Morgan Freeman desegregates Prom in Mississippi

Jezebel has an interesting piece on an HBO documentary- with video clips here

It's truly shocking that this shit is still being perpetuated in 2009. I'm American but have never been to the South, and this seems way more foreign to me than actual foreign countries I've been to. Not to say that all of the south is like this, but it's just unfathomable coming from California.

but it's just unfathomable coming from California.

lol shut up

I don't even understand the logistics of arranging a "white" and "black" prom - how do they do that? Do they make a list of white kids and only invite them? What if some black kids wanted to enter the white prom? Could they be denied entry because they're black? Wouldn't that be illegal?

The fuck? I really shouldn't be that surprised that shit like that persists but I can't believe segregated proms are still allowed to happen.

yeah I've heard about these things happening in various parts of the South. The quotes from people who defend it are always jawdropping.

but it's just unfathomable coming from California.

lol shut up

Look I'm not trying to say we're better than anyone or that there's no racism in CA, but it IS unfathomable that something like this could be officially sanctioned. Not to mention that the majority of HS kids around here are neither white nor black.

can we talk about how fuckin weird the clips for this are? when i first saw a snippet of an ad for it on HBO i thought it was some weird cheap-o sequel to Lean on Me

I don't even understand the logistics of arranging a "white" and "black" prom - how do they do that? Do they make a list of white kids and only invite them? What if some black kids wanted to enter the white prom? Could they be denied entry because they're black? Wouldn't that be illegal?

― Tuomas, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 6:08 AM (50 minutes ago)

i for one am glad that our distinguished representative from finland is helping us untangle the complicated aspects of race relations

I'm watching some footage on my Cable's on demand service of the integrated prom they did this year..... And it's pretty hilarious and heartwarming. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately they did the whites only prom again as well.

a little while ago there was an article in the nytimes abt this still going on

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24prom-t.html

Stay classy Montgomery County.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/05/20/magazine/650x433_laub_whiteprom_2009_0227.jpg

i for one am glad that our distinguished representative from finland is helping us untangle the complicated aspects of race relations

No need for sarcasm, I was genuinely interested in the legal aspect of this. In here having a "whites only" party would be illegal, unless it's it's an invite-only party, and all the invited people just "happen" to be white. I assume that's the case with these white proms too?

Why does the system claim this thread has new messages, even though I've bookmarked the last message? Was something deleted here?

to answer your question: it would probably be ruled illegal if someone sued over it. At least I would hope so. The reason this would never happen in California is mainly because there's a greater tendency to suing over things like this, and the courts are more liberal as well.

i am not sure it's really illegal tbh

you should listen to her she is almost a lawyer

yeah ... I'm nowhere near a lawyer ... my uneducated guess would be that it could be ruled illegal if someone went to court about it, but no one's gonna do anything about it otherwise ... I'm wondering whether it would be a better case if it was made by a student at the school or say, if one of the white students wanted to bring a date from another school that was black, but couldn't.

this sort of thing is unfathomable everywhere in 2009

xpost well assuming it's privately organized, not using school funds (which i think is they say in the nyt article)
and there are no events they can point to such as a black student trying to get in and not being allowed (the article says a couple black kids went and were allowed in, and being made uncomfortable by the white attendees is not enough)
it's just a private, totally voluntary thing, more like tuomas's party where everyone there just happens to be white, or black as the case may be. i dunno about state law but i'm assuming georgia civil rights laws aren't stronger than federal law. it would also take someone who *wants* to go to court about it....

hope that clears it up for tuomas ; )

like you would have to have two explicitly labeled proms where people of the wrong race were barred from entering. they know better than to do that.

Legally, the (public) school cannot sponsor a school event and limit attendance to only white (or only black) students. The segregated proms "are organized outside school through student committees with the help of parents," making them private parties so the organizers are free to be as racist as they wanna be and any attempt to sue for discrimination is going to fail. If I'm half-assed reading correctly, Morgan Freeman organized and funded a school affiliated prom, which by law has to be open to all students, and then the asshole white parents/kids had their own private party from which black kids were excluded.

Are there only black and white kids at this school? What does the, say, Asian kid do? Or any Latino/a kids? Or multi-racial kids?

Form punk rock bands.

oh, i thought it said "desecrates". damn. carry on.

i've not seen Prom Night in Mississippi yet, but I did grow up there (I actually lived about 15 minutes from Charleston until I was 8). My high school prom was definitely not segregated, and I'm quite certain that the scenario in Charleston (2 segregated school-sponsored proms) is an anomaly. I don't say that to defend race relations in that part of the country; they are still obviously very fucked up. But 2 separate proms is certainly not the norm.

yeah this is fucked up but it's not the norm even in the south afaik

Are there only black and white kids at this school? What does the, say, Asian kid do? Or any Latino/a kids? Or multi-racial kids

i would venture a guess that in Charleston there may be a few latino kids, but prob no Asians and def no multi-racial.

I will say that a lot of these small MS towns (& prob all over the South) have these hella lame Cotillion or "Sub-deb" clubs that would have winter and/or spring formals that all the affluent/ semi-affluent wite kids would go to in lieu of prom or whatever.

Call me racist, but I've got no problem being segregated from these dudes.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_Gyycz3eDTr4/R89ljsSrhRI/AAAAAAAAAgc/JkPgK4JJhPk/s1600-h/JerseyBoy2.jpg

http://bp2.blogger.com/_Gyycz3eDTr4/R89ljsSrhRI/AAAAAAAAAgc/JkPgK4JJhPk/s1600-h/JerseyBoy2.jpg

(It's all fun and games until a broken jpg ruins your joke.)

those guys arent white theyre italian

I had no idea Italians were orange.

I thought most Italians were Catholic.

damn, "Morgan Freeman" and "Prom" in a subject line and not a single step-granddaughter zing

oompa loompa doo pa dee doo

In here having a "whites only" party would be illegal, unless it's it's an invite-only party, and all the invited people just "happen" to be white.

YOU LIVE IN FINLAND

let me fix that for you:

In here having a "whites only" party would be illegal, unless it's it's an invite-only party, and all the invited people just "happen" to be white. nearly impossible to avoid.

i would venture a guess that in Charleston there may be a few latino kids, but prob no Asians and def no multi-racial.

Found 43 Results for Nguyen in Charleston, SC

Found 4 Results for Chang in Charleston, SC

Found 25 Results for Wang in Charleston, SC

Well, that's kind of how it works in the US, too. If the situation involves a government actor or any school (public or private) or a public accommodation (any privately owned place that offers food, lodging, gas or entertainment to the public), discrimination on the basis of the Big Five (race, color, national origin, religion, sex) is illegal. But the owners of a private club (like Augusta, for example) or the organizers of a close private party can discriminate until they are blue in the face. I guess the difference is that here, the private party throwers or private club owners could straight up say, "We are intentionally limiting attendance/membership to white people kthxby" and wouldn't have to construct the fiction of "oh mercy me, look at that, our entire guest list is white as snow, I had no idea!"

xp to jjjusten, except I think that he clarified what he meant such that my post is pretty irrelevant, but it's the most cogent piece of legal writing (sad, I know) I've done in like a week so I'm keeping it, dammit.

charleston, mississippi xp

So, I used to live in Indianola, MS. When desegregation happened, all the white families took their students out of the schools, and put them into private "academies." They are desegregated now, but check out the following numbers:

Two elementary schools, one of which was significantly larger than the other. In a town of ~ 11k, and roughly 50% black 50% white, the larger elementary school had ~1500 kids. ALL BLACK. The smaller school was about 50/50.

I used to teach at the larger elementary school. There was a white kid there for about a month, but he was taken out by his parents.

Shit is really, really weird in the South, y'all. Charleston is fucking progressive compared to the Delta.

Well, that's kind of how it works in the US, too. If the situation involves a government actor or any school (public or private) or a public accommodation (any privately owned place that offers food, lodging, gas or entertainment to the public), discrimination on the basis of the Big Five (race, color, national origin, religion, sex) is illegal. But the owners of a private club (like Augusta, for example) or the organizers of a close private party can discriminate until they are blue in the face. I guess the difference is that here, the private party throwers or private club owners could straight up say, "We are intentionally limiting attendance/membership to white people kthxby" and wouldn't have to construct the fiction of "oh mercy me, look at that, our entire guest list is white as snow, I had no idea!"

If I remember correctly, the given rationale for these all white/ all black proms was for the comfort of those attending (read: the parents didn't want Suzy Q. Whitestockings getting down with Black G. Blackerson).

D'oh! xxxpost

"We are intentionally limiting attendance/membership to white people kthxby"

This would be illegal in the UK regardless of what organisation it is.

"oh mercy me, look at that, our entire guest list is white as snow, I had no idea!"

This would be fine, though.

Actually, Charleston is roughly on the edge of the Delta, and really close to Marks, Cleveland and Ruleville, towns I know relatively well. So, the story is prolly the same there, too.

Jjjusten, what's your problem? I merely mentioned what the local law says about these things, and asked if the US law is the same, because I'm not an expert on US law. So I'm not sure why you needed to make those comments. Yes, I know Finland is much whiter than the US. If it was my choice, it wouldn't be, but I can't change these things and I didn't choose to be born here. So what are you trying to say?

So the B N P is an illegal organisation with its whites only membership and employment policy?

xpost to Col Poo

Wasn't there recently a thread about BNP getting sued because of its white's only membership policy?

morgan freeman desegregates high-school cafeteria lunch tables too fyi

http://retroslashers.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/prom-night.jpg

No idea if there's a thread Tuomas but I know they issued a statement along the lines of "If we are racist then so are *huge list of minority groups*".

I think political parties may have some weird exemption, because there's a law being passed that "would make BNP illegal" which implies it's not illegal at the moment.

Probably related to the law about Party Political Broadcast which allows them to broadcast racial stuff that wouldn't pass Ofcom regulations normally.

NB this only applies to race, sex discrimination is still allowed for private clubs.

The BNP is against some EU laws, human rights legislation possibly. Only way they could get in trouble would be for a person of non-European heritage to attempt to join, be rejected on account of their race, then take them to court. Sounds like a good idea but I'm not going to be the one to volunteer.

Yes, I know Finland is much whiter than the US. If it was my choice, it wouldn't be, but I can't change these things and I didn't choose to be born here

You could change it if you married a black girl and had babies.

don't think he has alot of black Finnish girls to pick from.

Actually I had a crush on a black classmate back in high school, but she was very Christian, so I don't think it would've worked out. She did give me a self-made crucifix necklace though.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/cross%20colors/kristianebell/main_1.jpg

looooooooool

arg

to give an actual answer to Tuomas's question, as discussed above, this is basically segregation by inertia -- the schools don't bother having official proms at all (because they'd be legally required to be integrated), so they leave it to parents and such to organize the traditional private separate proms

and the "inertia" bit is that few people seem to challenge it, because it happens every year, and always has (presumably ever since the first moment they were required to integrate proms and decided to do away with official ones entirely), and most everyone, black and white, seems to just figure that's the way it is and has been and decline to rile up the town over making a concerted effort to change that

this includes, so far as I can tell from reading articles like these, black and white students who are dating, black and white students who are friends, kids who are actually somewhat bummed to go to different proms and don't see the point of it all, but figure they might as well just try and have a nice time with their same-race friends and not start fights about it (though I seem to remember one of those articles including a white girl who went to the black prom with her black boyfriend, since obviously the dynamics of segregation allow things one way and not the other)

all of that might sound like I'm being critical of the kids' not doing anything about it, but I'm honestly not, because it does require a certain kind of heroism, when you're a senior in high school and maybe even just looking forward to getting out of town entirely, to put yourself through trying to change something so deep-rooted, and lack of that heroism or effort isn't necessarily cowardice or laziness, it's just normal keeping your head down and getting on with life (though righteous bravery is, as always, preferable)

It's about just havin' a party for all the kids, who happen to be white - too long for a username.

current username is way better anyways, bud.

eh, whatever, required viewing for all of you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ok7SaVXOpI

Mississippi does it again.

Only read the comments if you're into getting depressed and angry.

41,741 Comments

wtf

what the fuck is wrong with people on the internet; also american bible-belt schools

Also do not read the comments because it will take a very, very long time.

Are like that many people complete and total racist, bigoted, hate-filled assholes in real life? Or just the ones that can hide behind a veil of anonymity? Or just peeps be trollin'?

http://www.youtube.com

Oh come on I already know not to read those comments.

I hate this place, seriously.

Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw said he's seen the South portrayed as "backwards" on Web sites discussing the issue, "but a lot more people here have biblically based values."

Like hatred, pettiness, stubbornness . . .

o_O

To avoid Constance McMillen bringing a female date to her prom, the teen was sent to a "fake prom" while the rest of her class partied at a secret location at an event organized by parents.

McMillen tells The Advocate that a parent-organized prom happened behind her back — she and her date were sent to a Friday night event at a country club in Fulton, Miss., that attracted only five other students. Her school principal and teachers served as chaperones, but clearly there wasn't much to keep an eye on.

"They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them," McMillen says. "The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to."

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/04/05/ACLU_Investigating_Fake_Prom/

ohhhh just prosecute them all

FFFFFFSSSSSS

LIKE SERIOUSLY FFS

Oh how nice of them to invite the developmentally challenged students to the "special" prom. Tbh, I think that entire district needs more than just prosecuting.

i can almost understand the parents being assholes (olds) about it but her entire class hates her so much that no one would sabotage it by telling her?

if however-many kids (not sure how big the town is, my impression is that it's kinda small) were ALL able to keep it a secret, that's kind of impressive

don't underestimate the power of hate yall

this is that thing of how on a/c of ppl not saying things to ur face u 4get that ppl hate homos sometimes

still reading this as "morgan freeman desegregates porn in mississippi"