GM and Chrysler, Stimulus Package, Controversy in Ferndale's Schools - Link to Audio
Good morning!
We'll begin ths show with U.S. Representative Gary Peters giving his thoughts on what the Federal Stimulus Package will do for Michigan, we’ll also hear his take on President Obama’s appointment of an Auto Task Force, instead of a single ‘car czar’.
Following up Rep. Peters, the Detroit Bureau’s Paul Eisenstein will further delve into the situation GM and Chrysler are in this week. Both companies are due to present their viability plans to the U.S. Treasury Department tomorrow and GM has just resumed concession talks with the UAW. Hear more this morning.
Crain's Detroit Business writer Bill Shea joins us to talk about the potential merging of Detroit's city and regional bus service. Would it create a more reliable transit system for city residents?
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A couple years ago, Ferndale Public Schools created an alternate high school for the enormous amount of former Detroit students the suburb was receiving. University High boasts a 100% graduation rate, versus traditional Ferndale High’s 88% grad rate. But a group of local activists say the situation is segregation. In a whole other twist on the controversy, the group, By Any Means Necessary, began protesting a local grocery store who would not hang their poster alleging that the Ferndale District is segregating students. We’ll talk to Tony Selvaggio, co-owner of Western Market, Shanta Driver, National Chair of BAMN, and a representative of Ferndale Schools.
A national contest has chosen 3 young Metro Detroit filmmakers as finalists. We’ll talk with Ahmed Ghani and siblings Akram and Arwa Alsamarae about their work.
Listener Comments
I hear of student success at University High...............that’s a good thing, right?
Find out the truth about BAMN at http://www.ferndaleschools.org/districthighlights/FPSandBAMN.html
Ferndale of course has a ugly legacy with regard to busing and the education of Black students below the happy little surface of Funky Ferndale is a city which has a racist population and a hip gay population ( which is also quite patronizing, racist and has contempt for Black Detroiters as well which is another tale for another day...)
This region and its older suburbs has a long deep racial history on so many levels..in that regard Ferndale is no different than Harper Woods, Roseville, St. Clair Shores, Huntington Woods, Clawson, Birmingham, Berkley, Downriver cities all of these older outer ring suburbs have racist histories and relations with Black Detroit..
I have never respected its model..It is a classic 60's white radical model where Black folks do all the work take all the risk and white folks like Shanta Driver enjoy the fame..
Every student at uhs chooses to go there, and it doesn't have anything to do with segregation - that would violate schools of choice laws and the mission of the ferndale schools - check out their website. also, why is it so bad that two high schools are different? that doesn't make one better than the other.
how can you bash a school with 100% graduation rate and a college prep curriculum? seriously!
BAMN is just ruffling people's feathers over nothing, and this will only serve to sour race relations.
The model as employed by University HS is a paradigm based upon contempt and discounting of Black academic potential ..It is a model that has been dumbdown to attract desparate DPS parents..It is truly a model which reflects the soft bigotry of low expectations..
you must not be familiar with the Ferndale School district, if you think only the students come from Ferndale (and that all people who live in ferndale are gay - talk about having stereotypes). the FPS is made up of students from Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Oak Park and the Charter Township of Royal Oak. The student population does refelect the district boundaries. do your research before you take sides.
Those numbers don't support BAMN's allegations, nor do they support allegations that under Ferndale's progressive vainer lies racial bigotry. If Ferndale truly was filled with racists, as Shanta Driver and one caller suggested, citizens would be demanding the police investigate every black student at the high school to verify school school district residency.
As it is, they are not. There is no evidence to support the allegations. The argument exists only to create racism where none exists.
BAMN's picketing an uninvolved fruit market to create racial tensions to promote BAMN's racist agenda is unacceptable.
http://tggagne.blogspot.com/2009/02/domestic-terrorists-in-ferndale.html
Our nation needs to spend 50% of the stimulus budget on education we must also be aware of the shallow offerings of suburban school districts where students have inflated grades, gpa's and test acores..
Our nation and our state both are the results of leaders educated in inflated suburban school districts with shallow credentials.. There is a reason why our state and nation is in a freefall meltdown just look at the results of these so called superior educations have provided us with these 2nd rate leaders...
Clearly Ferndale School District is a business model created to fund its operation..It is a sad commentary when a business model is based upon demonization and the depravity of another's school district..Again I feel the pain of these DPS parents..
As I posted earlier Ferndale is a old border ring suburb with an ugly racist legacy with Black Detroit..Now even with its large gay population( sexual preference has nothing to do with one's racial mindest apparently in Ferndale where many gays are are racist)educational issues are still a problem
planeideas.blogspot.com
The issue is about University HS not about DPS..You need to learn how to reason and stay focused..Your logic and reasoning skills are twisted stay on point..I have written extensively about DPS and I have attended over the years many DPS Board meetings and offered up ideas, recommendations, etc..My firm has for free offered up a number of programs to confront security issues etc at DPS..
You are a classic drive by thinker.. You hear one conversation, attend, one meeting, have zero history( none with me) amd then spout off nonsense..get up to speed whenever you interact with me..
My platform is simple step up or get stepped on...
Um, Ferndale may be 3.4% black, but Oak Park is 50% black and Royal Oak Township is 95% black. The Ferndale district envelopes a large portion of Oak Park, and I believe all of R.O. Twp.
To take down a college prep school? To get 20 out of 88,000 DPS students into Ferndale High? To take down a fruit and meat market for not forcing the school district to talk with BAMN? To convice people that BAMN is a civil rights organization? To create a regional school district? BAMN seems to change their point of resolve every other day. Maybe that's because they don't have a leg to stand on.
Check out this video of more BAMN nonsense: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/DPS_Speak_Out_About_Protest
In other words I am correct and your reply was a backhanded confirmation of my post. The FPS is not a relection of it's Black population which is yet again 3.4%..Oak Park has it's own school district!!
Please try again to measure up to my posts...Ferndale is a white community an old border suburb of Detroit with a long checkered and twisted racial legacy with Black Americans from Detroit....
I want to enchance FPS including University HS and Ferndale HS both are 2nd tier schools by any objective merit and standard.. I support involving the entire community in the wealth and growth of a community including it's buisness stock..All play a role...BAMN is a civil rights group I have no respect for its white leaders( I have already posted earlier about white lead groups which exploit Black grievance etc)..Yes I support ONE state school district we have TO MANY SCHOOL DISTRICTS EACH WITH WASTEFUL BUDGETS AND ARCANE ACADEMIC STANDARDS ..
I hope I have address your questions..
FROM THE FERNDALE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEBSITE:
The district is four square miles and includes the cities of Oak Park, Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge and the Charter Township of Royal Oak and serves approximately 4,000 students each year.
If you still don't understand this, check out the district map on their website homepage, www.ferndaleschools.org
Maybe it's time you did some homework. Not all districts encompass only their namesake.
John is correct - thanks for clarifying the percentages, btw.
By the way, you mis-spelled "plane" in your blog, unless you're a pilot. LOL!
Again stop trying to be a progressive thinker like me..I deliberately spell my firm's name PLANE( as in metaphysics)to reflect our themes and mission as an alternative think tank..of course given your myopic mindest please catch up with me if you can..
BTW again for the record finally!! FPS does not reflect it's Black population which is only 3.4%..FPS is a 2nd tier school district
Again I am not interested in anecdotal tales...I am about the whole picture not selective protraits...UHS as a model does not at the end of day advance the critical mass..It is a backward educational paradigm created in part to fund FPS and as a reaction to the shortcomings of DPS..It is a classic soft bigotry model..
Your posts remind me of NAACP and Obama where many folks are lulled into the nonsense of a post racial america just becuase of the singular victory of Obama..Let me paraphrase Julian Bond....The NAACP is not about one person but the sucess of all people of color..
Also, you're grossly misinterpreting the statistics. True, the school district includes parts of Royal Oak Twp. and Oak Park, but both of those cities contribute smaller numbers of students than the city of Ferndale--even with some of its residents attending Hazel Park schools.
What you should be reading in those statistics is the improbability that all FHS' black population is in-district. Of course, you wouldn't need the statistics, or the power to correctly interpret them, if you simply observed the foot traffic crossing Eight Mile at the end of the school-day or at DOT/SMART bus stops.
For a community with as many racial hangups as you suggest they have, Ferndale citizens are either horribly inadequate at expressing their concerns to their school board or racism and segregation only exist in the minds of people like Shanta Driver and yourself. Polyannaism is a type of optimism detached from reality. Racism can become a type of cynicism similarly detached from reality. Both suggest a prejudicial interpretation ungrounded by facts, but one is malevolent and destructive.
Of course I understand your lack of insight and depth in this area given you are a white male in a nation that has been contaminated by the legacy and depravity of white supremacy, white privledge and white entitlement. Your views on racism have zero value and currency with me. I would never accept a white male's interpetation of racism in our nation to have any significant wieght with me...The footprints of white males in our nation with regard to racism have not lead many to the light nor is a path I seek to follow...I am sucessful and impactful soley becuase of my efforts and my cultural DNA..
Of course I understand your shortcomings with regard to racism such is a daily reality and obstacle many Black folks in this region and our nation encounter all to often... Yet my view of UHS as a model of soft bigotry and low expectations is shared by many people both Black and White in this region..
With regard to Ferndale's racial legacy with Black Detroiters it is a subject matter to massive for this forum other than to note it is a city which rejected school busing.. it is a city with a legacy of racist housing and employment practices that mirrored in truth the same themes and patterns of Detroit's other older suburbs many which I noted in my previous posts..
I would recommend any one to visit the Detroit Main Library for unlimited data and historical information including newspaper records and related accounts on the racism Black Detroiters encountered with "funky Ferndale over the decades it is revealing and yet tragic on so many levels..
In summary no I am not impressed with many of Ferndale citizens, from it's public officals( the mayor, school board officals, etc) No I am noit impressed at all..
Sorry but I hate fruit and I only eat seafood..Plus unlike I make a difference even in the white town I live in...BTW stop using your blackness as an excuse to make a difference..get off your knees and stop making excuses for 2nd rate school districts that pimp Black parents under duress..
It is shallo people like you that creates opportunities for racists and bigots to flourish in this region..
And by extension, any school.
The reason for education is to prepare for the future. When your past chains you to ignorance, your future is doomed to squalid failure.
Bottom line, I'd donate my rug, to whomever can educate poor dumb Thrasher to see reason.
Logic by extention..lol,lol,lol, what is that a new hair design in rhe burbs..lol,lol,lol
You post like a dumb google robot.."when your past chains..) lol,lol, I heard Bil Bonds say that once while he was drunk doing the news...lol,lol,lol
This is to much fun....I love my life....lol,lol,lol
You think you are making a difference in here by fighting the real fight in chat forum ..lol,lol,lol.. I have balls where are yours ..jealous and envy drives you as well??
You post like a Ferndale grad or DPS underachiever..
You should be happy to even chat with me..MY kids have college and law degrees now get lost you are boring me ..Run along and go prove to some Ferndale people how wonderful they are for saving those po black folks from Detroit...
Isn't the point here that BAMN picked the Ferndale school and business community in a random act of domestic terrorism? If people don't give in to their demands . . . in comes a henchman to force them to do whatever they picked out of their crazy manifesto. Anyone who has any question about what anyone involved here really thinks: do your google homework. It's all there: Chetly Zarko, Youtube, Fox 2 archives, Ferndale Schools website, BAMN's website, Michigan Daily, and on and on. BAMN are radical, BAMN are wrong, and everyone else should stand strong and not get ugly about race, geography, sexual orientation, or politics. We were at peace before BAMN showed up in our lovely downtown. luv ya, bye bye!
It amazes me how did a 2nd rate school district like Ferndale gecome this great vehicle of education!!!! Wake UP..FPS is making a living off the duress of DPS parents, it has created a educational model that is 2nd rate and discounts the full potential of Black genius and academic achievement...Sorry but I have zero faith in the activities of underdeveloped cultures that same culture which has convinced urban people and urban school districts they are worthless unless soem white folks spinkle some dust on them....
We were at peace making a living off those negroes and coloreds until BAMN showed up..lol,lol,lol, We have to blame and delfect thos BAMN people caused they exposed our separate and unequal school options for those parents under duress in Detroit...
BTW Victor My personhood does not allow for hate and anger..I am full of love and passion sorry ut your tired sterotype of Black mem like me who make a difference rings hollow and has zero value..Please understand the world has changed we ave a Black man in the White House..My turn now....
I had a blast on President Day ( Now that Obama is in the white house)..tee hee
A 2nd rate school district trying to make a buck on the failures of DPS and the love of Black parents....
FPS should be sued for this Ponzi scam..
Have a Blessed day...lol,lol,lol
Your coments about Mr. Bond are interesting what part of his posting captured your fancy this part"... poor dumb Thrasher to see reason..or the post he suggested I was drunk in part no doubt becuase I obviously do not approve of UHS model...
BTW drop me a line after you chat with Mr.Bond perhaps I can get on with you and him.....
Marv Linke
What do you consider a 1st rate school? If a 100% graduation rate with students attending UofM, MSU, Oakland U, Wayne State, Grand Valley, etc...(University High) and a 88% graduation rate with students attending UofM, MSU, Central, Western, Wayne, Oakland U, Grand Valley, etc... (FHS) isn't good enough for you, what is? Harvard? Yale? 101% graduation rate? 36s on all ACT scores?
You spew a lot of hatred toward the FPS, but you are offering nothing as a solution or anything that would satisfy you. If you want a big state-wide school district, why are you and BAMN not complaining to the State? What do you think the Ferndale Schools can do about it?
And, btw, Barack Obama is not just a black man. He is a white man too - he's mixed, remember? He represents us all, and he wouldn't approve of BAMNs tactics. Neither would MLK.
That post was not from me. Folks, I'd appreciate it if nobody tried to post something with my name, even if it is supposed to be a joke.
Thanks.
Craig
With regard to your issue about Graduation rates you are not making sense nor does that have anyhting to do with nature and quality of the education a school provides...
I have seen the protesters outside of Western Market...they are all young people who really have NO clue...and instead of doing something positive they have chosen, or been forced to relate 'inequality' with 'choice'. It is loooong past time for EVERYONE to better educate themselves on the history of the struggles of education that have included the Irish, the Italian, the Arab, the Hispanics as well as the Black people. Life is soooo much more than black and white....
BAMN is a classic example of that thread it is a white group defined and created by white radicals who exploit Black lament and grievance that is an old tale in the civil rights history..
I do however also reject the FPS for not providing UHS students with the same educational tools and choices found in the other schools..That is wrong and it reflects the soft bigotry of low expectations.
I have serious issues with FPS using the duress of DPS parents to fund UHS, that is wrong as well...There is no doubt in my mind these students can excell in any school district within any academic model including one that incorporates arts. sports etc...
One final note no one is ignoring the plight of DPS it is a false notion that to confront inequality in FPS makes one disregard the issues of DPS...MLK once noted and injustice here is an injustice over there...
If parents are opting, choosing, to have their children go to a school outside of their district because they KNOW that DPS has failed and has continued to fail for at least a decade...then why not use BAMN...who proclaims to support of equal education opportunities, focus on the more blatant bigotry and segregation that has reared it's ugly head in the lack of support, funding, curriculum, up-to-date technology and operations that have failed DPS students, faculty and parents for so long.
In my honest opinion, I think that since BAMN is suppose to be such a HUGE 'operation'...then why not focus on HUGE problems. If you UHS has successfully educated and follow our Black children through college...and there HAS been success...what is argument? That because UHS doesn't offer art, sports, music...so NOW UHS is a bad seed because they focus on education...??
My people, my people....looking at the standard of other countries who also do not have extra curricular activities...China, Japan...Germany...etc, there is a HIGH success rate...
C'mon people...why not focus on the problems of the Urban city's school system? It is NOT a false notion to state that by focusing on FPS is ignoring DPS, simply because if more focus was placed on DPS in the FIRST place...then, would there even BE a reason to confront FPS?
Just wondering...
For the record BAMN has a history with DPS with regard to it's educational mission..The DPS is not the issue here nor is the academic track records of other school districts here or in another nation.
My concerns remain the same students at UHS can excell in any school district I reject the UHS model that solicts DPS parents with a marketing model that exploits these parents. I also have major issues with a academic model based upon less is more and involves cultural themes that reflect the soft bigotry of low expectations..