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Windex Junkie ([info]windex_junkie) wrote in [info]unfunnybusiness,
@ 2012-06-08 07:07:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:fly the black flag, bitches
Current music:Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart

Meet Mark A. Traina.
Meet Mark A. Traina. He likes to post under his own real name. He posts a lot of stuff, using his real full name.

"Mark a. Traina is an American Civil Rights Activist who unlike Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton represents all Americans."

He thinks David Duke (KKK Grand Wizard, Holocaust denier) was treated unfairly.

"Duke is no more of a Crook than Edwin Edwards and William Jefferson. Like Edwin, Duke served his time in the State Pen. Why hasn't William?"

(William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson, for the uninitiated, was an exceptionally corrupt black congressman. Via Wikipedia: On November 13, 2009, Jefferson was sentenced to thirteen years for bribery after a corruption investigation, the longest sentence ever handed down to a congressman for bribery or any other crime." Totally unpunished, yup.)

"I grew up in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana - I am a Wallace Man at Heart!"

That would be George Wallace he's fanboying there. "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." In-Birmingham-they-love-the-governor, THAT Wallace.

"Young Black Thugs who won’t follow the law need to be put down not incarcerated. Put down like the Dogs they are!"

He really doesn't like young black males. We have a lot of racists down here, but he's exceptional for special reasons. Read on... but please don't call him a racist!

"Everything I said is fact-based, backed up by data," he said. "I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body. I'm not a racist. I'm a realist."

(He doesn't have a prejudiced bone in his body? Awesome. We've just discovered a new species: The Jim Crow Jellyfish!)

Now, this wouldn't normally be remarkable. There are a lot of racist people, especially in the Deep South. A lot of those racist people feel so morally correct that they are willing to post their racist thoughts under their own names.

Mister Traina here is special, though. He's not just racist. He's not just posting under his real name. He works for the Jefferson Parish public school system. He works for the Jefferson Parish public school system as a school psychologist. His job involves deciding which kids get to go to fancypants charter schools, and which kids get shoved into substandard remedial "educational facilities".

(But he's not actually a school psychologist; that's just his job title. "First, we want to make it clear that Mr. Traina is not a licensed psychologist. Rather, because of a stipulation in Louisiana law, certain master's level individuals who work for a school system can refer to themselves as school "psychologists" when acting in their work capacity. Unfortunately, Mr. Traina is not licensed by any regulatory body in this state, and, therefore, only the Jefferson Parish School Board had authority over him.")

I'm not surprised that he's racist. I'm not surprised that he was working for the public school system. I'm kind of shocked that he thought he could get away with this.


(Post a new comment)


[info]quantumreality
2012-06-08 03:26 pm UTC (link)
If only headdesks could cause nuclear explosions, because that's how I feel after reading about this jackass.

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[info]the__ivorytower
2012-06-08 04:22 pm UTC (link)
"In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

I know the wank is about someone else, but I'm just utterly gobsmacked by this statement.

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[info]cygnia
2012-06-08 04:50 pm UTC (link)
Hell, even Wallace himself renounced his racism later on.

In the late 1970s, Wallace announced that he was a born-again Christian and apologized to black civil rights leaders for his earlier segregationist positions. He said that while he had once sought power and glory, he realized he needed to seek love and forgiveness. In 1979, Wallace said of his stand in the schoolhouse door: "I was wrong. Those days are over, and they ought to be over."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace#Change_of_positions

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[info]quantumreality
2012-06-08 05:25 pm UTC (link)
Also of note is Wallace's predecessor Jim Folsom:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Folsom

He was one of the few southern governors to refuse to embrace racism and segregation and that was partly why he lost his office.

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[info]notjo
2012-06-11 04:07 pm UTC (link)
I only recently ran into Wallace in my readings (I'm reading about education in the U.S. right now) and I spent so much time just staring at the things he did.

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[info]xturtle
2012-06-17 04:49 pm UTC (link)
I've loved reading your posts about this. I remember reading about the "segregation forever" speech when I was wee and boggling, and it's good to know that adults still feel it.

If you're interested in how most US history classrooms handle it, there's a good couple of chapters in "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen just on how US race relations are mis-handled in textbooks because of the period in which they were written, and the prevailing attitudes in our largest textbook market (Texas). The whole book is awesome.

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[info]notjo
2012-06-20 03:01 pm UTC (link)
I've actually read that book! (Way back in the day someone on FW recommended it to me.) I really love it, but it still takes me aback. We don't talk about desegregation in Canada much. :(

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[info]xturtle
2012-06-20 07:54 pm UTC (link)
I grew up in a very racially mixed area in an otherwise very white state, so I've gotten more than the textbook view of race relations since a young age, but there is still a lot that we never covered. I started to have some sympathy for my suburban friends who always stared blankly when I referenced something from the civil rights movement in conversation. (Usually this involved singing spirituals and protest songs, like "follow the drinking gourd" or "go down moses" or "we shall overcome." I really think my teachers rocked more than your average teachers, but there's nothing more insufferable than a seven year old boring her friends with a history lesson.)

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[info]rosehiptea
2012-06-08 07:52 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm surprised he's getting away with this too. Though maybe I shouldn't be, considering what racists get away with. But wow, this guy is horrific.

(I'm also surprised that someone who is not a psychologist can legally go around calling themselves one, but that may be true here in California too.)

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[info]brennalarose
2012-06-08 09:31 pm UTC (link)
Every time I think that the Southeastern USA has grown and blossomed past such things, some jackass has to go and make a liar out of me, bless his heart.

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[info]full_metal_ox
2012-06-09 12:54 am UTC (link)
I presume you intend the phrase "bless his heart" in the passive-aggressive Southern sense.

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[info]brennalarose
2012-06-09 03:24 am UTC (link)
As in "may he die in agonizing flames like the filthy garbage-spewing asshat he is"? Then, yes.

What sickens me the most is what he's being paid to do. I'd like to see if anybody is investigating his work practices, because I'm genuinely scared for those kids.

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[info]issendai
2012-06-09 04:47 pm UTC (link)
Seriously. Louisiana's educational racism is scary enough without school officials making it into personal policy.

Fun fact: When I was at LSU back around 2000, the undergrad anthro classes were mixed-race. I couldn't say whether they reflected the racial composition of the university, or how that compared to the racial composition of Louisiana, but there was a notable number of black students.

The anthro graduate program had one black student. Period. And she was from Texas, not Louisiana, and had gone to a different school for undergrad. To this day, I don't know whether the admissions board was prejudiced, or whether nonwhite students in Louisiana knew that they had to get the hell out of Louisiana to get anywhere in life--but based on what I saw, I'd bet that it was half of one, half of the other.

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[info]full_metal_ox
2012-06-10 05:52 pm UTC (link)
I'll bet that that one black graduate student could offer her own college experience at LSU as an instructive anthropological study.

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[info]mirhanda
2012-06-09 05:24 pm UTC (link)
I want to interject that while that phrase can be meant in a more sarcastic manner, 99% of the time someone says it, they are sincere.

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[info]brennalarose
2012-06-10 01:00 am UTC (link)
This. It's sometimes a matter of facial expression.

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[info]staroverthebay
2012-06-10 01:18 am UTC (link)
It seems to me like it would be more context and tone of voice than facial expression... but then again I'm bad at picking up sarcasm.

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[info]brennalarose
2012-06-10 03:57 am UTC (link)
Both are equally good ways.

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[info]full_metal_ox
2012-06-10 06:43 pm UTC (link)
I'm afraid I have to plead a similar awkwardness when it comes to social nuance (as well as a social filter installed in Damn Yankee territory.)

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[info]staroverthebay
2012-06-08 10:44 pm UTC (link)
I kind of wonder what this guy thinks of Obama...

... on second thought, maybe I really don't want to know.

(I wish I could say that I believe the guy is just a troll, not real... but I know better. There are some really vile people out there and they are downright proud of themselves and their horrifying views.)

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[info]spacelogic
2012-06-09 12:57 am UTC (link)
And I present to you, ladies, gentlemen and other, exhibit A in the argument for why "real name" policies will do jack shit to make the Internet a civil forum.

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[info]mirhanda
2012-06-09 05:25 pm UTC (link)
This. I will only make it a less secure place for women.

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[info]shinga
2012-06-10 04:00 am UTC (link)
I really hope you meant "It" o.O

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[info]mirhanda
2012-06-10 04:03 am UTC (link)
Ö

EEK! I have a new laptop and I'm always hitting keys not quite hard enough. It's usually the M that I don't manage to actually type, this time it was a T.

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[info]miera_c
2012-06-12 02:35 am UTC (link)
Amen.

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[info]darkecology
2012-06-09 02:27 am UTC (link)
Yet another arsewipe that makes me feel bad for living in Louisiana. Ugh.

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[info]white_tean
2012-06-09 04:01 am UTC (link)
certain master's level individuals who work for a school system can refer to themselves as school "psychologists" when acting in their work capacity

That's scary. I just finished a masters degree a couple of days ago (and I teach - though at university), would Louisiana now allow me to run around and call myself a psychologist? I mean, I was planning on just making people call me Master, but sure, allow anyone working in the school system with an MA to interact with children while calling themselves psychologists, that's an ace move.

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[info]mmanurere
2012-06-09 09:38 am UTC (link)
I'm kinda partial to "Magister" (as in Magister Scientiae), given the doominess of how it's used in fantasy novels/games/etc.

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[info]white_tean
2012-06-09 11:54 am UTC (link)
oooooh, damn that title's cool. If I get to do a PhD, when I graduate now I'm torn between having Magister Artium and Office of Birds* on my door. Not that I'm an ornithologist any more than a psychologist, but I'm sure I can fake it better than this guy. I have field guides, anyway.


*copied from the door of the same office in the Carnegie Natural History museum. It was just such a lovely door, nice inlaid gilding and everything. I had such lust after it's fanciness. I photographed it because it would never fit in my luggage.

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[info]issendai
2012-06-09 04:50 pm UTC (link)
Ooh! Pictures?

Congrats on getting your masters!

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[info]white_tean
2012-06-11 10:59 am UTC (link)
Thanks! Sorry, sadly can't rustle up the pictures right now. I remember them not being great pictures though because the door was so wonderfully gleaming it was reflecting the flash (of course, being a museum the halls were nice and gloomy to create the proper atmosphere), I'll have to take new pictures when I'm next in Pittsburgh.

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[info]full_metal_ox
2012-06-10 05:58 pm UTC (link)
If I get to do a PhD, when I graduate now I'm torn between having Magister Artium and Office of Birds* on my door.

"Magister Artium" somehow suggests (as Mmanurere observes above) that your office supplies would include the Orb of Agamotto, the Wand of Watoomb, and the Book of the Eternal Vishanti.

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[info]white_tean
2012-06-11 10:27 am UTC (link)
I have no idea what any of those are but they sound like they'd lend me significant prestige. :P
I was just going to get specimen jars and a rain-stick, but I'm sure a Wand of Watoomb would greatly improve my professional status.

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[info]full_metal_ox
2012-06-13 09:18 pm UTC (link)
The above-named magickal artifacts belong to Marvel Comics' occult superhero Dr. Strange* (if you're familiar with Venture Brothers, he's the character Dr. Orpheus parodies.)

*Or did until recently--but the wreckage of Brian Bendis's ongoing narrative rampage is a subject for another rant altogether.

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[info]sandglass
2012-06-09 02:06 pm UTC (link)
Massive congrats on finishing your masters!

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[info]white_tean
2012-06-10 07:50 am UTC (link)
Thank you so much!
:D

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[info]windex_junkie
2012-06-09 08:06 pm UTC (link)
It's really quite ridiculous. You have to pass a test and pay for a license to be freakin' florist in this state. Some monks are being sued for selling handmade cypress caskets: It's against the law for anyone except a funeral home owner to sell a casket here.

But deciding which kids go to good schools and which kids get stuck in reform hell? Nope, no qualifications needed.

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[info]cyndra_falin
2012-06-09 05:51 pm UTC (link)
Wow. An actual walking, talking, breathing piece of shit. *vomits*

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[info]honorh
2012-06-09 06:15 pm UTC (link)
I googled this guy, and everything I read makes him more disturbing. He's claiming his private views have nothing to do with his job or the parish school district. Bunkum! This place sends black kids to remedial schools in outrageously disproportionate numbers, and he's one of the people who makes those decisions. And he's trying to say that, when a kid comes into his office for evaluation, he doesn't take their race into account? Yeah, right. My guess is, he has a very simple litmus test for kids he recommends for reform school. White kids? They're okay, just a touch troubled, and the school should be understanding. Black/brown kids? Irredeemable thugs. Get rid of 'em.

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[info]chikane
2012-06-10 05:43 am UTC (link)
This place sends black kids to remedial schools in outrageously disproportionate numbers,

But he's totally not racist at all!1111 He's just harming real people and ruining their future, but that's okay, since they're just non-white kids.

How can this person sleep at night? Oh, right, racism again. But we aren't allowed to call him that, of course. That'd oppress him.

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[info]full_metal_ox
2012-06-10 06:01 pm UTC (link)
White kids? They're okay, just a touch troubled, and the school should be understanding. Black/brown kids? Irredeemable thugs. Get rid of 'em.

A manifestation of the same reasoning whereby raiding stores for provisions in a disaster zone is salvaging when white people do it and looting when people of color do it.

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[info]amadi
2012-06-09 07:54 pm UTC (link)
The scary thing about this is what's known as the school to prison pipeline, and how prevalent it is for black kids, especially black boys, to be shuttled from regular schools to remedial/behavioral schools and shortly thereafter end up in jail.

Taking a hard look at this assmonkey, his job, his views, and thinking about them in the context of the news that came out this week that Louisiana imprisons more people, per capita than anywhere else in the entire world makes me violently enraged, literally overwhelmed with the urge to do him serious, physical harm.

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[info]windex_junkie
2012-06-09 08:08 pm UTC (link)
I know the feeling, I so know the feeling.

He's resigned; hopefully he'll be stripped of his pension, or at least sued into oblivion by the SPLC.

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[info]pantyless_angel
2012-06-10 01:25 am UTC (link)
This is the kind of thing that makes me wish we could put shock collars on ass-holes. Who knows how many kids have had their entire lives ruined by Racist Douche Maximus. I bet he doesn't get much more than a slap on the wrist, and will go on seeing himself as a victim of the political correctness regime or something.

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[info]full_metal_ox
2012-06-10 06:05 pm UTC (link)
Who knows how many kids have had their entire lives ruined by Racist Douche Maximus.

That would be the perfect grandiose title to adorn his office door. Preferably in gilded lettering and a bombastic Gothic font.

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[info]pantyless_angel
2012-06-10 06:27 pm UTC (link)
It's certainly far more accurate than calling him a psychologist of any kind.

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