Hillcrest High School students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama protest racism: FB

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As if young people don’t have it hard enough these days after having their lives and educations upended by a global pandemic, with mental health issues and suicide rates rising and college entrance levels falling. And as if African Americans didn’t already have a hard enough time trying to get an education and economic security for themselves these days, especially in the Deep South, where racial discrimination is back out in the open thanks to four years of an openly racist president.

This week about 300 students walked out of Hillcrest High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in protest after being told by a White administrator that they could not talk about Civil Rights Icon Martin Luther King, Jr. and his role in the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and other historical events prior to 1970 — like slavery and post-Civil War Reconstruction — in a planned program for Black History Month. Organizers said this had caused “psychological trauma” among Black students.

What?

Only in Deep Red America, where all three branches of government in Alabama are controlled by MAGA Trump supporters who still deny that Democrat Joe Biden is in fact President of the United States.

“We have to fight back against the culture wars that are (being) inflicted on us,” former U.S. Senator Doug Jones said in an email blast this week. “I’m sick and tired of the far-right Governors who are using the high school African American history curriculum as the new battleground for their culture war.”

Whether it’s Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his racist executive orders or Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders “red meat” response to the State of the Union address, full of nothing but doublespeak, “they’re directly empowering school administrators to turn back the clock and dividing us along racial lines to teach students a completely ignorant version of American history,” Jones said.

“But I am so proud of the students who are heroically standing on the right side of history and protesting this culture war nonsense,” he added. “And we have to stand with them – now. These students are showing the type of courage and fight that we’re going to need as we head into the 2024 elections. This radical right culture war garbage is going to continue to be pushed from the top of the GOP ticket on down.”

Whether it’s targeting trans children or rewriting Black history, this is the MAGA agenda, not the American agenda, Jones said.

Students, some holding signs of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream Speech,” protested peacefully for about an hour on the lawn of the high school Wednesday morning, according to WVUA 23 News.

“We decided that we needed to bring attention to some issues here at Hillcrest High School that school administration has failed to adequately address,” senior Jamiyah Brown said in a speech, claiming some Black students at the school were “targeted and punished unjustly without justifiable reasoning.”

“We are disrespected and the administration has created a climate of intimidation and bullying towards those that challenge authority,” she continued. “When our parents seek to address these issues, the administration responds in a dismissive and hostile manner.”

White school officials denied the charges. But in an email sent to staff Wednesday morning, Hillcrest High School Principal Jeff Hinton said he expected students to protest and asked teachers to “respect their decision” to walk out.

Brown, who is part of the production, said she was told earlier this fall by a white administrator that the students should include more “current” Black figures, “like Beyoncé,” in the production, and that “old stuff” made people “feel uncomfortable.”

Brown said she and her peers were frustrated by the administrator’s comments, but didn’t feel like they could push back at the time. But as more problems began to arise between the students and the administrator, word got out on social media. The local NAACP chapter got involved.

“That’s what blew it up,” Brown said in an interview with AL dot com (formerly the conservative Birmingham News). “It opened up other issues that we didn’t know about.”

In a series of community and school meetings over the past month, Brown said she was made aware of several issues facing Black students at her school – where just over half of students are Black, and all administrators are white, according to state records.

Brown said Black students were repeatedly disciplined for dress code violations, even for wearing similar clothes to white students. One of her peers, she claimed, was told she looked like a “streetwalker” from an administrator.

And others, Brown said, were told they should “drop out” by staff, or punished without evidence that they had done anything wrong.

“It’s not just about the Black history month program,” Brown said in the interview. “The Black History month program and the discrimination are two different problems.”

System leaders first acknowledged the controversy in a statement to local news outlets last week, which took note of the swift response from the community.

“We are thankful for a community who cares about our students,” the school district said in a statement given to local news last week. “Anytime someone in our community has concerns about the well-being of our students, we appreciate them coming directly to our administrators to discuss their concerns.”

Local civil rights leaders held a forum Saturday for students. The local NAACP chapter met again with students, parents and staff at the high school on Monday morning. President Lisa Young said she was disturbed to hear some of the accounts given by students about issues in the school.

“I’m inclined to believe that the administration at the school has allowed a culture of racial insensitivity that has created a toxic learning environment for students,” Young said.

She said the local NAACP and other community members supported the walkout, though it was strictly a student decision. No students were disciplined for protesting, she said.

On Wednesday evening, Superintendent Keri Johnson said in a statement that the system supported the rights of the students to peacefully demonstrate, and claimed the district was working on a plan to address student concerns.

“A number of our Hillcrest High students have concerns about the culture within their school. We care deeply about our students, and it is important that their concerns are heard,” Johnson said. “We are putting together a plan to make sure our students feel heard, so that we know the right steps to put in place to ensure all students know that they are valued.”

Brown and her peers are currently working with Young to schedule a meeting with the superintendent, she said. Moving forward, they want to address ways to improve staff diversity, encourage freedom of expression and ensure that all students have due process and are being treated equally to their peers.

And if that doesn’t happen, Brown said, she and her peers plan to rally against an upcoming tax vote – a major school improvement effort that the district has been proposing all year – and also take that energy to the next election cycle.

“I just really hope that doing this today shows them that we are going to take a stance for doing things that are right,” Brown said.

This is just one example of how former President Donald Trump’s blatant racism has spawned an entire movement among White conservatives across the country amounting to a retrograde race war.

“Just like those kids, we need to stand tough and call out this B.S. for what it is,” Senator Jones said. “The 2024 election is already starting up so we can’t wait. I’m out there already (on the campaign trail helping Democrats) and I hope you’ll be with me.”

Perhaps the school’s most famous former student has not responded to a request to comment about the situation.

Brian Robinson Jr. is an American football running back for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Alabama, where he was two-time CFP national champion before being selected by the Commanders in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Prior to the start of his rookie season, Robinson was shot twice during an armed robbery after leaving a restaurant and returned to the team less than two months later. Robinson attended Hillcrest High School, where he rushed for 990 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior and was named second team Class 6A All-State.