I was baffled to read in your March edition that some citizen deemed it appropriate to complain to an out-of-state activist group about Maine School Administrative District 75’s attempt to create an “affinity group for students of color.”
There is ample evidence that racial stereotypes exist in our society. These stereotypes give rise to a stream of slights, slurs and occasional violence directed at people of color. Some may dismiss all this as trivial, harmless or unintended. Perhaps an individual instance might be deemed trivial, but the overall effect of a continuous stream of “trivial insults” is far from trivial.
It is to MSAD 75’s credit that it has tried to create a mechanism whereby students of color, who bear the brunt of this behavior, can attempt to process its effects with their peers. Yet, somehow, some deem such a group to be inappropriate.
A letter sent to MSAD 75 by a lawyer from the “Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism” appears to pose a veiled threat that the district might face legal action if it limits a group intended to help persons of color process attacks against them to the actual students who most need such a group. There is nothing fair or even logical about this stance. This group is not intended to attribute all of life’s slings and arrows to racism, but to allow students affected by racism a chance to try to deal with those effects in a constructive manner. Opening this group to any student makes as much sense as opening a group for combat vets to process their wartime experiences to anybody who wants to drop by.
It is ironic that an organization calling itself the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism, or FAIR, appears intolerant of efforts by minorities to mitigate the effects of intolerance.
Mel Tremper, Topsham
