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Racial divide surfaces in Canton school fight
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Residents of the neighborhood surrounding Canton Middle School, reflected in window, have long complained that the students bussed in to the school are responsible for acts of assault and vandalism in the area.
Then they flung a ream of papers out the window and yelled “F-- in’ white people!” to a group of residents sitting on row house stoops across the street.
“We’re heckled ever day,” said Larry Korycki as he stood with neighbors Friday afternoon complaining about the troubled school.
“We’re called white bastards. This is nothing unusual.”
Korycki, a retired city firefighter, is among the Canton residents railing against a new privately operated middle-high school slated to replace Canton Middle this fall. He and others had rejoiced when school system officials had previously planned to close the school completely.
Threats from students aren’t just verbal, say residents, who complain of attacks, fights and vandalism.
“Teens in groups are attacking young women, old women and old men,” said Sue Thompson, an activist.
School neighbors are upset school officials didn’t include them in the decision to keep the building as a school, she said.
Still, Thompson said she hasn’t made up her mind about whether she wants the new school, called Friendship Academy, to open in the same building. So she plans on volunteering at Canton Middle before she decides.
People screamed, shook their heads and cried at an emotionally and racially charged meeting about the proposed school Thursday night.
“The complaints tonight are thinly veiled code for ‘We can’t wait to get these little black kids out of our neighborhood,’ ” sad Douglas Bahr, a Canton resident.
Korycki was still bristling at Bahr’s comment Friday afternoon.
“Just because we don’t want what the system is cramming down our throats, we’re called racist,” he said.
Alex Zamanski, a seventh-grader, said he doesn’t learn much at Canton Middle, where a classmate stabbed him with a pencil.
He wants to enroll in Friendship Academy.
“It’s a great opportunity for all kids who want to learn.”
IF YOU GO
What: Meeting about teenage crime in Canton
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: Southeastern city police station, 5710 Eastern Ave.
kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com
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Examiner Reader said:
I think the problem I have with Donna Zamenski is her statement, "People need to stop being racists to blacks I'm white and I have friends that are black". Why does she assume that the people being racist are only the whites?
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Examiner Reader - Texas said:
Sure, some folks think the deck is stacked against them. Whatever YOU happen to think is holding you, your family or your race back from progress, is a reality of your own making. BOTTOM LINE: If you hang with thugs you are going to act like them. If you hang with decent, hard-working Americans, you will learn from them. The inner-city black community is on a path pf self-destruction of their own making.
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Examiner Reader said:
It seems the newspaper could have focused on the potential benefits of a new school in the neighborhood (reduced crime, increased retention of families, etc) or the increasing momentum of charter schools within the city. However, the headline 'racial divide' certainly makes for better circulation. While the racist and crude statements by the students aren't acceptable (I don't think anyone could argue that they are), the comments posted below do show that there's no shortage of racist attitudes in this city. The attitude that shipping these kids out of the neighborhood will solve our problems is just plain wrong. People should be embracing the change offered by new charter schools and Dr Alonso. His recent call for volunteers gives people a chance to bridge the gap between these kids and the neighborhoods they go to school in. I wonder how many people are willing to really work with these kids, or if they're content to just ship them off.
2 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
What do you expect from these children, civility? An entire generation of blacks have been raised to be angry and hostile to everyone they encounter, especially whites. Anyone who dosent look like you is the cause of ALL of your problems is drilled into them from every source. From their broken homes, violent neighborhoods, failure schools, all the way to the racist black churches, these children have hate and a false ideology of being discriminated against drilled into them constantly by their "elders". Black culture is teaching black children to be angry racists. Here we have a school of black children who feel no shame whatsoever screaming racial obscenities from classroom windows at the white residents nearby And if the white residents dare voice any protest of the black school children screaming racial obscenities at them, then they are labeled "racist". It is time for black leaders to stop preaching racial hate and begin teaching self reliance and personal responsibility
7 agree | 1 disagree
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Donna Zamenski said:
I have open my eyes and I think everybody should treat everybody the same way because even if there colors are different and they act different does not mean that you have to treat them different I don't care what everybody say about me or my family or my friends I just hate when people be racists to my firends and stuff and nobody can make me stop being friends with black people...
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Examiner Reader said:
Question: Why are first generation Asians and Indians winning spelling bee trophies, opeing their own businesses and getting advanced degrees, while generation after generation of black youth are still at the very bottom of the economic ladder? Anyone....Anyone?
8 agree | 1 disagree
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Sick of it All said:
Donna Zamenski open your eyes!
1 agree | 1 disagree
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Donna Zamenski said:
People need to stop being racists to blacks I'm white and I have friends that are black and when these people that are fussing about this they probly was bad when they was kids like us and we are just kids the adults are supose to show us what we are supose to act like but you see all these people being racists they going to be racists back if you respect them and they will respect you and have to give us another chance because we all want another chance to have this new school and if you give Friendship Academy a chance then most of the kids probly stop messing up all you'll stuff...
4 agree | 4 disagree
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My response to Donna Zamenski said:
OP:(We deserve a good education. We should have the new school because it would give use a good opportunity to get better education and we would have alot of stuff to do after schoo we would not worry about the people at all.: Sorry lady, but when it come the time and they are tire of your white self-proclaimed "respect" the they will take you out. Black forlk use people to get their ways, but if they don't win they riot, they kill, they steal, they blame, blame, blame everyone for their problmes when they need to look at themselves in the mirror and see where the real problem is. You can only play the race card for so long until people get tire of it, and tire of picking up the tab for repairing and rebuilding neighborhoods that the black people come in and destroy. If black people learned to speak Englis, go to school and act like decent people, and stopped promoting hate and crime in rap music, then they will be able to move forward, but until then... it's hopless.
6 agree | 4 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Forget race. These kids are just bad. I cannot blame the folks living across the street from the school for wanting something better for their neighborhood. We all know what these kids are like. If you don't, you either ignorant or have you head in the sand.
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Examiner Reader said:
Yuppie NIMBYs'.
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Donna Zamenski said:
People need to stop being racists to blacks I'm white and I have friends that are black and when these people that are fussing about this they probly was bad we are just kids the adults are supose to show us what we are supose to act like but you see all these people being racists they going to be racists back if you respect them and they will respect you and have to give us another chance because we all want another chance to have this new school...
3 agree | 4 disagree
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Donna Zamenski said:
We deserve a good education. We should have the new school because it would give use a good opportunity to get better education and we would have alot of stuff to do after schoo we would not worry about the people at all.
4 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I certainly apologize that my comments caused further division - I was hoping people might instead hear my hopes for unity and a better city (which were part of my comments in case people didn't hear). Of course, racial division sells more papers. I just felt that too much anger was being directed at the kids, when it should be directed at school administrators and police - they're the ones with the power to actually address the issues. We've had many of the same problems on our street, and the only way to really solve it is by involving the police and city leaders. I'd encourage all the angry citizens to voice their problems at the Southeast Police District Community meeting on Monday May at 700pm at SEPD headquarters. If they hadn't already done so, this is the best forum for many of the problems we heard about last week. When it comes to the hope offered by programs such as Friendship, we need people to look at the positives of the future rather than the negatives of the past.
3 agree | 2 disagree
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Tired said:
I'm tired of black people using the race card as a crutch to compensate for their ignorance. Our society has afforded everyone equal opportunity to better themselves. Our country closely resembles a socialist state these days. No one takes pride in themselves, much less their neighborhood when everything is handed to them by the government. If you pay taxes to benefit even those that don't, you should have more say in how and where the money is spent. This epidemic is so bad, that colleges include it in their Socialogy programs. It's called "White Flight". Slef explanatory. The taxpaying Whites move out of an area when the blacks move in. Then the black destroy that area, so the government wants to give them another opportunity to succeed and moves them to another White neighborhood, to destroy. How many chances should they get? I had nothing to do with slavery and the blacks of today, never suffered it. So move on. Afterall, there is some truth to the saying "survival of the fitte
15 agree | 4 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
That's why I choose to live in a mostly all white neighborhood. I use to live in a multicultural neighborhood, but the blacks, Hispanics ruined it with hate, crime and after my car was vandalized, I then moved. It's unfortunate, but the facts are facts; you can only use calling white folks racists to suit your reasoning for being a racist. White folk move away from blacks and Hispanics not because we are racists. It's because your people just do not know or want to learn how to assimilate within communities of respectable people period. You have the same opportunities as white people in going to school, working, and living decent lives, but it's your choice to do that, or live like the animals you have shown yourselves to be by your repugnant actions in terrorizing neighborhoods, listening to hate music (rap), and by not wanting to speak or learn the English language. This is America, not Afrika or Mexico. Grow up, and stop whining everytime you don't get your ways.
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Former Baltimore said:
Johnn they are the only ones doing these things,what happens is they take kids from one part of the city and place them in a white part.Canton use to be 50% black & 50% white in the 90s.Today its about 80% white,and most people who attend that school don't live in the neighborhood.Most white kids attend private school because most black kids are just out right racist in Baltimore.
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Do you think that the school would reflect... said:
the neighborhood? No. We want to feel safe in our neighborhood and we want to protect our property. This is a bad thing? The race of these kids is irrevelant. People here did NOT buy into the idea of a Baltimore high school in its neighborhood, period.
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Examiner Reader said:
this is just not right at all
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johnn said:
to a curtain degree i think the folks in this neighborhood are right ,but dont just single out black kids,unless they are the only ones doing thease things
4 agree | 6 disagree
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