Dear Editor,

My name is Dr. Carrie Young-McWilliams, in response to Candidate Robert Ray’s (R) claim that “Meridian have (the) dumbest kids on (the) planet.”

As a member of the Meridian High School Class of 1989 and the inaugural class required to pass the Miss. Functional Literacy Exam, I am appalled at both the candidate and the bystanders who did not stand up for MHS students’ past present, and future.

It appears that Mr. Ray should do some much-needed research of his own into how the school accountability model works and the historical purposes of standard tests.

It appears that MHS students’ most significant obstacles are the oppressive systems and structures that continue to uphold institutional, educational racism, and Mr. Ray alone is not the only guilty party here. Each person who sat at the forum and allowed that statement without rebuttal played a part.

Students thrive when they feel valued and have student choice from a culturally responsive curriculum. Students who have clear expectations for learning and understand how their learning impacts the world they live…are students who thrive.

Mr. Ray, I challenge you to do some fundamental research before you attack the graduates of MHS with unfounded claims.

Perhaps, if you were an MHS graduate like me, your response would have been as follows: MHS students need tutoring programs, additional opportunities for dual enrollment, wrap around school-based mental health services, more social workers, school psychologists, and more highly qualified teaching staff to reduce classroom overcrowding.

Dr. Carrie Young-McWilliams

Pawcatuck, Connecticut

 

Dear Editor, 

I am from the city and state that a Meridian mayoral candidate recently declared home to “the dumbest kids on the planet.”

That declaration propelled me back to graduate school at an elite institution when a professor’s assignment referred to a less affluent community as “Poorville.” The fictional community seemed a lot like mine—like Meridian. “Poorville” felt personal.

I do not believe that my professor’s intentions were malicious, but to frame the assignment.

However, the candidate’s words brought me back to that classroom and reminded me of our tendency to talk about communities like Meridian using disconnected, deficit, dehumanizing, and uninformed language instead of talking to them—placing blame and burden on students instead of systems.

The candidate’s depiction of our students conveniently disregarded the severe systemic challenges scholars and educators face daily. His remarks were disgraceful and, at best Ironic as he is a graduate of the former T.J. Harris High School. If a metric for public service is intelligence, by his own standards, the candidate is not qualified.

With that said, let me reintroduce myself.

My name is Mayah Emerson. I am an alumna of Brown University and Mississippi State University, where I served as the first Black female Student Body President in the institution’s 143-year history.

More importantly, I attended Oakland Heights Elementary, Poplar Springs Elementary, Magnolia Middle, Northwest Middle, and Meridian High School. I am from Meridian, Mississippi— “Poorville,” and I am not dumb.

With love for students, educators, and families,

Mayah Emerson

Washington D.C.