Teacher Resigns After Appearing In Blackface At Basketball Game

[matcom]

<snip>

MACON, Ga. -- A high school teacher who wore blackface at a student-faculty basketball game has resigned, saying "it was poor judgment and will never happen again."

Greg Dougherty said the school had offered to renew his contract for the fall, but he turned it down. The deal would have seen him suspended without pay and barred from school property and events for the rest of the current academic year.

Photographs from the Central High School game on March 25 show Dougherty wearing an exaggerated, Afro-style wig with brownish makeup covering his face and arms. A student also is pictured wearing brown makeup on his face and arms.

"I offer an apology to anybody I offended," Dougherty said Thursday. "My intent was never to offend. I was trying to generate laughter. It was poor judgment and will never happen again."

In 1999 Dougherty was accused of making sexually inappropriate comments to female students, Bibb County Schools Superintendent Sharon Patterson said.

"There's a pattern now of judgment issues," Patterson said.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4382951/detail.html

[mark414]

1. last halloween i saw this dude out like that

he was "dressed like a rapper" and had a nice thin coating of shoe polish or whatever on his face and hands...motherfucker, who thinks things like this are ok?

[BringEmOn]

10. The same people who think Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves

Cleveland Indians, et al, are ok, too. It's no less offensive.

[mark414]

12. but but but....we're HONORING them!

you gotta love that excuse...like degrading an entire group of people down to mascot form...how honorable

[yvr girl]

2. Are you making up more stuff again?

man, some people's children

[WI_DEM]

3. and here I thought blackface died out with Al Jolson

but every now and again we get some idiot who thinks it would be "funny" to do it.

[progmom]

4. didn't Ted Danson do that?

When he was dating Whoopie?

[Huckebein the Raven]

6. It was at a Friars Roast if I'm not mistaken

[WI_DEM]

7. Oh yeah, that was a hoot too

I think they split up shortly afterward--even though she defended him.

[deutsey]

13. Here he is

[deutsey]

9. I have never understood the "humor" or purpose behind "blackface"

I remember seeing an episode of All in the Family when I was a kid in which Archie was doing a minstrel show. It made no sense to me then, and I still can't figure out why people would do it.

[Mistress Quickly]

5. Actually, the students

love this guy, he was very popular with them, they said he made economics fun (WTF?)

He's going to continue to tutor his students for the rest of the year.

His problem was allowing teenagers to decide how he should dress for the basketball game, and then listening to their advice on whether it was in good taste and funny.

Many many many many people have written the local paper and been on the radio and news in the area as supporting him. Black and white, students and adults etc etc etc.

[WI_DEM]

11. that may be the case

but if he has a history of doing inappropriate stuff as the article implies then he needs to learn how to act responsibly. Of course the students would egg him on to do such a thing. What do they know? Maybe they don't understand how offensive appearing in blackface is because they are so young. I don't know--the point is he should have known better.

[Mistress Quickly]

31. He has no history of this

He was one of the most popular teachers whose students were amazed he could make school interesting at the same time as teaching them.

[WI_DEM]

38. that's true

but the story indicates he has a history of making "sexually inappropriate" comments to female students. So he does apparently have a history of poor judgement.

[Richardo]

8. What the f*ck are these people thinking?

It's 2005, not 1865.

The 'poor judgement' excuse just doesn't cut it. Apology NOT accepted, asshole.

[Shananigans]

14. I think intent counts for at least 50%

It is obvious that this guy didn't mean any racist harm in his actions. He was just having fun. Unfortunately, this time the fun offended many people. But seriously, people...let's cut the double standard here. It's the same as sports teams...we aren't allowed to have the "Atlanta Braves", but the "Minnesota Vikings" is just fine? Am I the ONLY one who smells some injustice here?

[mark414]

16. ?

are you for real?

[Shananigans]

18. Last time I checked

Yup...I'm real.

[mark414]

19. you think vikings and indians are on the same plane?

and vikings actually offends you? :wtf:

[Shananigans]

23. Don't judge me.

[mark414]

24. you should read this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3475233

[BringEmOn]

21. KKK lynchings were just good ol' boy fun, too

If Americans of European descent are offended by the Minnesota Vikings, they have the economic and political power to change that tomorrow. The last time I looked, the Atlanta Braves are still in busines...still doing the idiotic tomahawk chop and still chanting the insulting 50's Hollywood chant.

[cassandra uprising]

25. your post is perfect example of the pervasive nature of racism

it's right up there with,

'i'm not racist because i have black friends.'

last i checked black face is racist and double standards apply when the parties involved were on equal footing.

[Shananigans]

28. It's really no ones business if I have black friends or white friends

or asian friends or anything... I am who I am and I accept people for who they are. I never intend to hurt anyone and go above and beyond what is expected to make sure of that.

You seem to think that I am the average white, straight, never been discriminated against male. How very interesting.

Race and orientation is a non-factor to me. I have been discriminated against more times than I care to remember, but there comes a time in ones life that we have to realize that the system is working against us and not for us. It wasn't until I made this realization and began working side by side and heart to heart with my "opposition" that I finally began to realize what it is all about.

[cassandra uprising]

45. your defensiveness and dodging the two points i made

tells me more about you then what you think my assumptions of you are.

i don't care what backgrounds your friends represent. i was interested in hearing your response to why it is that you think that black face is not racist and what your qualifications are for the terms of what constitutes a double standard.

my bringing up that often used 'but i have black friends' argument was my way of providing another example of how people act out on a racist mentality without realizing it. which is what i believe you were in doing in your post.

racism is pervasive and is ingrained in the physce of amercian culture and which effects everyone. i would argue that it is in the collective american subconscious. (the only assumption i made is that you are american, however, i could be wrong) the folks i hang with think that way too. it's not everyday you get to debate with someone who has a different mindset. i was hoping you could offer insight on your rational.

[mark414]

46. it may be a non-factor to you...

but it is a REAL factor that effects REAL people in REAL ways every single day

while it's noble to pretend that we are all equal and be idealistic about race in america (your intentions are good, i don't doubt that), statements like yours only help to strain race relations even further. until white people (yes...i'm white too) start to realize this, then we'll never get anywhere.

i'm going to prop myself up for a minute and ask you to read this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3475233&mesg_id=3482178

and let me know what you think.

i'm not accusing you of being stupid, or being racist; i don't think you are. but i am asking you to re-examine your ideas of race and race relations and how your race benefits you every single day.

i would also like to make sure that you know that i am not discounting the discrimination you face as a woman; that is just as abhorrent a form of oppression and i am in no way trying to lessen your experiences.

[deutsey]

15. Has anyone seen Spike Lee's "Bamboozled"?

It's a satire of blackface. I haven't seen it, but I've heard it got very mixed reviews. If you've seen it, is it worth checking out?

[mark414]

17. fantastic movie

i liked it so much i bought it...though i would say there's always mixed reviews of spike lee movies because he's such a polarizing character...though i've enjoyed every movie of his i've seen

you should definitely pick it up

[deutsey]

20. Thanks...I like Spike Lee a lot

Bamboozled is the only film of his that I haven't seen. Not because I haven't wanted to, but because I keep forgetting to rent it.

[fishwax]

22. Great movie

I'm not sure if it finally winds up critiquing or sumbitting to the messed up standards that it throws light on (and I've heard Spike Lee has said he's not sure either), but in the sense that the movie is incredibly powerful and forces you to think about and confront the representations of african americans in american culture, it is still successful either way.

[ashmanonar]

42. sorta like blazing saddles:

COMPLETE satire of "black culture" in the 70's. it's a great way to do it too. mel brooks is a genius.

[bobthedrummer]

26. Well, that's Georgia for you, Capitol of the Confederacy was Atlanta.

This sounds like a James Dickey story set in Georgia.

[Arkana]

30. I, uh, thought the capital of the Confederacy was in Richmond, VA.

[bobthedrummer]

32. Wasn't it moved or was Atlanta the largest Confederate Army camp?

I thought Atlanta was the Confederate Capitol for awhile.

[Arkana]

33. No, my history book says Richmond

but you may be right about Atlanta being the largest camp.

[bobthedrummer]

36. I've probably forgotten more than I've learned then-I stand corrected.

:dunce:

[JohnKleeb]

39. No it was Richmond

till the last days of the war then Jefferson Davis made Danville, Virginia the temporary captial.

[bobthedrummer]

40. Danville, Virginia and Richmond then-I'm a yank for life. The South

ain't gonna rise again. We're still dealing with the aftermath.

[JohnKleeb]

43. Oh very much so

Its sick how long the south was able to get away with legal segeration, framing criminal defendants because they were black, I am reading right now a good biography on Thurgood Marshall and he dealt with this stuff a lot when he was a NAACP lawyer.

[Misunderestimator]

27. What. A. Pig.

[Ron Green]

29. The history of minstrelsy in this country is very long and interesting,

and it's more complex than just simple racial disrespect. It involves taking on characteristics of the oppressed class in attempting to become more complete. White people in the US throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries had so completely subjugated black people that they were officially not even human. And yet, especially in the South, blacks lived so close among whites that it must have been impossible not to know of their humanity and yearn, in some way, for an understanding of the rich cultural markers of the underclass: the music, the sly humor, the folkways passed down in oral tradition from Africa, and so on. Minstrelsy was at once a way to maintain distance from black people by poking fun and disrespect at them, and yet to seek some part of the black experience with music, dancing and mannerisms perceived to be authentic.

The fact that not all of this characterization was totally crudely expressed shows that there was more than just poking fun: "Amos 'n' Andy," outrageous as it now is, and totally discredited as entertainment fit for modern American consumption, was full of wise and sly humor that could never have been approached through a white idiom.

[kwassa]

41. It gets even more complex when blacks wore blackface

like the comedian Bert Williams, who was light-skinned, and considered one of the greatest vaudville perfomers ever.

[Ron Green]

47. That's right. The audiences with money, after all, were white, and doing

the blackface thing became such a normal part of entertainment (all of which was live, of course) that Bert Williams, in playing to the big audiences, became a caricature of his own race. He couldn't just shuck and jive in his own skin, he had to darken up.

The same thing happened with light-skinned musicians in black bands who, rather than present the appearance of integration, had to darken their faces for pictures, movies, and sometimes performances.

Blackface was performed in an annual minstrel show in my hometown in East Texas as late as about 1963 or '64, when the Public Accommodations Act was signed and it really started to become apparent that it wasn't OK to caricature people in this way.

[miss_kitty]

34. So where has this guy been for the last-oh-50 years or so?

must've missed the Ted Danson blackface incident at the Whoopi Goldberg roast.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n26_v84/ai_14488564

What a Moran.

[MrScorpio]

35. All I can say is...

Whatta white guy

[miss_kitty]

37. Or

"That's mighty white of him!"

[Richardo]

44. HA!

Succinctly put, MrScorpio :rofl:

[Bunny]

48. I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this has been said,

But in this day and age, what white person in their right mind appears in blackface ANYWHERE, under ANY circumstances? How insensitive and also STUPID do you have to be to do this?????
:wtf: