Honoring Luper an easy choice
THE Oklahoma City school board will decide Nov. 13 whether to name its new administration building after Clara Luper. The board may never have an easier vote.
Luper, who died in 2011 at age 88, was a classroom teacher and a civil rights giant who literally changed the course of Oklahoma City and the state.
On Aug. 19, 1958, Luper led the nation’s first nonviolent lunch counter sitin of the civil rights movement. She and 13 members of the local NAACP Youth Council sat at the counter of Katz Drug Store downtown and ordered lunch. After being turned down and asked to leave, they refused, enduring insults and threats.
They returned the next day, and then the next. On that third day, Katz staff relented. Other downtown establishments soon followed suit. Luper also helped desegregate hundreds of establishments across Oklahoma.
She had been a trailblazer before that, becoming the first black student in the graduate history program at the University of Oklahoma, where she earned a master’s degree. Luper taught for 40 years in Oklahoma City, at Dunjee High, Douglass Mid-High, Northwest Classen and John Marshall.
She was a teacher inside and outside the classroom, and the impact of her work resonates today. To call the new administration building, set to open next year, The Clara Luper Center for Education Services would be a small but fitting tribute to a great Oklahoman.
Offensive musical
Recently at an elementary school in Maryland, the perpetually offended members of society continued their quest to outlaw fun in all its forms. Danette Zaghari-Mask, an attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said her son quit the Westowne Elementary School play because Arabs were described in the play as “barbaric.” She took her complaint about the play to the school board, which promptly caved. The school’s principal soon sent a letter to parents announcing that the musical would be replaced by an alternative production. What was the racist musical that caused so much heartburn? A rendition of the 1992 Disney cartoon “Aladdin” that, technically, has no non-Arab characters. If Westowne school officials search hard enough, we have no doubt they’ll find something that won’t offend people like Zaghari-Mask. It just won’t be nearly as much fun for the performers or as entertaining for the audience.
Damaging DNA discovery
Attorneys for Oklahoma death row inmate Julius Darius Jones felt they had a way to help prove their client is innocent. They paid to have DNA tested on a red bandanna worn by the person who killed insurance executive Paul Howell of Edmond in 1999. However, the lab that conducted the test said DNA from a stain on the bandanna matches Jones’ DNA. The probability of the result being a random match are 1 in 110 million in the U.S. black population, the lab said. Nevertheless, an attorney for Jones says “there is much more to do moving forward and we are confident in the end Mr. Jones will be vindicated.” Jones’ case was featured on the ABC-TV documentary series “The Last Defense” and he has gained support in the community and even from the Congressional Black Caucus. However, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater rightly noted this result bolsters the work of prosecutors and the jury. “The light of these results,” he said, “pierces the dark lies of the convicted murderer’s innocence.”
Trading places
Donald Trump Jr. went to Michigan to stump for GOP Senate candidate John James. Abdul El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic candidacy for Michigan governor, went to Twitter to deride the event and Trump Jr. as “a man who has done nothing of value but mooch off his daddy — who mooched off *his* daddy.” James, who is black, tweeted back: “I’m a West Point grad & Iraq vet w/2 masters. My dad: Vietnam vet & entrepreneur. His dad: mason. His dad: sharecropper. His dad: slave. Mooching?” James remains a long shot to win Tuesday but has closed the race dramatically, according to polls. One reason for this may be that James defies stereotypes, and Democrats don’t seem to realize that treating every Republican like they are a generic white guy doesn’t work when the GOP candidate is black and the “old white politician” is Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow.
Can’t be too careful
A week before Halloween, the University of Oklahoma’s Office of University Community reminded students and faculty to be careful choosing their costumes. “While we admire the creativity that goes into many people’s costume choices, be aware that cultural appropriation of identities can be offensive,” the office said. “Please select your costumes and depictions in a way that does not demean, dehumanize or diminish anyone’s identity or culture.” The note included links to articles including one titled “When Free Expression Becomes Micro-agression.” In 2015, a faculty member at Yale University suggested students think critically about that school’s guidelines on Halloween costumes to avoid. That prompted noisy demands from students, faculty and deans that she and her husband be removed (they eventually quit). We haven’t heard of any microaggression claims or faculty on the hot seat in Norman. Apparently, everyone behaved — thank goodness.
Not helping CNN
CNN has been a frequent target of the “fake news” label. Host Don Lemon isn’t doing much to dispel that characterization and much to lend it credence. Lemon declared recently, “We have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them.” That may have set a land-speed record for self-contradiction and obliviousness. It came not long after Lemon declared that he doesn’t “see Democrats killing people” because of political beliefs, even though the man who opened fire on a Republican congressional baseball practice in 2017 certainly fit the bill and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter was an anti-Trumper who believed the president was controlled by Jews. That Lemon’s schtick isn’t so much “fake” as ignorant and uninformed doesn’t help his network’s reputation.
Consistency
In New York’s 21st Congressional District, Democrat Tedra Cobb is trying to oust Republican incumbent Elise Stefanik. In July, when a voter asked Cobb her position on an “assault weapons” ban, Cobb said she supported the ban but had been advised to “not say that you want an assault rifle ban because you will not win.” The exchange was recorded by another attendee and the video soon gained national attention. When The Albany Times endorsed Cobb, her support of a weapons ban was cited as a reason. Cobb’s campaign insisted she had not “explicitly” endorsed a ban, so the newspaper was forced to issue a correction. Then, at a subsequent debate, Cobb was asked again for her stance on the ban. She replied, “I don’t know.” In politics, having no answer to a major policy question can be damaging, but inconsistency is even worse.