High School Principal Excludes White Students From ‘Black Lives Matter’ Event

An Illinois high school principal is defending his decision to exclude white students from a “Black Lives Matter” event held at his school.

On February 27th, Oak Park and River Forest High School principal, Nathaniel Rouse, hosted a “Black Lives Matter” event exclusively for black students. The assembly was intended to culminate Black History Month with a discussion on race relations. Approximately 350 black individuals attended the event. When white students attempted to attend the assembly, however, they were denied entry.

Parents who were upset over the school’s decision to exclude non-black students from the event voiced their opinion to the Chicago Tribune. Rouse responded to the concerns of the parents by stating, “First and foremost, this is not meant to give a connotation that we were trying to be exclusive.”

In a statement on the Oak Park and River Forest High School website, the school addressed the controversy: “[S]ome students and parents expressed confusion and concern about the event being for Black students only. Information about the event lacked clarity about this aspect of the conversation, and the high school is committed to improving communications in the future. Further conversations among and across other racial affinity groups shall take place at the high school in the coming months and into next year.”

Rouse defended his decision to keep non-black students from the assembly by referring to the concept of “affinity groups.” According to the school’s statement, “Racial affinity groups are often used in learning communities to help facilitate positive identity exploration and provide people with similar experiences a space in which to pose questions and process topics.”

“According to Principal Rouse, the conversation was an opportunity for students who identify as Black to speak openly, honestly, and productively.”

Rouse told the Chicago Tribune affinity groups are helpful to discussions on race, as he “found it has been far easier for me to talk about my experiences with racism with individuals that look like me.” He added, “I still struggle myself with talking about my experiences with people who don’t look like me.”

Rouse hopes to host similar racial affinity group discussions in the future with different races, saying he believes “the affinity group is the safe way for us to move forward in a safe environment.”

How hard they fought against separate but equal.

And how hard their predecessors fought for “I have a dream where people are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

It’s ok. We understand. Our Conservative cause has also been hijacked by freak nutjobs who have taken our mission off the rails toward an evil means.

I graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School. I went to school here and graduated with actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. I was a year behind Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson), Ernest Hemingway graduated from OPRF. So did Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald’s) well, I take that back Ray actually never graduated, he dropped out after sophomore year. Frank Lloyd Wright is from Oak Park, IL and built many homes there. River Forest was where all the mobsters lived like Tony Accardo, Paul “The Waiter” Ricca, Chuck English and so on. Accardo’s grandson Eric Kumarow played football there and was the #1 draft choice for the Miami Dolphins back in 1988. Michael Irvin went #11 and Kumarow went #16. He was a bust as a pro.

That being said it’s a very liberal city in some ways but conservative in other ways. If you own a multi unit building and don’t take care of it, the city will issue you a couple of warnings to fix it up. If you fail to fix the items they asked they’ll take the building over make the changes and sell it. you will get Zip for it. There are no slumlords in Oak Park, IL. Before this principal they had a guy who would hire Private Investigators to follow kids home from school. If any of then got on the El train or bus and headed into Chicago, they would follow them all the way home. Find out where they really lived then call them into the principals office and expel them from school for living out of the district. Then this new guy came in and stopped all that. So now they have the drive by shootings all over again. This new guy is a dumb ass. I wonder how long it would have taken Jesse or Al to show up if this was a White’s Only meeting at a public school?

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