In Georgia, They Actually Have Racially Segregated Proms
In Georgia, Segregation Endures on Prom Night - NYTimes.com
Racially segregated proms have been held in Montgomery County — where about two-thirds of the population is white — almost every year since its schools were integrated in 1971. Such proms are, by many accounts, longstanding traditions in towns across the rural South, though in recent years a number of communities have successfully pushed for change. When the actor Morgan Freeman offered to pay for last year’s first-of-its-kind integrated prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi, his home state, the idea was quickly embraced by students — and rejected by a group of white parents, who held a competing “private” prom. (The effort is the subject of a documentary, “Prom Night in Mississippi,” which will be shown on HBO in July.) The senior proms held by Montgomery County High School students — referred to by many students as “the black-folks prom” and “the white-folks prom” — are organized outside school through student committees with the help of parents. All students are welcome at the black prom, though generally few if any white students show up. The white prom, students say, remains governed by a largely unspoken set of rules about who may come. Black members of the student council say they have asked school administrators about holding a single school-sponsored prom, but that, along with efforts to collaborate with white prom planners, has failed. According to Timothy Wiggs, the outgoing student council president and one of 21 black students graduating this year, “We just never get anywhere with it.” Principal Luke Smith says the school has no plans to sponsor a prom, noting that when it did so in 1995, attendance was poor.
“Most of the students do want to have a prom together,” says Terra Fountain, a white 18-year-old who graduated from Montgomery County High School last year and is now living with her black boyfriend. “But it’s the white parents who say no. … They’re like, if you’re going with the black people, I’m not going to pay for it.”
The whole thing is worth reading.
Comments
You had to know this was still going on. Though I had heard of a couple schools in those areas were the students felt that it was BS, and went against tradition. Granted, it may be a slow proccess but forcing the issue just makes it worse.
Posted by: exsulis | May 27, 2009 06:15 PM
So you're saying it's too soon to desegregate high school proms in the south?
Did Rosa Parks make it worse when she forced the issue?
I say anything that's a school sanctioned event had better be open to all the students.
I thought it was funny that the school principal said they'd tried it back in 1995. The freshmen at his school may not have even been born then. So maybe 15 f-in' years later you could try again, ya know?
On the other hand if the parents go out and put together a private one it's still BS but you can't really stop them. I think. Unless students boycott it and I know that's asking them to go against their parents, but they're at the right age to rebel, aren't they?
Ok, ok. I'm just not very patient with racists. I'll take some deep breaths and get over it.
Posted by: milt | May 27, 2009 06:52 PM
I'm saying forcing them to do something is a terrible idea, and those silly folks will rebel. Which will make the racial divide even worse.
As I pointed out the kids have to want it, and that want is what will end the segregation not forcing them to be together. Forcing them into a corner is just going to generate even more hate, and distrust. Its a slow proccess.
Posted by: exsulis | May 27, 2009 07:22 PM
True, it's slow. I just want everyone in the world to see it my way. And right now. :-)
Maybe another 50 years and they'll get how silly it is? What's the magic amount of time that has to pass before we can be done being racist? I know, I know - probably never. The idealist in me definately sees that there's no reason for our petty differences. The reality is that some people will always find a way to separate themselves and put people into categories.
I just don't have to like it or take it peacefully, ya know?
Posted by: milt | May 27, 2009 08:35 PM
I'm thinking it will be in the ballpark of another 100 years but then I'm being conservative.
No kidding the difference between us is a couple alleles which controls the pigmentation of our skin.
Taking it in a non-peaceful way is only going to galvanize more people as noted by the recent Prop 8.
Posted by: exsulis | May 28, 2009 01:46 PM