Segregated High School Proms Divide Georgia's Students

[Oneironaut Zero]

Article Well, at the very least, I'm glad to see that the superintendent is making a stand to do something about it. It's probably not going to be very well-received, at first, but that's definitely a tradition that needs to die out.

[Bonsay]

This is so stupid. I don't know how it is in America, but if all the students wanted to have a normal prom, then they could organise it themselves. I don't get it, why they don't protest or something?

[Black_Eagle]

*facepalm* Why is this not considered illegal?

[tkdyo]

wow...that is so pathetic. I really cant say any more

[Odd_Nonposter]

*facepalm* Why is this not considered illegal? Because the South doesn't believe in such hippy liberal Yankee things as racial equality. [/sarcasm] But seriously now, this is really pathetic.

[Amethyst Star]

wow...that is so pathetic. I really cant say any more Ditto. Seriously. It's ridiculous that this has gone on for so long!

[Licity]

Honestly, I sometimes wonder why the North was so anxious to win the Civil War... At least the segregation is handled by the parents, it would be much worse if the school officials were responsible.

[Jeff777]

Sad. That's all I can say. This is why I want to move out to California, or New York. I love the bustling city life out there and it's nothing like the south. I've never personally experienced racism in MY life but my dad has. He once told me he was walking up the steps to a convenient store (when he was a teen) and a guy loaded his shotgun and opened the door and aimed it at him saying "What do you want Ni****?" This is the south afterall. That's why I'm not entirely surprised to see that a segregated prom still exists in GA. =/

[Taosaur]

This story is noticeable only because it's too small a community for all the whites with two nickels to rub together to start a private school. Throughout Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, certainly, and likely much more of the South, the norm in any city of 10k+ people is for all whites from lower middle class up to send their kids to private schools. The Catholic schools are a little more integrated, accepting many middle class blacks, and in large cities like Jackson there are parallel private schools for the black middle-and-upper classes, and one relatively small, secular, integrated school for "enlightened" yuppies. There are a significant number of poor whites in the public schools, but de facto segregation remains in effect. The most segregated city I saw was Cleveland, Miss. Whites were moving to the west side in droves from all over the region (this city was maybe 18000 people total at the time) because of the majority-white public schools. These were educated, middle-class professionals living in trailers so that their kids wouldn't have to go to school with "those people." So are segregated proms a rarity in the South? No. The oddity is only that this little town was less sophisticated about pulling it off.

[Universal Mind]

This story is noticeable only because it's too small a community for all the whites with two nickels to rub together to start a private school. Throughout Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, certainly, and likely much more of the South, the norm in any city of 10k+ people is for all whites from lower middle class up to send their kids to private schools. The Catholic schools are a little more integrated, accepting many middle class blacks, and in large cities like Jackson there are parallel private schools for the black middle-and-upper classes, and one relatively small, secular, integrated school for "enlightened" yuppies. There are a significant number of poor whites in the public schools, but de facto segregation remains in effect. The most segregated city I saw was Cleveland, Miss. Whites were moving to the west side in droves from all over the region (this city was maybe 18000 people total at the time) because of the majority-white public schools. These were educated, middle-class professionals living in trailers so that their kids wouldn't have to go to school with "those people." So are segregated proms a rarity in the South? No. The oddity is only that this little town was less sophisticated about pulling it off. Cleveland is the only town in Mississippi that has a segregated prom, that I know of. White people in the Jackson area who know about that make fun of Cleveland for being so backward ass. Excuse the boring details, but I want to be precise with this. In the Jackson area, things are not exactly like you characterized them. Madison Central, Ridgeland, Clinton (where Jeff went, and so did Lance Bass), Northwest Rankin, Brandon, and Pearl are all enormous public schools that are very, very integrated. They all have integrated dances, too. Jackson Prep and Jackson Academy have a few black students each, but not many. The "enlightened yuppie" schools are St. Andrews and St. Joe, which are religious. They are both fairly integrated. I don't know if Madison-Ridgeland Academy is integrated at all. Probably not. Rebul Academy will probably not be integrated for another thousand years. Most of the public schools in the city limits are predominantly black, but they all have a significant percentage of white students and students of other races. None of them have segregated proms. So, don't let Cleveland and that hick town in Georgia represent the South too much in your mind. Things are very different from the way they used to be here.

[Taosaur]

To be fair, my information is ten years out of date, and I can only hope there's been significant change. I didn't even know that Cleveland, Miss. had a segregated prom--I talked to maybe 1500 families on both sides of the Bayou in '98. It's definitely an outlier on several fronts, from the deeply established segregation on either side of the Bayou and tracks (it's the only place in the South I encountered racial hostility in black neighborhoods) to the influx of people looking specifically for majority white public schools. I talked to one (1) white woman east of the Bayou who had kids with a black man, and she couldn't show her face on either side of town. Jackson I parachuted into for about two weeks and worked mostly 'transition' neighborhoods--old white couples and young black families, all middle class. I did spend several days in Madison, which was nearly as much a trip as Cleveland. Bringing in another thread, that was one of my two encounters w/ dick cops. While most of the people and the public officials (who I had to track down to trump the dick cop) were reasonable-ish one on one, it was eminently clear that their main reason for being there was avoiding black people. A city the size of Jackson has a greater preponderance of diversity and tolerance than the region it anchors, of course, but there remain vast swaths of the population, black and white, who keep their lives as separate from each other as their income allows. For someone coming in from outside, even from 95%+ white, fairly racist Northern communities (where I grew up and where I went to college), it's shocking. It's like Tolkien crossed with Deliverance in real life.

[Universal Mind]

You are very right about the dick cops in Madison. That hasn't changed at all. Madison and Ridgeland have dick cops big time. I won't even drive in that area at night. Do you remember my recent story about my brother getting a DUI refusal from a complete jackass? That happened in Ridgeland. But... Madison has otherwise changed tremendously over the past ten years. It is rich ass snob territory now instead of country hick territory. It got built up into an empire of mansions almost overnight. Do you remember the aristocratic preppy element of Northeast Jackson from ten years ago? Well, it moved to Madison. It is multi-racial, but there is segregation in terms of neighborhoods, just not the public schools. That description applies to all of the suburban areas. However, every white neighborhood has a notable number of black people, and vice-versa. When I was in school, that was unheard of. By the way, what exactly was your mission when you were here?

[Taosaur]

By the way, what exactly was your mission when you were here? Heh, selling books door to door, eighty hours a week and sometimes more. I spent my four summers during college w/ a company out of Nashville selling "homework manuals"--kind of like the teachers' editions of textbooks, but geared at students and parents. The best method of doing so was to know the area schools backward and forward, getting as many personal referrals as possible but also being able to figure out in 45 seconds who the person you're talking to knows that you've already sold to, which usually goes back to the schools. I don't know when Madison was a hick town, but by the time I got there it was already bou'gee as hell, one step removed from a gated community. Overall Mississippi was a trip--I was based in Leland most of that summer, working Greenville, Indianola and Cleveland, but I became the lone white rep out of the Jackson HQ for the last two-three weeks, my roommates coming from Morehouse College. I had an overall positive impression of people in Mississippi and Georgia (following summer) though not so much Alabama/FL panhandle (my last summer), but the extent of segregation and open prejudice were a real eye-opener.

[Invader]

I'd like to see them separate that prom by gender. See how those sum'bitches do with that.

[Jeff777]

I'd like to see them separate that prom by gender. See how those sum'bitches do with that. .

[Phrisco]

I'd like to see them separate that prom by gender. See how those sum'bitches do with that. That would be awkward...

[Souperman22]

Are they trying to be retarded? Or is it just an accident?

[Universal Mind]

I'd like to see them separate that prom by gender. See how those sum'bitches do with that. The public high school in Boaz, Alabama did that this year. School officials said they are not sexist but they just don't think the genders should mix.

[Phrisco]

but they just don't think the genders should mix. I lol'd.

[Eyeofnight]

There is one word that describes segregation, Foolish. I honestly have little hope for this country of mine. It seems that it is too much to to ask for people to stop looking at color and start looking at people themselves, I sometimes think our worlds would be slightly better if it was always night or everyone was blind.