A Parent's Perspective

Today I am sharing this statement from David Nitkin, a Mount Hebron parent. It speaks so eloquently to the situation we now find ourselves in. I wanted these words to have a wider audience, and Mr. Nitkin has graciously allowed me to share them here. It is my hope that they can add to the discussion we desperately need to have for the good of our children and our entire community.

 

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A Few Words About the Video:

 

I am a white man, married to a white woman, who has sent two white children to Mount Hebron High School. The words and thoughts in the video that circulated this week are shocking, disgusting and sad. I cannot fathom the place from which they come. How does a high school student come to believe one race is inferior to another? Especially in one of the best educated, wealthiest communities in the nation, how has this wrong-headed train of thought not been wiped out generations ago? How has it not been proven wrong by the accomplishments of all races, by daily interactions in school and in the community, or by the election of a black president? If these disgusting thoughts are in the heads of even some students of Mount Hebron High School, then they are in the thoughts of students in every high school in the nation, in every community. Goddammit we did not need another example of how much work we need to do together. We did not need a reminder that the work might never be done. But here it is -- and that reminder is in my backyard; in the school that my son walks into every day. It makes me angry. It makes me sad. It makes me tired. I want to be a voice -- even if it's a weak one, a distracted one, and, yes, a privileged one - shouting in the other direction. I think there are many voices on my side. I am with you. I am against hatred and division.