{"id":13432,"date":"2015-07-20T18:11:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T22:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=13432"},"modified":"2015-07-20T18:13:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T22:13:41","slug":"youcentral-bad-hair-day-by-henry-hurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/07\/20\/youcentral-bad-hair-day-by-henry-hurt\/","title":{"rendered":"YouCentral: Bad Hair Day (by Henry Hurt)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry Hurt tells us what happened when the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors blew it when they picked DCC Foundation executive director Shannon Hair for a seat on the Institute’s Board of Directors instead of Joyce Wright.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This article is written by Henry Hurt and we are publishing it unedited.<\/p>\n

\n

Now and then hard facts and good sense prevail even in the rowdy world of local government. That seemed to be the case when Shannon Hair, executive director of DCC Educational Foundation, suddenly declined his appointment by the Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors (BOS) to represent the county on the board of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR).<\/p>\n

Upon learning of concerns over his June 16th appointment, which he had sought, Hair declined the position a month later on July 15th , saying that his \u201clove and passion\u201d for Pittsylvania \u201cis so great I would never allow my appointment to have a detrimental impact\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trouble lay not in Hair\u2019s qualifications but in the ham-fisted way that the supervisors, on a 4-3 vote, walked over a distinguished county educator who believed she was the supervisors\u2019 first choice. That person, Joyce A. Wright, a woman of color, holds advanced degrees from the University of Virginia and has 41 years of local experience in education. Prior to her retirement this year, her last seven years were as principal of one of the top-rated county schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was floored,\u201d Wright said after the June 16th meeting when the vote went for Hair. \u201cIt had to be politically motivated, but I still don\u2019t know what was behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When informed that Hair had declined his appointment and that Supervisor Coy Harville intends to nominate her again at the BOS meeting this coming Tuesday, Wright expressed surprise and said that she remains prepared \u201cto do my civic duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fair question is whether Shannon Hair was a good fit anyway. If he had gone onto the Institute board, he would have become the third DCC employee holding a board seat. As for racial balance, the Institute\u2019s website shows a total of 30 leadership positions\u2014all filled by whites.<\/p>\n

Propped up with over $100,000,000 in public money during the past decade, the lily-white Institute has always been challenged to explain what it does. Now, at least, it is crystal clear what it is not doing: working successfully to include representatives of the multi-racial population of its footprint.<\/p>\n

Hair\u2019s now-defunct appointment was won with the support of Supervisors Brenda Bowman, Jesse Barksdale, Jerry Hagerman and James Snead. Supervisor Coy Harville nominated Wright with the support of Supervisors Elton Blackstock and Tim Barber. Those three voted against Hair\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

Joyce Wright said that she was particularly shocked that Supervisor Barksdale, himself a minority representative from Banister District, opposed her. And even though Wright lives in Gretna, her own supervisor, Jerry Hagerman, cast his vote against her. (Wright later reported that Hagerman called her and apologized for voting against her.)<\/p>\n

In speaking to Wright from the podium, both Barksdale and Bowman had sugary praise for her qualifications. But, they explained, they felt Hair was more qualified than she and could \u201ctalk the language\u201d of the IALR better than she could. Both praised Wright as being qualified, and Bowman cheerfully assured her that \u201cThere will be some opportunities for you\u201d in terms of some other appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of that makes any difference,\u201d Supervisor Harville said after the meeting. \u201cJoyce Wright is the perfect person for this slot, given her great educational experience and the fact she lives in the northern end of the county that has no representation on the IALR. And on top of that, she knows our people and is a top educator, and the institute is supposed to be about education, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Willie Fitzgerald, long-time president of the county NAACP and a strong supporter of Wright, called the rejection of Wright \u201ca sad day for Pittsylvania County,\u201d adding later:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years, we in the minority community have been told that we must present qualified candidates for any position, and we have agreed with this and done this, and now it\u2019s like the supervisors have changed the rules on us\u2026.they\u2019re now saying that while Joyce Wright is qualified, Mr. Hair is more qualified and so he gets the job\u2026.This way, they\u2019re just forgetting about minority representation. What are we supposed to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald was elated when informed that Hair has declined and that Wright will be re-nominated.<\/p>\n

Following the June 16th meeting, when questioned, Supervisor Bowman, chairman of the board, defended the Hair appointment in an email, calling it \u201cwell handled, fair, above-board and very transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this observer, the most painful part of the meeting was the seeming condescension expressed by Bowman and Barksdale in telling Joyce Wright that while she wasn\u2019t good enough for this job, don\u2019t you worry, we\u2019ll find something else for you. At a time when racial tension has intensified around the country, that approach carries an echo with a very ugly resonance.<\/p>\n

Doing business in this manner is not the path to progress in race relations. Such cavalier thinking cuts to the heart of the efforts of good-willed people of all colors in our community who, for so long, have tried to do right by each other.<\/p>\n

In the end, we can all do better.<\/p>\n

\n

SouthsideCentral would like to think Henry Hurt for writing this article and keeping a close eye on Pittsylvania County’s Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

\"sclogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Hurt tells us what happened when the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors blew it when they picked DCC Foundation executive director Shannon Hair for a seat on the Institute’s Board of Directors instead of Joyce Wright.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,22,26,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newscentral","category-opinioncentral","category-pittsylvania-county","category-youcentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-3uE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16940,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/02\/pittsylvania-county-board-of-supervisors-2116\/","url_meta":{"origin":13432,"position":0},"title":"Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors (2\/1\/16)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"SouthsideCentral was at Monday night's Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors meeting, so here comes the most comprehensive recap for you! Tonight's meeting starts at 7PM, but I got to Chatham way earlier than that. Since the Pittsylvania County School Board also meets on Monday night, let's stop in and see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GovernmentCentral"","block_context":{"text":"GovernmentCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/governmentcentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/URKQ4AF.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/URKQ4AF.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/URKQ4AF.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/URKQ4AF.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8401,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/24\/dumbass-idea-of-the-day-32414\/","url_meta":{"origin":13432,"position":1},"title":"Dumbass (Idea) of the Day! (3\/24\/14)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You don't have to commit a stupid crime to be featured. Government officials can have dumbass ideas. Regional economic director a possibility? (Although I'm sure somebody named \"Bob\" would like to be developed, I'm thinking that the header should be \"Job Development\") As a Danville city resident, I think about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14825,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/01\/01\/endorsement-jessie-barksdale-for-board-of-supervisors-chairman\/","url_meta":{"origin":13432,"position":2},"title":"Endorsement: Jessie Barksdale for Board of Supervisors Chairman","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"January 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a weird way to start 2016, but I feel this endorsement is needed to keep Pittsylvania County on the right track. Only the seven elected members of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors will vote on this decision, but county residents can make their feelings known to their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Endorsements"","block_context":{"text":"Endorsements","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/politicscentral\/endorsements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/TQ41EBa.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8513,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/17\/exclusive-the-new-pittsylvania-county-administrator-will-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":13432,"position":3},"title":"EXCLUSIVE: The new Pittsylvania County administrator will be…","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"...somebody you may be familiar with. Because it's a personnel matter that has to be voted on by the entire Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday afternoon (April 22), I've been unable to get on-the-record sourcing. That being said, SouthsideCentral has been working on this story over the past\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Breaking News"","block_context":{"text":"Breaking News","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/newscentral\/breaking-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4617,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/12\/keeping-an-eye-on-the-pittsylvania-county-bos\/","url_meta":{"origin":13432,"position":4},"title":"Keeping an eye on the Pittsylvania County BoS…","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"July 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a new blog in the area that's watching the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors and it's worth checking out. (Editor's Note: I was sure that I had posted this article before but it must have fell through the cracks during an upgrade process. My apologies to the bloggers over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LinkCentral"","block_context":{"text":"LinkCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/linkcentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7898,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/10\/youre-retired\/","url_meta":{"origin":13432,"position":5},"title":"“You’re Retired!”","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"That rhymes with \"You're Fired!\", but it's a nicer way to say it. The dysfunctional Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors seems to have struck again. Dan Sleeper, Pittsylvania County administrator, retires I've got absolutely no proof that Dan Sleeper was fired by that board of idiots, but let's get real.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NewsCentral"","block_context":{"text":"NewsCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/newscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13432"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13435,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13432\/revisions\/13435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}