The Face of Howard County

I don’t have much to offer you this morning except a glimpse of our community that I would rather not have encountered.

Here you see a social media post from the Howard County Heath department promoting mental health.

Mental Health Tip: Celebrate your successes! Even if you've accomplished something small, acknowledging the process you've made on a goal can boost your mood. For mental health support and tips, visit: https://www.howardcountymd.gov/health/behavioral-health .

The accompanying photo, probably a stock photo, is of a young Muslim woman wearing hijab.

The response to the post?

This is not the face of Howard County!

“Why?” I wonder. Because it is a young woman, or because she is asking for help to support her mental health? Is that why this is not the face of Howard County?

I doubt that.

In all likelihood this response is purely an objection to the choice of a Muslim woman in a social media post in Howard County, Maryland. A quick scan of this poster’s account suggests that they would object not only to her religion but would have made an assumption that she doesn’t belong, that she isn’t a “real American.”

It continues to floor me how many people in Howard County get uncomfortable if the people being centered on social media and in the community don’t look like them.

Oh, but this is just one person, you say. You are making a big deal over one local troll.

Friends, it is not just one person. There is far more of this out there than you might imagine. And attitudes like this make people - - the ones who are targeted as “other” - - less safe. Attitudes that paint all Muslims as terrorists, or all Black people as criminals. No wonder this hypothetical young woman needs mental health supports. She lives in a community where some feel free to label her as someone who doesn’t belong.

So, what is the face of Howard County? Who is the face of Howard County?

Who decides?

Village Green/Town² Comments

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word. Days passed. They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts. Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public. So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that. But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog