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Michigan parent meeting about discrimination interrupted: 'Then why didn't you stay in Mexico?'

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  john-russell  •  4 years ago  •  10 comments

Michigan parent meeting about discrimination interrupted: 'Then why didn't you stay in Mexico?'
“We wanted to tell the audience that this [kind of discrimination] was alive and well,” Iraola told The Washington Post. “We were very surprised to see that, right then and there, is the ignorance manifested by those comments.” According to state data, Salina Area Schools is more than 85 percent white, while less than 2.5 percent Latino and 2 percent black.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



A Michigan school district's parent meeting about racial discrimination turned ugly Monday when a Latino man, speaking about the adversity that his kids had faced in the district, was reportedly met with heckling.

Adrian Iraola immigrated to Saline, Mich., from Mexico City in 1980 and sent all three of his children — now grown — to Saline Area Schools. Iraola was recounting to a group of parents the effect that the racial slurs had on his children when a man in the crowd yelled, “Then why didn’t you stay in Mexico?”

The exchange was captured on video and the man, identified as Tom Burtell, was asked to leave the meeting by another woman in the crowd. 


“We wanted to tell the audience that this [kind of discrimination] was alive and well,” Iraola told  The Washington Post . “We were very surprised to see that, right then and there, is the ignorance manifested by those comments.”

According to  state data , Salina Area Schools is more than 85 percent white, while less than 2.5 percent Latino and 2 percent black.

The meeting itself came after football players in the district added their black teammates to a Snapchat group, allegedly introducing them by the N-word, according to the Post.

Lori Iraola, Adrian's wife, told the Post that they attended the meeting to inform parents that this wasn't an "isolated event."

Burtell would later say in the meeting that the district's diversity efforts were "ludicrous."


“You’re complaining about situations and this incident where somebody made a little tweet. Nobody got hurt in that, and that was done off campus," Burtell reportedly said. "That doesn’t concern the school system. Everybody has a right to free speech.”

Burtell's comments were largely meet with ire from the parents at the meeting, with one black parent countering that his comments were “indicative of what our kids are experiencing.” 




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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    4 years ago

"If you don't want to face certain racial discrimination, stay in Mexico"

seems to be the message. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
2  Kavika     4 years ago

Perhaps that asshole that said ''stay in Mexico'' should have stayed in the shithole country that he came from.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2.1  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Kavika @2    4 years ago

The man from Mexico came here 40 years ago.  When do you become an American in these racists eyes?

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
2.1.1  Kavika   replied to  JohnRussell @2.1    4 years ago

He's not white so he could have been here for 500 years and it wouldn't matter to that asshole.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2.1.2  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Kavika @2.1.1    4 years ago

I'm afraid you are correct. 

 
 
 
1stwarrior
Professor Participates
3  1stwarrior    4 years ago

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
4  Tacos!    4 years ago
Burtell's comments were largely meet with ire from the parents at the meeting

Good! Let's not get the idea that the occasional asshole is reflective of Americans generally. 

 
 
 
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Freshman Silent
5      4 years ago

I don't live too far from Saline. I can tell you it is about as liberal as they come. Bunch of rich doctors live there who commute to Ann Arbor. The man does have a point. If your kids are suffering from a lack of diversity, there is plenty to be found in Ypsilanti and it wouldn't be much of a move. Unless you don't like living in a crime infested shithole.

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
5.1  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  @5    4 years ago
The man does have a point

Why am I not surprised to hear that from you. The only 'point' the bigot in the crowd made was how prevalent such disgusting racists still are in America. We had far more of them in the 1960's and for a while I thought they might have all either died off or had a change of heart, but we see that's clearly not true with the rise of Trump and the cover he has provided for the bigots to pop their heads out of their holes once again.

 
 
 
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Freshman Silent
5.1.1    replied to  Dismayed Patriot @5.1    4 years ago

Well the guy is up there complaining about a place he chose to move to. It's no secret to anyone Saline is mostly white so if diversity is the most important thing to you, why move to a place like that? Surely there is a safe, clean, quiet neighborhood comparable to Saline that is rich in diversity. I don't know of many but according to liberals they have to exist. I can tell you that you won't ever see me move to Detroit and then complain about the lack of white people or be surprised if my white family members were subject to prejudice.

 
 

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