# Idiot assistant principal **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 19, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085 "2014-11-19T16:52:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/21 "2014-11-20T00:04:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Amy Strickland is an assistant principal at a high school in Norfolk, Virginia. She has a personal twitter account. > > Back in June she tweeted a picture of seven couples going to the prom. The couples were all interracial - the men were black and the women were white. And Strickland captioned the picture “Every white girl’s father’s worst nightmare”. > > The tweet was noticed about a month ago on Strickland’s Facebook page and brought to the attention of the school administration. But no action was taken. Several students have now walked out of classes in protest. > > I think the thread title makes my opinion clear. Now I can’t stop a person from being a racist if they don’t want to stop. But who is stupid enough to think they can get away with making their racism so public? I guess if you’re dumb enough to be a racist, you’re dumb enough to not to hide it. > > As for the school administration, they screwed up by apparently not making any response to the situation. They should have at least acknowledged the problem existed and told people they were investigating it. > > And I’m sure there will be a few racism apologists who will pop in to say there was no problem here until the students protested. They’ll argue that racism isn’t a problem; it’s complaining about racism that’s the real problem. Having spent a fair amount of my growing-up youth in Virginia and born to parents both from Virginia, I’m not at all surprised. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/22 "2014-11-20T04:46:13Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Oh, great. Now John Boehner’s mom is going to be nagging/haunting him that “you could have married a nice orange girl…”. Instead of the catcher’s mitt he married? [![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/13/article-2324023-19C30102000005DC-963_634x462.jpg) ](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/13/article-2324023-19C30102000005DC-963_634x462.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/23 "2014-11-20T06:45:33Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Huh. Seems more likely to me that this person was making racist assumptions about the intolerance of white parents (as opposed to being a white racist herself). > . That was my assumption as well. A joke about the presumed racist attitude of white fathers. In fact, I could see posting it as being intented as an anti-racist statement : “look at all our biracial couples! racist people won’t be happy seeing that!”. I can perfectly see a black assistant principal posting that, for instance. So, no, the racism doesn’t seems obvious to me. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/24 "2014-11-20T16:50:44Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > That was my assumption as well. A joke about the presumed racist attitude of white fathers. In fact, I could see posting it as being intented as an anti-racist statement : “look at all our biracial couples! racist people won’t be happy seeing that!”. The caption said \*\*\*EVERY \*\*\*white father’s worst nightmare. > [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > That is, indeed, jaw-droppingly stupid, and racist. The question is what, if anything, the school administration has the legal or moral authority to do about it. Do they have a policy in place about disciplining teachers for things they post on their private social media? If schools can fire teachers for having posted nude and partially nude photos (and they have), it would make me seethe if they can’t fire her for this. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/25 "2014-11-20T17:16:42Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > That was my assumption as well. A joke about the presumed racist attitude of white fathers. In fact, I could see posting it as being intented as an anti-racist statement : “look at all our biracial couples! racist people won’t be happy seeing that!”. > > I can perfectly see a black assistant principal posting that, for instance. So, no, the racism doesn’t seems obvious to me. So you’re saying she posted a racist caption but it’s okay because she was doing it ironically? Her intent was _“I’m posting this racist message in order to show that racist messages are bad. In case there’s anyone left in 2014 who doesn’t know that.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/26 "2014-11-20T17:33:14Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Instead of the catcher’s mitt he married? > > [http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/13/article-2324023-19C30102000005DC-963\_634x462.jpg](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/13/article-2324023-19C30102000005DC-963_634x462.jpg) Eek! A sandstone-American! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/27 "2014-11-20T18:33:31Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > If you did think that, you can kindly go and fuck yourself. [Moderating] Telling other posters to fuck themselves, even conditionally, is a violation of the Pit language rules. Please avoid this in the future. No warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/28 "2014-11-20T18:55:07Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > That was my assumption as well. A joke about the presumed racist attitude of white fathers. In fact, I could see posting it as being intented as an anti-racist statement : “look at all our biracial couples! racist people won’t be happy seeing that!”. > > I can perfectly see a black assistant principal posting that, for instance. So, no, the racism doesn’t seems obvious to me. With some trepidation I will confess that I suspect she meant something like this as well. What makes me think this possible is the “or nah?” she added at the end–googling around seems to show that “or nah?” is a kind of twitter/meme thing, which AFAICT is used mainly by African Americans, and which communicates (among other things, as part of a joke,) that the accompanying image _isn’t really_ what it’s being described as. But. It’s not obvious that she meant this. And even if she did, intent isn’t magic. What she said had the effects it had regardless of her intentions. And plus, she WAAAY should have known better. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/29 "2014-11-20T21:37:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So you’re saying she posted a racist caption but it’s okay because she was doing it ironically? Her intent was _“I’m posting this racist message in order to show that racist messages are bad. In case there’s anyone left in 2014 who doesn’t know that.”_ I don’t think she viewed it as racist. You never heard of sarcasm, irony, second degree, etc? You can’t imagine someone triomphally posting pictures of biracial couples to rub them in the face of presumed racists? Yes, this explanation makes much more sense to me than imagining a principal not just being racist, but openly displaying her racism. I’m certain I would have interpreted the caption this way, if I had seen it. Humour. not outrage at seeing white girls kissing black dudes. Outside of white supremacist boards, people aren’t going to admit to such feelings publically by adding such a caption. Let alone a school official. I’ve a hard time grasping the idea that someone seeing such a picture in this time and age would assume it’s a straightforward, first degree, statement, in fact. I think I often see ironical pictures/captions like this one on social networks, mocking homophobes, sexist people or what have you. Anyway, what does _she_ say about it? ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/30 "2014-11-20T22:32:04Z")
She claims that both of her daughters went to prom with African-American dates so I’ll take her at her word that she meant to mock racism not support it, but it was still an extremely stupid tweet to send out. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/31 "2014-11-20T22:40:41Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Yes, this explanation makes much more sense to me than imagining a principal not just being racist, but openly displaying her racism. Just as a point of reference, [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=741374) is currently two threads below this one on the front page of the Pit. Never underestimate the stupidity of racists. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/32 "2014-11-20T23:31:10Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > She claims that both of her daughters went to prom with African-American dates so I’ll take her at her word that she meant to mock racism not support it, but it was still an extremely stupid tweet to send out. How does the dating preferences of her daughters support her plea of innocence? There are plenty of racists who didn’t know they were racist until “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” played out in their dining rooms. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/33 "2014-11-21T00:19:13Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > How does the dating preferences of her daughters support her plea of innocence? There are plenty of racists who didn’t know they were racist until “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” played out in their dining rooms. According to Strickland, she forwarded the tweet to her daughter as a joke. Apparently this occurred at some time prior to her being hired as an assistant principal. Source: [http://wavy.com/2014/11/20/asst-principal-responds-to-retweet-uproar/](http://wavy.com/2014/11/20/asst-principal-responds-to-retweet-uproar/) ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/34 "2014-11-21T00:45:52Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > That is, indeed, jaw-droppingly stupid, and racist. The question is what, if anything, the school administration has the legal or moral authority to do about it. Do they have a policy in place about disciplining teachers for things they post on their private social media? I imagine they do. I have a few friends who are teachers, and they are VERY careful what they post on social media because of guidelines within the school system. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/35 "2014-11-21T03:36:24Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Jesus, are some people around here fucking retarded. Did you miss the post where i said:My point was merely that, despite his own reputation as a hero of black advancement, Booker T. Washington himself held some rather problematic ideas about racial equality. While the fact that this incident happened at Booker T. Washington high school might seem somewhat ironic, Washington himself, despite his incredibly laudable efforts in support of black advancement, was not really down with full social equality. Thus, it might not be as ironic as it first appears. Even Abraham Lincoln held some “problematic ideas” about race by today’s standards. Quit being so incredibly stupid. ---
**Author:** ![btthegreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@btthegreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/btthegreat)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/36 "2014-11-21T04:17:02Z")
My opinion won’t be popular. I want to live in a country where offering up offensive or unpopular opinions is not normally punished with a pink slip, a jail sentence or a successful tort claim. Those students are not entitled to a society without racist opinions or to a school district that does not employ racists. They are entitled to an educational environment that does not tolerate racism or remarks. Her twitter page is not to be construed as school property and her employer ought to stand for the rights of each and every employee to have a life beyond the bounds of the job. There are plenty of social consequences to unpopular, controversial or bigoted speech that I do support, but threatening people’s jobs or their personal freedom are not among them. I get very nervous at the scope of ‘morals’ clauses in employment contracts designed to protect employers from embarrassment induced by off the clock behavior. they can become far too pervasive and far too oppressive to those who just don’t tow the societal line. I think we need to get started teaching these high schoolers to grow a tough enough skin, that they don’t demand a pound of proverbial flesh every time someone says or does something that deeply offends shocks or insults them. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/37 "2014-11-21T05:03:26Z")
Well said. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/38 "2014-11-21T05:39:14Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > That was my assumption as well. A joke about the presumed racist attitude of white fathers. In fact, I could see posting it as being intented as an anti-racist statement : “look at all our biracial couples! racist people won’t be happy seeing that!”. > > I can perfectly see a black assistant principal posting that, for instance. So, no, the racism doesn’t seems obvious to me. I agree with you completely. It is an anti-racist joke if anything and the only way I read it was a statement that was mocking the potential racist fathers out there. Others are free to disagree but I am certain they just missed the innocent or even well-intended motivations. > [@btthegreat](#): > > My opinion won’t be popular. I want to live in a country where offering up offensive or unpopular opinions is not normally punished with a pink slip, a jail sentence or a successful tort claim. Those students are not entitled to a society without racist opinions or to a school district that does not employ racists. They are entitled to an educational environment that does not tolerate racism or remarks. Her twitter page is not to be construed as school property and her employer ought to stand for the rights of each and every employee to have a life beyond the bounds of the job. > > There are plenty of social consequences to unpopular, controversial or bigoted speech that I do support, but threatening people’s jobs or their personal freedom are not among them. > > I get very nervous at the scope of ‘morals’ clauses in employment contracts designed to protect employers from embarrassment induced by off the clock behavior. they can become far too pervasive and far too oppressive to those who just don’t tow the societal line. > > I think we need to get started teaching these high schoolers to grow a tough enough skin, that they don’t demand a pound of proverbial flesh every time someone says or does something that deeply offends shocks or insults them. I agree with you too. It gets scary enough when the most easily misinformed and insulted among us can object to forms of speech that they couldn’t comprehend in the first place. It is much worse when they have the power to enforce penalties on pare with egregious acts like violence in the work place or embezzlement just because they lack the ability to understand some other people’s expression of perfectly reasonable, rationally nonoffensive and defensible ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/39 "2014-11-21T05:51:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So you’re saying she posted a racist caption but it’s okay because she was doing it ironically? Her intent was _“I’m posting this racist message in order to show that racist messages are bad.”_ Yes of course. Your normal posting style is of reasonably high quality but you missed a joke and a bunch of nuances in this case (I am sure through no fault of your own). She didn’t do anything wrong, especially nothing to deserve the guillotine or even a written warning over. It was ironic social commentary sort of like the Daily Show or the Colbert Report does every day on TV and most people think is hilarious. Recalibrate your social humor meter because yours is off. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/40 "2014-11-21T06:14:56Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > How does the dating preferences of her daughters support her plea of innocence? There are plenty of racists who didn’t know they were racist until “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” played out in their dining rooms. I communicated my beliefs poorly. I certainly don’t think she’s “innocent”. I think her tweet was extremely stupid, grossly unprofessional, and extremely insensitive because most reasonable people would be horrified and jumpy to the conclusion that she was expressing a racist sentiment. People have compared her comment to statements made on the Daily Show or the Colbert Report, but such jokes and comments are always made in such a way as to let people know they were jokes. Context matters. Now, yes, is it possible I’m wrong and she really is racist and perhaps may have been inspired by being upset at the prospect of her daughters dating black men? Sure. In fact, I’ll go further than you. I’m sure there are white people MARRIED to Black people who are quite racist. I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but I recently learned that H.P. Lovecraft who was violent bigoted against just about all non-WASPs was married to a Jew. However, yes the fact that she doesn’t seem to have no problem with her daughters dating black men and seems to have dedicated her life to helping black students would lead me to give her the benefit of the doubt in this case that she was not motivated by disgust at the idea of black men and white women going out together. That said, at a certain point, I do get tired of hearing white people making and laughing at racist jokes and insisting they’re just mocking racism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085.md?page=3)