It’s time for the frickin’ Friday 5, that day of the week when we all stand up and say we’re not going to take it anymore! And then, most of the time, we are quickly ushered out by security and told to find gainful employment elsewhere. But still!

1. Mike Miles is black, but not the right kind of black.
Good column by Jim Schutze yesterday on the racial politics behind DISD school reform and the efforts to paint it as an inherently racist exercise (because it targets so many black educators). I had three conversations this week with people who are business-class public-school advocates, each of whom is astonished that this debate has turned racial.

My response each time was a much kinder version of this: Are you having a stroke? Have you just entered this world? Are you making a funny ha-ha? One more time: You fire dozens of black people — no matter the legitimacy of the exercise, which is certainly debatable — and folks will say it’s racist. Why? It’s the most effective way to frame the debate in their favor!

This isn’t rocket science. It’s human nature. And to those folks on boards and in boardrooms who are shaking your heads about this: You were warned. I know you were. And you chose to ignore it and let John Wiley Price frame this debate. Learn from it. Get better at this game. The world has changed, and you’d better figure that out quickly.

2. Tod Robberson already wrote the column I was going to write this morning.
Yes, I often disagree with TR, but not this time. For a while, I thought I was the only person who watched the video with the Duncanville kid telling off his teacher who thought, “He has an overinflated sense of self, apparently a persecution complex, and he needs to learn that in the workaday world, you have to work with people you don’t like or respect every day.”

In fact, no, Mr. Robberson completely agrees. Jim Mitchell does not, for what it’s worth.

3. SMU shooter turns out to be knife-wielding man near SMU who got himself tased by police.
It was kind of wild to follow this story on Twitter this morning. I followed it there because, frankly, by the time it was acknowledged by non-social-media media, it was already over. Must be said that SMU did a fantastic job getting a warning up on its website and through its various Twitter channels immediately. And, no, final exams were not canceled. Curses!

4. Independence from government oversight comes at a price.
Good column by Jim Schutze today (sense a theme?) about the lessons to-date from the tragedy in West.

5. I love Baz and I don’t care what you say because when my heart sings and I close my eyes my life is just like Moulin Rouge, I swear.
I’m, um, fairly stoked for The Great Gatsby.

Retweets

Consider me … intrigued

When I close my eyes, this is what I see.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

When I close my eyes, this is what I see.