A lawsuit has been filed alleging that an Arkansas High School did not allow a black student, Kymberly Wimberly, to be sole valedictorian because of her race, and instead forced her to share the title with a white student. The lawsuit asking for over $75,000 was filed by the mother of Kymberly, claiming that her daughter had the highest GPA and therefore should be the sole valedictorian. This story has gone somewhat viral in the last 24 hours among the left with a near unanimous conclusion that this is overt racism.
Left wing sites have blindly circulated this story, enraging thousands on social media outlets.
But their outrage was based on very little more than catchy headlines. The allegation is flimsy even for most lawsuits these days. The only “proof” of racism is the mother overhearing someone saying that Kymberly being sole valedictorian would cause a “big mess.” The lawsuit also alleges that the school treats black students less favorably than white students; unsurprisingly not a single shred of proof or even an actual example is given. Nearly every story written about this lawsuit has assumed the accused to be guilty, yet there is literally only the word of the mother being presented.
The only reason this allegation is making so much noise based on so little is because it fits into a larger narrative that racialists and the left love to believe, that America is deeply racist. For a crowd that preaches about not being judgmental, they seemed all too eager to believe serious allegations without even a statement from the accused.
In a recent CNN interview, Thomas Gathen, a co-defendant, said he has yet to be served with any sort of court documents. Because of this, Gathen said he was unable to comment on several individual issues brought up in Wimberly’s complaint. But he did explain to CNN this:
“The issue that someone’s trying to paint is that this was a racially motivated,” Gathen told CNN. “That wasn’t an issue with (the co-valedictorians). This is strictly an academic issue and a policy issue, not a racial issue.”
In regards to recognition of a valedictorian, the McGehee handbook says that “students must be continuously enrolled at McGehee High School the last two semesters without transferring during this time to be considered in class ranking or eligible for valedictorian or salutatorian status.”
The handbook says students will be given the same class rank only if their grades are the same, but in deciding class rank, students with lower GPAs who are taking more or harder classes will not be penalized. Gathen said the Wimberly’s co-valedictorian had half a credit more than Wimberly and the difference in the students’ GPAs was .03 or .05. Gathen said the outcome would have been the same were the situations reversed.
It seems plainly obvious that the co-valedictorian status was given due to the other student having more credits. Given the nearly statistically identical GPA with Kymberly, and having less credits, the shared title of valedictorian is not a stretch to understand.
Racism is evil, and accusations of racism shouldn’t be made lightly. It’s disconcerting that so many people have deemed this high school and its faculty racist without a single shred of real evidence and without even a statement from the accused. Unfortunately this is not surprising. It is doubtful racialists will ever understand the damage they can do to a person with false accusations of racism. At the very least they should try to realize the incredible damage they are doing to the cause of fighting discrimination. They have once again cheapened the term “racism.” Now decent people are skeptical when they hear allegations of racism. After a case like this, it is clear racialists and leftist are willing to believe anything without a second thought if it supports their worldview.
