By now I'm sure all of you have seen this. If not you will be just as shocked as I was when I first saw it on the news. You ARE reading the dates correctly....it does say 2010-2011 not 1910-1911! Shocking is an understatement! Even as I write this and look at it, I think, this can't be possible, it just can't! Race based elections at a school in 2010!!!?????
Here it is in a nutshell:
As seen on MSNBC:
Following an uproar over a policy it said was designed 30 years ago to achieve racial equality, a school district board in a Mississippi town on Friday scrapped a system of student elections where race determined whether a candidate could run for some class positions, including president.
The rules were made over 30 years ago to make the school elections "fair." "Cough, cough!" However, when I looked at my calendar this morning it was 2010...I thought we had learned from the hate of the past and moved at least slightly forward? Well, in Nettleton Mississippi this is clearly not the case! What "sane" adults, in what "educational" system, thought this was okay!? We wonder why racism continues.....well in Nettleton it's being "taught" in the schools! How can anyone justify that this was set up to make things fair? More so, how can anyone in 2010 justify this still being in print and in place today!? There is no explaining it away, there is no excuse. This would be like leaving a whites only sign on a water fountain and not removing it in 2010. I am dumbfounded that any school in this country of ours allowed this to continue. Dumbfounded!
While we're at it.....are there only black and white children at this school? What about everyone else? The stupidity just keeps growing! The more I type, the more blown away I become. Who printed this? Who passed it out? Who allowed it? All these people were okay with this? Really?! REALLY!? Each and every adult that had a hand in the process of allowing this old, outdated, racist, foolish, policy to continue, need to go and take multiple hours of diversity classes. In fact diversity classes should be mandatory for these so called "Educators!" Mandatory!!!
10 comments:
Actually the woman who was incensed by this has biracial children and her daughter was told she couldn't run for a certain office this year because of her ethnicity. But wasn't she equally white as black. She didn't fit any category but they were counting her black (the old one drop rule). It shows that some Southern states still don't get it. So glad she took the initiative to protest. I know you would be one of those people Amy. That's why I like you so much.
Madge,
I did see that they were biracial...so beyond the stupidity of it all, wouldn't they be good to go for all categories!? Oh ya...one drop...the stupidity continues! And oh Giirrrlll you know I would have screamed from the mountain tops. I am very serious about the diversity classes being mandatory...they should lose their jobs otherwise. So wrong. It makes my blood boil!
Hope you are feeling okay!
A.
when i graduated back in '87 our valedictorian was black. according to the school policy at the time, the salutatorian, therefore had to be white.
in theory, these two honors should be bestowed upon the two people in the graduating class that have the highest average.
the faculty had to scroll down to about the 5th or 6th graduating senior to find the white graduate with the next highest average.
at 17, and not giving much thought to how or why things are done, we talked about it but didn't create to much of a fuss.
now that i'm older i wonder why the parents weren't up in arms over such an antiquated and biased way of doing things.
how did that person with the second highest average feel. the accomplishments blotted out simply because they happened to be the same race as the person with the highest average.
i'm curious as to how they go about choosing these days and plan on looking into it.
thanks for sharing this.
BTW...i'm from Mississippi =D
Roschelle,
In '87!!!? Oh my gosh that blows my mind too. I am amazed that parents didn't fight for what was right even then. Wow!!! I am still shocked that this memo that I posted on my blog is from 2010! I'm about ready to fly to Mississippi and start the diversity classes myself! =)
Thanks for reading Roschelle...hope you have a GREAT week.
Amy
Good morning Amy and to all of your blog readers and followers which now includes my real life friend Jennifer in Chicago. Well Amy you just keep getting better and better with your awesome blog and thoughts, opinions and comments.
I just read about the case in Mississippi. Amy, as usual I agree with you and Madge too. This just one more reason why I hate that old racist "1 drop black blood" rule. This is the reason why bi-racial people are only seen as Black or African American and the other parent is just not counted.
Black and White Americans need to eliminate this racist thinking from their minds and realize that being bi-racial is a beautiful thing and bi-racial people have the best of both worlds.
However this action does NOT surprise me because if all of you remember that it was last year in October 2009 that a racist White judge in Louisiana refuse to marry a Black/White interracial couple. For anyone that may have forgotten, here’s racist judge Bardwell's own words ("I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them. They use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else. “I just don’t think Whites should marry Blacks or any other race that is not White.”) Hey, can we get this judge fitted for a white sheet?
Sad to say in the south, but even in churches and religious temples, a lot of blacks, whites and Hispanics are still racially prejudice, but they claim they believe in and love God.
It is reasons like these that I told one of my closest friend's Liz who is White and from Texas several years ago that I could NOT ever live there or anywhere in the south except Miami because I like and am attracted to women of other races and I do not want to get jumped and beaten up due to my dating and marrying a White woman or Hispanic woman and Liz kept trying to convince me that things have changed. Well here is living proof that things have not.
Amy, if you fly down there while you are at teaching your diversity class, teach them (young and old) to get rid of that racist “1 drop black blood” rule. Keep up the great writing Amy. Peace & Blessings. "Let Us realize that a Change can only come, when We stand together as one.” “We Are The World" by Michael J. Jackson
Nay K.,
Thank you for your lovely comments regarding my blog. As always I truly appreciate your comments and your continued reading.
This one was a mind blower as was the one last year with the judge in Louisiana. I wrote about him as well. I won't ever understand this mentality. Last I checked one should be elected to school office based on qualifications and not skin color...wow! It's insane that this happened in 2010! Just insane! These are the things that must change and must end for all of us to move forward when it comes to race relations. It's too important not to keep talking, learning and growing.
Hope all is well......
Amy
I am, as always, freaking blown away when I hear about things like this. My daughter and I were watching MTV last year about the FIRST racially mixed prom at some high school in the South. Yes, that is what I said, the first racially mixed prom. I kept thinking, this can't be 2009. This can't be happening! Really? And the uproar from some of the white parents about not wanting their children to attend. WHAT?! Why? Because your daughter or son might be seen as a racist? Well, I guess that might be a good reason. I mean really!
The whole thing makes me so tired. We are all human beings, with a heart and a soul. What else matters? I don't understand how anything else can matter. It just makes me so sad. I don't know what else to say, other than love one another...darn it... Figure it out. No matter who someone loves or what color their skin is, we are all the same on the inside, here to do the same thing, to love one another and be loved. Thanks Amy for shining a light. Sending you love.
Kim,
Why is it so simple for so many of us to figure out and so difficult for others? Love is easy and peaceful and hate and racism, well they take so much energy and are so exhausting. Why would anyone choose to be that way? Why? Lots of work to be done but we will get there...a day at a time...little by little....one by one.
PS
Jamie and I watched the prom story as well and at first I thought it was a joke because I knew it couldn't be real. Sadly it was all too real.
Hugs girlie.....love ya...A.
Amy,
Thank you for blogging about current events. I don't get time to watch much TV, and when I do get time, I usually choose to walk the dogs or read a book instead. The only news I get is through the internet and you are a great source of info on the unbelievable, shocking, ridiculous state of affairs on race relations in this country. I also keep up with this type of news through the Southern Poverty Law Center website.
It blows my mind as well, the level of ignorance still rampant in this country. I hope I live to see the day where there is a recognizable, obvious, and measurable change in our country as a whole. How many hundreds of years is it going to take the U.S.A. to get a clue? I hope its only decades away and not centuries, or worse. The U.S.A is very arrogant about a lot of things, and we really have no place to be when we, as a nation, don't have the spiritual aptitude to understand we are all brothers and sisters and should treat each other as such. To many, these old outdated systems just don't seem to matter or be a "big deal" since the many are the white majority. So often I'm ashamed to be a part of this majority. But, there is hope. Being in Denny's restaurant at 11 at night and seeing a room full of ONLY interracial couples, and me being a part of one of those beautiful unions gives me hope. It was such an amazing scene, every single couple made up of a black man and a white woman. Truly a beautiful sight. And, if there are 12 of us, that just so happen to have been in the same place at one point in time, then there are many more of us out there who see past the color of our skin, so there must be hope for those who have not yet seen the light. May we all (interracial couples) be an inspiration to those with closed hearts and ignorance of spiritual truth.
Heather
Heather,
I couldn't have said it better! Like you said, we are all brothers and sisters...every single one of us. It makes no sense to think any other way. I keep thinking we are moving forward and then stories like this come up and it's 10 steps back! We all have to keep the dialogue going and keep showing everyone that it's what's in the heart not on the skin that matters. I LOVE that you were in a restaurant filled with interracial couples! What are the odds!!?? More open minds means more peace. Eventually.
Thanks for commenting and always reading!!!
A.
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