Posted on 12/04/2020 10:53:27 AM PST by cmj328
The Wake County school system will stop using the word “grandfathering” because of the term’s “racist origins” in preventing Black people from voting after the Civil War.
A Wake County parent challenged the school district this week for continuing to use “grandfathering” to describe how some students can stay at their current school if their neighborhood is reassigned to a different school. North Carolina’s largest school district responded with a tweet promising to stop using the term — next year.
“Thank you for your message,” Wake tweeted Wednesday. “We are aware of the racist origins of the term grandfathering, and our intent is to discontinue use of this term starting next year.
“We are using it this year to avoid any confusion, as unfortunately we have been using this term for quite some time.”
Grandfathering comes from the “grandfather clauses” used following the Civil War to keep Blacks from voting.
The debate over the historical origin of words like grandfathering comes amid this year’s nationwide Black Lives Matter protests over issues including police brutality and Confederate monuments.
In June, a wine-tasting organization said it would stop using the word “master” to refer to its high-ranking experts, The New York Times reported.
In August, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation abolishing the county-level title of “freeholder,” which sponsors say alludes to a time when Black people and women were excluded from government, the Associated Press reported. Counties will use the word commissioner instead.
Also in August, the Massachusetts Appeals Court made international headlines when it said it would stop using the word “grandfathering.” The court cited how, after the Civil War, Southern states created grandfather clauses to exempt white voters from new requirements designed to disenfranchise Black voters.
In this environment, Wake County began notifying families this month that they can “grandfather” their children if they don’t want to be reassigned to a different high school next year. Wake is moving some students as part of a plan to fill the new Willow Spring High School. The filing period runs until Dec. 11.
“PLEASE do not use racist language and DROP the term “Grandfathering clause” for new high schools,” Lucy Hughes tweeted at Wake on Wednesday. “The term has roots in suppressing black voters. Language matters! DO BETTER! Our students are watching. FIX IT.”
Lisa Luten, a district spokeswoman, said that Wake will drop the use of the word “grandfathering” because it’s not inclusive.
“We aim to use inclusive language in our communications,” Luten said in an email to the News & Observer. “This word is not inclusive. It’s really that simple.”
Wake has moved to be more inclusive in recent years, such as recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day and moving to expand anti-discrimination protection for transgender students and school employees.
The school board also voted in June to remove Josephus Daniels’ name from a middle school in Raleigh. Board members cited how Daniels, a former News & Observer publisher, was a white supremacist and that the new name of Oberlin Middle School honors a community founded by formerly enslaved Black people.
Hughes, a Fuquay-Varina parent of two Wake students, said in a message to the News & Observer that she’s glad that Wake is acknowledging the problem with using grandfathering. But she said Wake should make the change immediately. She said people will understand if a different term is used this year.
“But saying ‘it may confuse people, so we must wait!’ is not the right excuse,” Hughes said. “If you are a system who wants to portray itself as anti-racist. Here is an opportunity to act, and they should be courageous and do it.”
I wonder if Native-American tribe members know that when they call a tribe elder “grandfather” out of respect, they are really being racist.
This is retarded.
I swear some people wake up with the intent to find something to be aggrieved about.
Because it’s easier for them to not take responsibility for the poor decisions they’ve made in their lives
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It is long past time to abolish the public school system and start over.
Heretofore to be replaced by “muhbabysdaddysdaddying”
You mean “differently-abled”
yeah cause black kids dont have grandfather’s...thats a white privilege thingy for white people who can afford them...
Oh...
GTH
lol
Heck yeah !
I have been aggrieved about the fact that I am a left-handed Irishman
I am twice aggrieved !
Current woke racial categories mirror those of the old one-drop rule, perhaps deriving directly from it. I wonder when the Democrats will finally abandon their racist ways?
Raleigh sure seems to have gone to hell in recent years.
Why doesn’t Wake County change its name to Woke County and be done with it?
After all those sleepless nights, this terrible thing is now
off our backs. I can sleep restfully again.
Of course it’s RACIST because they/Dems serfs don’t even have fathers so how the hell are they supposed to know who the hell their grand poppi is?!?!?
Can you imagine in this welfare heavy day and age in NC that the parents of these kids with all the EBT card money NC provides WILL NOT even feed their own offspring?!?!?
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article247541025.html?fbclid=IwAR0SJmn-1wIkKVw3Ly0O63et26GzXy6IlmuTarsKznC-e6pjzy0YXtQa25Q
My daughter was grandmothered when the school district moved the boundaries for its two high schools. Otherwise, she would have had to change high schools after her sophomore year.
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