Our top columns of the week

Not all Herald-Sun readers get the paper every day. Here is a sampling of commentary we published recently. Find the full columns at www.heraldsun.com/opinion/. We invite your comments at letters@heraldsun.com.

“In search of a word that won’t offend ‘old’ people”

Alternative terms range from distant but respectful to outright patronizing. None of them are appealing to old people. The most widely used are “senior citizens,” “retirees,” “the elderly” and “elders.” Then there are the derogatory terms, such as “geezers” and “coots,” mostly whispered behind closed doors. And there are terms such as “sages,” which frankly go too far in the opposite direction, as plenty of old people are a far cry from wise. Some people prefer the comfortably familiar term “boomers.” But then what do we call GenXers and millennials when they grow old?

– Laura Carstensen is professor of psychology and the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. professor in public policy at Stanford University.

“Until we talk about race, we’re all dead in the water”

And I thought about the suspensions, and how only 8 percent of Durham Public Schools students got them. And I wondered, because suspensions can take kids out of school, how many suspended kids fall behind, drop out and never find full-time work that pays a living wage. Even a small percentage means hundreds a year, some of whom won’t get counted in those unemployment stats. Are we creating not just a permanent underclass, but an invisible underclass?

– Mark Schultz is the managing editor of The Herald-Sun.

“Working-class whites aren’t the only group that needs media coverage”

It is well known that women earn 83 cents to every dollar a man earns. What is less known is the black and Latina women earn 63 cents to that same dollar. Black mothers have become prominent advocates against police violence in communities of color. African-American women have disproportionately higher rates of HIV/AIDS, yet the Trump Administration has done away with a long-standing government initiative studying the disease. ... When the media credits black women with saving America when, in actuality, we’re just trying to save ourselves, the media is glossing over the many issues that are relevant to this consistent voting block.

– Naeemah Clark (nclark3@elon.edu) is an associate professor in the School of Communications at Elon University.

“Every child in our schools deserves joy”

When I moved to Durham 25 years ago, pregnant with my first child, I watched and read carefully as the then two Durham school systems merged. I was optimistic that Durham was working toward equity in schools. It is 2017, and we are still not even close. Most of the same schools are struggling and continue to have a higher ratio of underachieving children of color and/or children who receive free/reduced price lunches. This was unacceptable to me in 1992, and it should unacceptable to anyone reading this in 2017.

– Paula Januzzi-Godfrey is an instructional coach at Merrick-Moore Elementary School in Durham

This story was originally published January 12, 2018 at 10:20 AM with the headline "Our top columns of the week."