California Education Secretary Richard Riordan had an interesting conversation July 1 with 6 year old Isis D’Luciano:
Dude, you’re the Education Secretary for California! Don’t you think that some part of your job might require interacting positively with children? And exactly why are you still on the job?
Arrgh!!! I meant Your name means stupid dirty girl. Would a mod kindly fix the title so I don’t look as stupid as I just was?
What a bizarre, ill-advised comment to make. 
I like the mother’s response, though.
Well, poop. Finally find something I care enough to make an OP over and then I realize that someone else did a better job. Looks like this thread is redundant and should be closed.
Sad as I am that then another idiot took it a step further and turned it (mistakenly) into a race issue, I’m still more in shock at how anyone, especially the Education Secretary, could say something so insulting to a little girl in the first place.
It’s not that the comment was just kinda funny or just kinda insulting, it’s that it had absolutely no redeeming value at all and was damn near hateful.
Your name means stupid, dirty girl? Who in their right mind would say something so damn rude?
Riordan’s on my shit list. I’m watching you, asswipe, you hear?
Oh, get over it, people! It was said in jest! It was a joke! Don’t you get it? It was a real knee-slapper!
“Stupid dirty girl.” It’s gold, Jerry. Gold!
Wow, that guy is the most elderly-looking 10 year old I ever saw!
I mean, only a little kid would make that remark to another kid.
…Right?
:rolleyes:
As I said in the other thread, it was a joke that fell flat. Have none of you ever ever bombed an attempt to be cute? Give it a rest.
It’s the fact that he said “Stupid” and “Dirty”. Hurtful words to a 6 year old. An appropriate attempt to be cute would have been if he had said, “It means sweet, smart little girl”. His behaviour was infantile in a negative way. I don’t find it cute.
My 7 year old nephew and I often call each other “Moose-face,” “monkey-lips” and “donkey-brains” and so on. We laugh when we say these things, and they are code for “I love you.” I can easily imagine telling him that his name is latin for “big dumb poopyhead” and having him fall on the floor laughing.
Doing that with a complete stranger would obviously be foolish, but there is nothing necessarily mean or cruel about playful teasing; and the reaction of the child and her mother suggests that’s what it was. I doubt he said it with a frown a furrowed brow and a pointed finger.
It was a dumb joke delivered off the cuff. He said he’s sorry.
But you’re not 6 years old. The fact is the line got a pretty good laugh out of the class. Saying “It means sweet, smart little girl” isn’t funny to any age group.
You think this is a good thing? Has it been so long since you were a kid?
“Oh honey, they aren’t laughing at you, they’re laughing with you!”