:BRIGHTSTUFF:..Personal & Political Musings & Rants by a Liberal Leftist Black & Asian Teacher

My dear friend, Phatdawg, says that I should just leave Reagan in peace.

I am not disturbing him.

What I find disturbing is that he is remembered as this great President but in fact, there are plenty of people who remember the man a bit differently.

Let us not forget a public figure, he is (was) open to criticism.

At the school where I teach in (in Harlem), the staff is predominantly Black.
Very few, if any, of the teachers were willing to shed a tear for this man the day we found out he died.


Why?
One of my co-workers explained it this way- "Ronald Reagan set Black folks back 20 years." When she said this, I didn't understand it. At the time Reagan was president, I went from being an elementary school student to a high school student. My memory of him is spotty at best (with the exception of his administration supporting segregated South Africa and his support of the death penalty).

After doing some research, I came across this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5158315/ .

*****snip*****

Consider these:
In his tenure as President, Ronald Reagan did these things:

Appointed conservative judges, like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who continue to issue rulings to the detriment of African Americans. Walters notes that just 2 percent of Reagan’s judicial appointments were black.

Began his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., near the site where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.

Supported racism with remarks like those that characterized poor, black women as “welfare queens.”
Fired U.S. Commission on Civil Rights members who were critical of his civil rights policies, including his strong opposition to affirmative action programs. One of the commissioners, Mary Frances Berry, who now chairs the Commission, recalls that the judge who overturned the dismissal did so because “you can’t fire a watchdog for biting.”

Sought to limit and gut the Voting Rights Act.

Slashed important programs like the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) that provided needed assistance to black people.

Appointed people like Clarence Thomas, who later became a horrible Supreme Court Justice, to the Equal Opportunity Commission; William Bradford Reynolds, as assistant attorney general for civil rights; and others who implemented policies that hurt black people.

Doubted the integrity of civil rights leaders, saying, “Sometimes I wonder if they really mean what they say, because some of those leaders are doing very well leading organizations based on keeping alive the feeling that they're victims of prejudice."

Tried to get a tax exemption for Bob Jones University, which was then a segregated college in South Carolina .
Defended former Sen. Jesse Helms’ “sincerity” when that arch villain of black interest questioned Martin Luther King’s loyalty.

*****snip*****

Now I understand.

Don't get me wrong- yes, I know the man is dead, and he died of a horrible disease that afflicts millions of people (my grandmother died in the throes of Alzheimer's), but Reagan is not above reproach simply because he is dead.

I can (and do) respectfully feel sorry for the suffering he went through from this horrible disease, but I cannot absolve him of his past.

To remember the man with blinders on does an injustice to history.