Perhaps he will justify that comparison because of a colloquy between two South Carolinian African-Americans. That does not justify making so disgusting an analogy without any authentic experience or awareness of slavery or its vestiges and consequences in current American society.
America's public schools are the foundation for our economy, our national strength and our progress in living up to the ideal that "all men are created equal." Without America's public schools, African-Americans would not have made the kind of strides - and contributions to American life - that we have made.
It has been often observed that we have not yet realized the promise of Brown v. Board of Education. That is true, but private school tuition vouchers only take us further from the goal of full equality in education.
Mero contends that slaveholders held a "Marxist worldview"; that they used the defense of what is good for the state in repressing education for slaves; that just as slaves could only be free when they left the plantation, Americans today can only be free if they leave the public schools.
It should be readily apparent to anyone that slaveholders were neither advocates for state ownership of the means of production, nor particular fans of government. It should be offensive to anyone - conservative, moderate or liberal - that liberation can only come about by providing a government-funded subsidy to abandon open, democratically governed, community public schools.
In a gross misreading of historical facts, Mero argues "slave families were told by paternalistic slave owners that they knew what was in their best interests and, frankly, the state interest." In reality, slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write, and they were bound, whipped and imprisoned for exhibiting any hints of literacy.
Since the end of the Civil War, virtually all of the educational opportunities afforded African-Americans have been in the public schools. In fact, former Confederate states continue to have a thriving private education marketplace established so that whites can avoid going to school with African-Americans.
One can expect those divisions to deepen when the government begins to provide subsidies to pay for the privilege.
Mero says, "School vouchers are tools that eliminate inequalities in educational opportunities and strips class status in support of the common good."
Such dream-world analysis ignores the reality of private education in America. Many, if not most, private schools are designed around class status. In addition, those inequities would continue, since many highly regarded private schools in Utah have already announced they will not take students bearing vouchers.
Conservatives, as Mero claims to be, should take offense at the idea that the 14th Amendment would protect the rights of Americans to get private school vouchers. However, all Utahns - conservative, moderate or liberal - ought to take offense at Mero's argument that the only road to freedom is through the agency of a government subsidy.
Mero, you can make your economic, social or political arguments for vouchers all you want, but do not insult the intelligence of people in our community.
Please do not diminish the history, struggles and accomplishments of African- American history by making comparisons between a bleak chapter in our nation's history and the best hope for America's continued greatness - America's public schools.
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* JEANETTA WILLIAMS is president of NAACP Salt Lake Branch and a former member of the NAACP national board of directors.
