There’s No Racism In America
Basically, in Montgomery County, Georgia, the high school school does not sponsor or host a prom. Instead, the parents of black and white students host two proms, held at the same venue on consecutive nights. A few white students attend the black prom, no black students attend the white one. The school, not surprisingly, has largely thrown its hands up at this horrible state of affairs, and instead leaves the parents and students to continue organizing their parallel proms.
Besides the fact that this story manages to confirm every stereotype ever conceived about the rural south (check out Harley Boone’s picture with her stepfather and her mom who looks maybe 15 years older than her), but it also shows how unthinking and routine racism can be. The piece made it seem that no white students were especially enthusiastic about the segregated proms, and that it was mostly their parents combined with the inertia of the school that allowed this horrific tradition to continue unabated. The audio slide show, besides having some of the most sociologically interesting prom pictures I’ve seen in a while, is a perfect example of how white people describe this type of ingrained, traditional, lazy racism.
Harley Boone, one of the white girls, is quick to point out that black and white students hang out with each other and that proms have been done this way, “it’s not a big deal around here, it’s what we know and it’s what our parents have done for all these years.” This is important. The prom tradition isn’t really that much of a tradition. Instead, the separate proms were established in 1971, when the school was finally integrated. Before then, the question of having a black prom never even occurred to the white parents or students. Anita Williamson, Harley’s mother, hews even closer to the classic Southern racist script, “This community, this school system is fine like it is. They have done it ever since the school system has been open and they started having proms, it has worked for them this way, why change something that works? The kids are perfectly fine with it.” This is how people looking to justify legal and social discrimination and racism have defended themselves for as long as they have been forced to defend themselves.
So why don’t the kids rise up? Well, I hesitate to get too deep into the psychology of people from a place and culture I hardly know, but I think it’s probably just laziness. Rural communities like this one tend to not have a lot of movement in and out, meaning that their parents and older siblings all see segregated proms as normal and routine. Add on to the fact that a whole lot of high school students, in my experience at least, just go through the proscribed steps of the prom ritual without really caring a whole lot one way or another, and you’ll never really see much impetus for change.
For another look at how deeply American instituions for young people in the South are corrupted by lazy racism, check out this Jason Zengerle article about the University of Alabama’s Greek system.
I would actually also say that having these two proms perpetuates racism by separating the high school students into two groups based on race. It stops them all from identifying together as students of one high school and one class within that high school, instead they’re black students of that class in that high school or white students of that class in that high school.
Daniel
May 26, 2009 at 7:32 pm
I Graduated from Montgomery County in 2007. Prom has always been segrated but that dosent stop anyone from buying a ticket in fact everyone,even the public is invited to senior walk..
We all attended class together , played sports, and done other activites together, no individual person can say that they got rejected to go to prom because of there color. Montgomery County isnt that big of a school , everyone knows eveybody.
As far as Harley goes she is a great person really this out going girl , many friend of all race, and if anybody disliked her it was because they where jelious of her beauty and populairty.
Lori Presgraves
June 10, 2009 at 5:24 pm
“I Graduated from Montgomery County in 2007″… it’s no wonder the proms are segregated; Lori Presgraves, a self proclaimed “graduate”, can’t grasp the simple paste tense of ‘do’ (which is NOT ‘done’), does not know the difference between there & their, is unaware that outgoing is a word unto itself and cannot spell either jealous or popularity!
I think the school and obviously the community has some serious problems. One of which is they allow kids to graduate with a 3rd grade education, it’s no wonder the folks in those parts think segregation is ‘ok’!
Absolutely appalling!
EnglishSherpa
June 21, 2009 at 6:06 pm
The Big Pink Elephants
By C.J. Greene
What would you do?
There once was a couple from a foreign country, who wanted to buy a nice house for their family. They looked in all the real estate sites that they could find, and finally settled on a beautiful four bedroom bungalow that suited their tastes in America. They had heard that it was “the land of the free and the home of the brave” and they wanted their children to grow up in “the land of opportunity” in order to have a better life. There was just one big problem…they had also heard that the country was overrun with very large, VERY DANGEROUS, pink elephants and were very concerned about their family’s safety.
On the day that they were supposed to purchase their new house, they asked the real estate agent if there was a possibility that there would be any big pink elephants near their new home. “Pink elephants…? What are you talking about? There are no pink elephants in America. I don’t think you will have any problems with them because they don’t exist.” But, just as a matter of caution the real estate agent asked them another question. “What nationality are you, anyway?”
The couple answered her: “Nationality…? What are you talking about?”
“You know…what race are you? Where are your parents from?” she asked.
The couple looked a little perplexed, but the man answered the agent calmly: “Why… our parents are from Earth and we grew up in the city of Hope. We learned English by watching TV and movies. But, it was getting very crowded there and we needed to move to a bigger home. That is the reason why we want to come to America. We had heard that there was freedom there, and that we could make a lot of money, and that our children could play with other nice children and grow up to be good people. However, this thing about the big pink elephants really concerns us. But, if you say they don’t exist, then we believe you.”
The agent spoke up, quickly: “Um…The reason why I asked you about your nationality, is because I didn’t want you to be disappointed when you finally do move to America.”
The couple looked at one another again with a perplexed look on their faces and this time the wife spoke up: “Why would we be disappointed? We’ve found the perfect house and we have the money for the down payment and the mortgage. My husband is intelligent, he has a lot of experience, and we are sure that he will find a good job. Our children are intelligent. We are sure they will do well in school and eventually go to good colleges. And, I plan to get involved in the community to keep busy. What does our nationality, or our race have to do with what we want to do in the future?”
The agent looked nervous. “Oh nothing…I guess. Why don’t we just meet tomorrow and we we’ll finalize the sale of the house.”
The next day the couple met the real estate agent at her office. When they walked in the agent had a strange look on her face. The man was very, very dark-skinned, but he had blue eyes and straight blond hair. The woman was very, very light skinned, but she had very kinky, black hair. The three children ranged in skin tones from very light to almost blue-black. Their eyes were a mixture of hues and colors from brown to green and their hair ranged in textures and colors from straight to kinky, and from blond to black. They sat down in the chairs surrounding the agent’s desk. The children were very well-behaved and orderly. The adults shook hands and exchanged greetings, cordially.
The agent looked very nervous. She stuttered when she finally spoke up: “ Uh…I-I have all the paperwork here…so if you are ready to sign, we can get going.”
“Wait a minute…,” said the man. We’d like to go see the house in person first. You know…take a look around at the neighborhood a little bit.”
The agent began to get very jittery. “Um… I don’t think you want to do that. Just take my word for it. The house is very nice and you will love it. Just sign right here on the bottom line.”
The man was adamant. “I don’t think so… we would like to look around, if you don’t mind.” Just then he thought he saw a big pink animal run past the window. “What was that? I thought I saw one of those pink elephants outside.”
“Impossible!” said the agent. “I told you there were no pink elephants in America! Let’s just go take that ride to see that house.”
The family and the agent soon pulled into the driveway of the new house. They happily got out of the car, looked around quickly and went inside. Their next door neighbor was a middle-aged, White man who was outside watering his lawn. He watched them intently, as the strange-looking family walked inside their new house. He didn’t say a word to them, nor did he wave hello. Soon, a large pink elephant ran across his lawn toward his back yard. Inside the house, the atmosphere got tense.
“Daddy…Daddy,” the little boy began. “…there is a big pink elephant in the yard next door! Come look, quick!” The father walked toward the window just in time to see the man next door pushing what looked like a very large pink animal into his garage. Immediately, the father noticed an extremely foul odor coming from the next-door neighbor’s yard. “I don’t know if I want to live here, now,” he began. “That odor is very, very strong —and I certainly don’t want to live next door to it.”
“Don’t be silly,” began the real estate agent. “I don’t smell anything. And, besides…if there was an odor here… I’m sure you will get used to it.” Her smile belied something sinister.
The man was reticent, but he really did like the house and didn’t want to cause any more problems for his family. The odor began to dissipate a little, so he suggested that they all go back to the agent’s office to consummate the deal. As the couple and their family rode back to the real estate office, they could swear that they all saw big pink elephants in several of their neighbor’s back yards.
As they rode through the downtown area, they knew that they saw big pink elephants in the lobbies of the big office buildings and in the parking lots of the malls and the department stores they passed. The biggest ones were in the school yards. The same smell that was in the neighbor’s yard permeated the whole city and made them sick to their stomachs. Upon arriving back at the real estate agent’s office, the man couldn’t hold back any longer.
“I don’t think we want to live here anymore. I think we are going to take our money and go somewhere else.”
“No, now…don’t be silly,” began the agent. “You’re going to be very happy here. Why did you change your mind? Why are you acting like this? ”
“Why did you lie to us?” The man asked, with a very disappointed look on his face.
“I didn’t lie to you… What are you talking about?” said the agent.
“Well, if you don’t know —then I can’t tell you,” said the man as he walked away with his family.
“Well, fine then…” said the agent. “Just take your strange little mongrels and get the hell out of my office.” With that being said, the family left without saying another word. The real estate agent walked over to the closet in the corner of the room, opened the door and gave the big pink elephant that was inside something to eat. “I told you those kind of people were no good,” she said, and quickly went back to her work. “I didn’t want to show them that house, anyway.”
Copyrighted by C.J. Greene, July 2009, Atlanta, GA.
CJ GREENE
July 12, 2009 at 11:38 pm