1y ago

White Dad Apologized to the Black Superintendent He Pushed On Stage, But It Didn't Go As He Expected

www.theroot.com

“The outreach was really to indicate that he, Matthew, understands his mishap in terms of what he did, what he’s caused. He’s remorseful,” Briggs continued. “I took that as some form of apology, but that’s not something I think at this time amounts to a solid apology, from my perspective.

“I don’t think an apology, an ‘I’m sorry,’ makes this go away because there’s a lot of harm that was caused.” The damning footage from the graduation shows Eddy pushing Briggs aside as his daughter was receiving her diploma, saying “I don’t want her touching him.”

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There’s 2 possible explanations here: he’s got deep-seated mental issues that lead to him interrupting the graduation ceremony of hundreds of students by aggressively pursuing a person who “rolled his eyes” at his daughter, or, and more likely in my opinion, he’s a blatant racist making excuses for his racist behavior in his town where half the boys of a graduating class took a picture in front of the school doing a Nazi salute.
Either way, the man needs therapy
- I agree with the therapy but see 2 even worse explanations:
  He has such poor forecasting skills he didn't envision his daughter interacting with the Superintendent at graduation and such little impulse control he couldn't stop himself.
  He absolutely foresaw his daughter interacting with the Superintendent and chose the moment on state for the largest audience of his bigotry.
  Both are horrible.
- Or a third.
  Matthew Eddy told the Baraboo Police Department he had past issues with School District Superintendent Rainey Briggs. Because of the beef, Eddy said he didn’t want Rainey to have the “satisfaction” of shaking his daughter’s hand as she obtained her diploma.
  
  he had past issues with School District Superintendent Rainey Briggs
  "Past issues" such as Briggs having the wrong skin colour?
  
  Correct, the “beef” they are referring to is “rolling his eyes” I’m talking about
  
  But he gave him the satisfaction of looking like an idiot to people all around the world, which I'm guessing is a lot more satisfying that shaking his daughter's hand would have been.
  And I gotta wonder wtf goes on in his head to even worry about someone getting "satisfaction" from shaking hands at a ceremony. I'm pretty sure that, if there is any satisfaction involved, it's supposed to be on the student's side where the diploma and handshake are an acknowledgment of the work they did to receive whatever award or certificate the ceremony is about.
  And it should have been entirely up to his daughter whether or not she wanted to receive that handshake.
  
  That’s more in line with the “deep seated mental issues” and “making excuses” already mentioned.
  
  Hahahah who believes this poor excuse?!?!!
  The dude was shaking everyone's hand and I'm pretty sure it's his job.
  
  “He rolled his eyes when I brought up the fact the same thing happened to her and it pissed me off. She was expelled for doing the same thing that was done to her, and nothing was done to the previous people.”
  Sounds like a bullying situation, but she got expelled and the ones who did it to her didn’t. If that’s the case, it’s annoying that the media made him look like a racist. Or he’s a racist and now making this up.
  
  Yeah he's gonna need receipts for that beef
- There’s an update to the news article that gives more info on the motive: https://www.theroot.com/watch-white-father-pulls-a-karen-with-black-superinten-1851522863
  The father and superintendent apparently had previous problems and the father planned to interfere in the graduation ceremony. I’m still not convinced it wasn’t racially motivated, but regardless the man needs help.
  
  Again, that’s according to what the father told police. And if you listen to what his “beef” is, he would have objected to the principal shaking her hand as well, but didn’t seem to.
From actually reading the story it doesn't appear to be anything racist at all, even though even the article tries to bend it that way like there is no tomorrow
The guy apparently has a personal beef with the super intendant die to something that happened between the super intendant and his daughter.
Sure, the guy is in the wrong here, but i see no racism beyond "well the guy is white, sonhe must be a racist!"
Yes, there are loads of racists out there but just marking anything racist because two races were involved is not helping IMHO
- But this is lemmy, so the majority will feel they confidently know exactly why the guy did it, and the rest of us are just dumb. Even though we all had access to the same article, and only us dumb ones read it.
- Sounds like a bullied girl that was being assaulted fought back, only to face expulsion for it. Then the superintendent rolled his eyes at the bullying in her hearing.
- The guys "personal beef" is that the principal is black. He's using bullying as a lie and an excuse to cover for his racism.
  If there's a policy issue that is properly dealt with in writing, not grabbing someone at a graduation ceremony.
  
  Was that specifically said somewhere or are you just filling in the blanks
  
  Well, it's a good guess, given the country we live in. Is the bullying stuff corroborated/fact checked?
  Edit further I agree, making a public scene like this is not appropriate, regardless of any personal reason. He could have just instructed his daughter to walk right by and not stop.
  
  This guy is a racist
  Evidence for that? Like Wikipedia says,
  <citation needed>
I feel so sorry for his daughter. That's so humiliating. How do you come back from something like that. You probably have to move to a new city or something. I hope she's going to college far away lol.
She's probably just a racist too though haha
- She's probably just a racist too though haha
  That’s not fair to assume. In fact your comment is quite the 180.
  You saying stuff like that is exactly why everyone should feel sorry for her.
  
  Her racist father is why ppl should feel sorry for her.
This guy was definitely a dick for shoving him. And I feel bad for the daughter.
But I have had my own issues with school administrators where I live, where a group of kids, boys and girls included, all had done something worthy of, at most, suspension — the girls had the book thrown at them (effective expulsion for at least a half-year), and the boys got off without so much as a warning.
I would never seek out the administrator in question, but if I ever saw the misogynist piece of shit again I’d likely deck him in the face.
Though I did get some satisfaction a year later, when that administrator got effectively demoted to a lower tier school.
Edit>> People need to actually read the article if they can’t correlate what I wrote here to it, assuming comprehension isn’t a roadblock for them.
- I'm not sure what your point is? You had a bad experience with some completely different person and based on that it makes sense to you what this particular person did?
  
  According to the father, the super intendant rolled his eyes at the daughter during disciplinary hearing when she tried explained her behavior, & then expelled the daughter for doing the same thing her bully’s did to her.
  Given that, I can understand a proud father holding some measure of a grudge over that, but not enough of a grudge to attack the person.
  I think the comment’s OP is expressing something similar, being protective of a youth over an administrator jeopardizing the youth’s future.
  I don’t think OP is condoning the attack, just acknowledging there’s more going on here than ignorance & racism.
  
  That school administration can be passive aggressive and not act in the kids best interest over politics or personal pettiness. And get paid on the public dollar while they do.
  
  I’m simply stating that not all school administrators are saints. And I had a specific anecdote of one such person.
  Of course the guy shouldn’t have shoved him in that venue. And if it’s about race, it’s even worse (though the article clearly tries to make it about race from its first sentence, so I don’t know either way).
  But I know what it feels like to see one’s kid be unfairly treated by school systems and specific administrators. And in the article it states the parent sees it that way much in the same vein as my anecdote (his kid got the book thrown at her while others who violated the same policy got no punishment at all).
  Hopefully that clears it up for you. But if not, not my problem.
- I agree that the super might have been a jerk. But one of those other people on stage was the principal, who would have been far more responsible for day-to-day operations of the school. In most districts, an expulsion is recommended by the principal then rubber-stamped by the superintendent. Hell, in some districts the school board has to approve any expulsion.
  So while I have no doubt there might have been some animosity between the father and the super, if that was seriously his grievance then he should have gone after the principal first. You know, the one that recommended the expulsion for his daughter and not “her bullies”.

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