism. I regret to inform Dr. Bauch and "Reverend" Barndt that their thesis is pure nonsense (baloney). Perhaps they should awaken.... and try to grasp that "racism", prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination -- among and between all human-beings -- are only peripherally related to skin-color. Other causative factors predominate, including.... individual behavior; personal habits; cultural variations; interpersonal jealousies; asset-and-income disparities; comparative accomplishments and "success"; intellectual capacity (link); "family" characteristics; social status; gender; age; dress and attire; schooling and education; speech (diction, grammar, enunciation, "accent"); personal/individual work-ethic; personal "profiling" of others; intra-racial conflicts, and "squabbling"; intrinsic ambition and energy; "substance" use-and-abuse; economic status; "religious" beliefs; sexual "persuasion"; marital status; health; geographic location; national mores; political proclivities; language/communication barriers; physical attributes and bearing (personal appearance); psychological quirks; physical disabilities.... and on and on. Each of these factors is just as much a part of the discrimination-intolerance "WEDGE" -- as is the amount of melanin in someone's skin. If Bauch and Barndt were to imagine that, in this world, all human-beings are "people of color"..... one identical color, such as orange.... Bauch and Barndt would quickly ascertain that all our other human differences -- as enumerated above -- would be precisely as evident as they are now. Therefore, a college campus "orientation" aimed at "blacks" and "whites" -- and their presumed conflicts -- will define only a single issue (skin-color).... and will either ignore, or complexify.... all the other universal factors. The Bauch and Barndt conclusion that skin color is the sole-source of racial intolerance, is such a shallow understanding, that I am frankly stunned that "erudite" academicians can arrive at such a flimsy perception. And beyond that.... for anyone to proclaim that only those of "white" skin are responsible for a "unilateral" intolerance among "races", is patently preposterous. Incidentally, do you (the reader) remember the long-standing concept of "reverse racism"? Is that consideration applicable, now, at the University of Alabama? A final point: who, at the University of Alabama, ordained this wasteful and harmful expenditure of the taxpayers' money? Let each of us guess! 11/25/05 |