Corruption, politics and the race shame I should not feel
Even though I know logically that one person doesn’t represent a race, community or organization, I still carry the weight of shame for individuals who take advantage of public dollars and children’s resources.
There’s enough shame to go around.
Another education leader (who happens to be black) is accused of using his position on a public school board (that happens to be charter) to put his individual needs above children’s. D’Juan Hernandez, a prominent New Orleans based lawyer and businessman, used a school credit card to charge up to $13,000 worth of expenses including “payments to Tulane University, where his daughter attends, and $500 for plane tickets to Florida, where his family vacationed,” Hechinger reported.
Related: Louisiana charter school CEO racks up thousands in questionable charges to school’s credit card
Add Hernandez to the growing list of people accused of misusing public funds in New Orleans. Earlier this year, former New Orleans Public School Board Member Ira Thomas pleaded guilty to accepting $5,000 in bribes. Kelly Thompson, former business manager of Langston Hughes Academy, was busted pilfering almost $675,000 in 2010. A Lusher Charter School employee embezzled $25,000 in the 2011-2012 school year. Darrell K. Sims, 55, formerly with the New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy was charged with theft by fraudulent checks in the amount of $31,000 in 2013. Auditors found that an employee of KIPP New Orleans misappropriated two checks totaling almost $70,000 in 2014. And of course we have the oft-aired theft of Ellenese Brooks-Simms, New Orleans School Board member who accepted bribes totaling approximately $140,000 in 2010.
Theft can’t be ascribed to one particular racial or ethnic group. Poor people certainly aren’t the only ones stealing. People steal within any governance structure. So in New Orleans, which happens to be 60 percent black, we shouldn’t be surprised or discouraged that black people are among those who are busted. However, Hernandez’s incidental blackness has real political consequences.
You don’t have to read much into the case for post-Katrina reform to find the Brooks-Simms example. Reformers argue for change by shaming Brooks-Simms (who happens to be black) and by association the New Orleans School board.
New Orleans and other cities need black people in leadership positions because our absence proves that privileged people use individual transgressions to limit black opportunity. I’ve argued for more black, local participation in charter school movement in New Orleans. Hernandez’s actions will become ammunition against that Corruption, politics and the race shame I should not feel - The Hechinger Report:
