The Roseville (Mich.) school board vice president has posted a series of anti-Muslim messages on his Facebook page, raising the question of whether intolerant posts from a school official could influence students.
Alfredo Fancesconi recently posted a meme that claims no terrorist incidents have occurred anywhere across the globe by Christians or Jews since the 9/11 attacks in New York and
Francesconi
Washington. But, the meme says, more than 26,000 Muslim terrorist attacks have occurred during that same time period. Those figures are wildly different than the facts compiled by researchers.
Francesconi’s most recent post features a photo of singer Kid Rock wearing a T-shirt that labels the Blue States that voted for Hillary Clinton for president as the “Dumbf—istan” section of America.
An immigrant from the Italian enclave of San Marino, Francesconi’s Facebook page is populated with links and memes from right-wing and fake “news” sites, including posts that criticize supporters of gay rights and immigration reform. College students are portrayed on his page as “sniveling brats” and he shares the idea that the earth is at the center of the universe.
He also posted items that called President Obama an a—hole, asserted that the pope had endorsed Donald Trump for president, and that Trump attracted a record number of black votes in the Nov. 8 election. At the same time, one link he recommended portrayed black students as violent thugs and said it is bullsh—to suggest otherwise.
Roseville is a Macomb County school district that has become increasingly diverse in its student population over the past two decades.
Meriam Uppal, a 2006 Roseville High School graduate who has three Muslim cousins in the Roseville school system, said she believes school officials should demand that Francesconi stop posting bigoted messages online.
“I need this to stop, I need people to understand that it is not okay to post things like this for the public to see, especially when this person is the member of the Roseville Community Schools board. Kids look up to these people. What message is Mr. Francesconi sending by sharing these types of images on Facebook?” Uppal said in an email message.
A Muslim of Pakistani descent, born in America, Uppal made an unsuccessful run under her maiden name (Meriam Mirza) for Roseville school board in 2009 on a platform of greater tolerance in the schools. A human resources specialist for an auto parts manufacturer, Uppal said she has since moved out of Roseville because of what she perceives as racist attitudes among many residents.
We shall wait and see if Francesconi has a response to all this.
Wow we have an ignorant racist leading our children. I pay tax dollars to a moron who can not tell the difference between a fake news site, and a real one. We should be trying to encourage diversity, and tolerance in our city and this hapoens and takes us back 60 years! Totally embarrassing to live in a city that would elect a man with theses opinions to diriect our Schools.