Sunday, May 22, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg: Before You Engage Your Tongue, Disengage Your “Brain”


By Rafael Martínez Alequín

2011_04_blawalblo.jpg
Cathie Black, Dennis Walcott, and Mayor Bloomberg at PS 109 last fall (NYC Mayor's Office)


It is about time for New Yorkers to tell Mayor Bloomberg before he opens his mouth—he should disengage his brain. Since he became Mayor, he has offended many people in this city, especially, the poor—Afro-American, Latinos, the handicap, the Irish-American the homeless, and even reporters.

His recent (slip of the tongue) was last Friday when responding to a lawsuit seeking to prevent New York City from closing 22 schools. He made a comment insulting the parents who support the suit filed by the N.A.A.C.P. and the teachers Union by saying: “Unfortunately there are some parents who just come from—they never had a formal education, and they don’t understand
the value of education,” Bloomberg said.

PUBLIC ADVOCATE DE BLASIO RESPONDS TO MAYOR’S COMMENTS ON PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS

“Our Mayor should treat public school parents like partners, not problems. Telling parents that they do not understand the value of education is profoundly disrespectful. As a public school parent I believe that the Mayor should admit he made a mistake and apologize.”

Kenneth D. Cohen, an executive of the N.A.A.C.P., a plaintiff in the suit, which was filed Wednesday, lamented what he called Mr. Bloomberg’s broad-brush description of parents “who look like the majority of parents in city schools.” Zakiyah Ansari, a parent organizer with the Alliance for Quality Education, an umbrella organization that is also part of the suit, said she was insulted.

The mayor's comments is not only an insult to Black and Latinos, but is in the border line of a racist insult.

He want to be known as the "Education Mayor". He began insulting New York parents when he appointed Cathy Black as the School Chancellor. Presumably, the process that he used was that he and Ms. Black belong to the same exclusive club of the super-rich and powerful social gathering, not her lack of pedagogical knowledge. This was an insult to the over 1 million Public City School children enrolled in the school system. When he realized that Ms. Black was the wrong person for the job, he appointed as school Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott, a political operative that will be carrying the water for the Mayor. When the Mayor asks Dennis to jump, Walcott responds “How High Your Divine Serenity.”

In the Mayor’s most recent insult to the School Parents, Chancellor Walcott said the Mayor’s comments had nothing to do with “race or immigrant status.” The Chancellor should tell this to an Afro-American or a Latino parent. He will find out he will be chased out of the room.
see the video bellow:

video by Rafael Martínez Alequín


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