C’mon, Dallas, show your poker face. Dallas residents andactivists are caught in a high-stakes poker game and when DallasMayor Laura Miller put police chief Terrell Bolton on the table, alot of people in the city decided to fold, but there’s alwaysthat few. A few stone-faced players remain who think they hold acard, and they are prepared to play it. As a matter of fact,it’s already been played. It’s the race card.
The firing of Terrell Bolton may seem a little racist –he’s the city’s first black police chief. Never mindthe fact that Dallas’ crime rate was the nation’shighest. We can brush the increasing homicides and car thefts underthe racial rug. The question that Dallas citizens must ask iswhether or not Bolton would have been fired if he were white orHispanic.
In our red brick bubble, we tend to not let the things thathappen around us affect what happens among us. This is a wonderfulpolicy as long as we still know what’s going on. A veryprominent member of our local community has gotten fired and causedan uproar, yet there has not been as much as a conversation amongmany SMU students.
It’s a wonderful thing that SMU can hire and fire and nothave people playing the race card. We’re not as far behind aswe perceive. As a liberal arts school, we’re probably aheadof the social curve. As a community, our next step is to set anexample.
Mustang students, teachers, staff and alumni should remember tobe mature and to progress towards a perfectly blind community. Wecan hear about a firing and think about it objectively withoutbringing up race unless absolutely necessary.
Bolton should have been fired. He should have been fired longago. He has had a fairly successful tenure that Dallas will soon beable to attribute to either him or natural social change.
The president of the Greater Dallas chapter of the Latino PeaceOfficers Association has fanned the flames with the following hotstatement:
“I hope everything settles down, and we get a chief who issupported by all the department. I would say I would like the chiefto be Hispanic – a qualified Hispanic.”
And we would like the world to be blind – perfectly blind.The race card shouldn’t be played until theres noalternative, or evidence to prove that it’s warrented. Boltongot axed because Dallas has gotten a little dangerous. But the mostdangerous act is starting a racial divide outside of the Hilltopthat could affect a sensitive campus community.
