LOVE YOUR “CONTESTS”!

I did as you directed and looked at young Gib’s website.  Since he serves our area, I know several people in the various photos.  The little girl at the bottom of one of the school photos is actually black, not Hispanic, if that is the one you mention.  Also, there is a photo of a delegation from China – wouldn’t they represent diversity?

Of course you have a right to your opinions – and you have many – but it might help to look at Gib’s constituents before being too critical of the lack of minorities on his website.  Lampeter-Strasburg and Solanco School Districts have very few minority students in them.  For example, the little girl I referenced above was the only black child in my daughter’s grade of 60-70 students in a small elementary.  There was also one Chinese girl in the grade (and my daughter is playing at her house right this minute) and one boy whose mother was Hispanic.  That’s it – everyone else is white (I’m not saying I am glad it is this way – I am merely stating facts.)

The area Gib serves is overwhelmingly white.  Again, I am just objectively stating the way it is.  I actually think it would be dishonest for him to put a bunch of photos of non-constituent minorities on his website just to look “diverse,” don’t you?  Maybe I am a little sensitive on this issue, because…

…when I was in college (mid-80’s), I was given the task of creating an orientation publication for new students that would be updated each year.  Part of the job involved choosing photos to go with the text.  Our campus had woefully few minority students, but the person for whom I was doing the project insisted I include lots of photos that showed minority students.  I think there were three black girls and five black guys on campus and maybe 20 Asian students.  (These figures could be found easily among admissions statistics, of course, so it was no big secret that we lacked diversity.)

I did as I was paid to do but felt dishonest about portraying the school as diverse when it, in fact, was not.  I was friends with one of the black students who once noted, laughing, that she was pictured in most college publications more than once, while the rest of us “white faces” usually never made it into one.

So anyway – I wanted to make sure that you had a response to your contest!  Take it for what it’s worth.

P.S.  In my last missive, I mentioned that my daughter is playing at her Chinese friend’s house.  I just remembered while unloading the dishwasher that the little girl’s father, a Chinese refugee from Vietnam, is close friends with young Gib.  They were classmates at L-S when the Chinese guy had just come here and are still friends.

I don’t have a big opinion either way on Gib, but I certainly don’t think he’s a bigot.