Benjamin Bacote: Superintendent was wrong comparing Covid-19 to integration

To The Daily Sun,

As I read the article, yesterday titled, "Tucker: Laconia is ready to plan school-opening test," I couldn't help but think: "Okay, Boomer," when reading the superintendent's comments equating the Covid-19 re-opening and his district's schooling dilemma to the "U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision outlawing racial segregation." I can only guess the superintendent's age but to his cultural competency, I was assured.

Such cultural incompetence from the leader of one of central N.H."s most diverse school districts made me both angry and saddened. I am angered by the "cultural flattening" — look it up — that whitewashes the painful history of 14 years following that 1954 decision that my parents and grandparents, that your older black residents also have endured.

Whatever, serious, rippling, and potentially dire decisions that Superintendent Tucker decides on will be informed by the best group of national medical experts, along with a local team. It will be supported by the majority of Laconia's residents who want the best for their kids. For your students, your staff, your network of professionals and all who read your words, please be assured, Superintendent Tucker, this collective experience that we all have gone through this last six months pales in comparison to the moral and physical struggle of the Black peoples for more than 400 years. The struggle to be seen as equals in the law and in your eyes, to be welcomed in your district, apparently, is still being shunted. I write this letter in support of Black voices, like mine, who demand to be seen equally, to be valued for our various stories, and who demand better from our leaders.

Benjamin Bacote, Co-Founder

N.H. Panthers

(Plymouth Area Network To Help End Racism)

Thornton