What's Next...Drinking Out of the Same Bubbler?
History was made in Ashburn, GA this past weekend as the last high school in the country to still have segregated proms decided it was no longer 1954. You can certainly add "in 2006 an American high school still had segregated proms" to the list of things I would have never known but props to the student body for getting this baby going.
"This is history, baby, this is history," said Noriega McKeller, a 19-year-old senior. "Somebody had to do it. Why couldn't it be us?"
Apparently, it could and if you think this was a bit too much, too soon...no need to fret. The white students still had their "private party" a week earlier.
"Last weekend was more like tradition. It wasn't racist, or prejudice," said Calvin Catom, a white senior who attended both parties. "This weekend is about the whole school getting together and having a party."Few other white students would comment about the dance, telling reporters gathered outside the gym that school officials told them not to talk to the media.
Huh?
The Rev. Shaw Moore is not pleased.
Posted by: alex | April 24, 2007 at 11:19 AM
I swear to god.... I'm actually speechless.
Posted by: Assman | April 24, 2007 at 12:06 PM
"southern Georgia peanut-farming county"....jeez, that actually explains it.
Posted by: bluehorseshoe | April 24, 2007 at 12:26 PM
Where are de white women at?
Posted by: Ocho Ocho | April 24, 2007 at 01:10 PM
Where are de white women at?
Posted by: Ocho Ocho | April 24, 2007 at 01:11 PM
"southern Georgia peanut-farming county"....jeez, that actually explains it.
No. You know what? It doesn't explain it.
I've done some googling to find out more about this shit because, yeah, what the fuck?
I've seen explanations for this ranging from "they like different types of music" to "but these are private parties where they can invite anyone they want," and I still don't get it.
I needed to not see this. Damn you, Art.
Posted by: Assman | April 24, 2007 at 01:17 PM
That picture is fantastic.
Posted by: jackie | April 24, 2007 at 01:23 PM
"they like different types of music"
That's some impenetrable logic right there.
Posted by: Art Vandelay | April 24, 2007 at 01:33 PM
That picture is fantastic.
It really is. I might have called for a caption contest if I didn't think caption contests were incredibly gay.
Posted by: Art Vandelay | April 24, 2007 at 01:35 PM
19 year old senior? Isn't that aggravated rape or something in georgia?
Posted by: Yo Yo Mother | April 24, 2007 at 01:35 PM
See? It's happening already. When Obama is elected, racism will be ancient history.*
*kidding
Posted by: jeffpotts77 | April 24, 2007 at 01:35 PM
Why are you all surprised??
Posted by: Dr. Strangejazz | April 24, 2007 at 01:37 PM
My favorite part of a different article:
"If they're not coming tonight it's because either they had to work and they couldn't get out of it or because their parents are still having an issue because they grew up in south Georgia," she said.
"I've asked, 'Why can't you come?' and they're like, 'My mommy and daddy -- they don't agree with being with the colored people,' which I think is crazy," she said.
BUT THERE'S NO RACISM ANYMORE, RIGHT?
Posted by: | April 24, 2007 at 01:41 PM
Why are you all surprised??
You cannot be serious. There are 4 kids in that picture looking at each other like they didn't realize they each existed. We live in a world where access to the outside world is easier to find than it has ever been. Finding these antiquated notions still in well-founded play is like finding a caveman in downtown Little Rock.
Posted by: Assman | April 24, 2007 at 02:11 PM
"We live in a world where access to the outside world is easier to find than it has ever been."
We have the choice to gain access to that outside world. Some people choose to not gain access to it.
Social segregation is something we all are guilty off.
You have plenty of places in this country in where the only black people the white folks see are on television.
Question: If all the white kids hangout on one side of the room and all the black kids hangout on the other side, is the prom still
intergrated even though they are under the same roof?
Posted by: Dr. Strangejazz | April 24, 2007 at 02:21 PM
I think if you played "H to the Izzo" and "Freebird" simultaneously you could get everyone on the dance floor at the same time.
Posted by: Art Vandelay | April 24, 2007 at 02:33 PM
I think if you played "H to the Izzo" and "Freebird" simultaneously you could get everyone on the dance floor at the same time.
Sort of like the Danger Mouse album, eh?
Posted by: Assman | April 24, 2007 at 02:49 PM
""Question: If all the white kids hangout on one side of the room and all the black kids hangout on the other side, is the prom still
intergrated even though they are under the same roof?""
Posted by: Dr. Strangejazz | April 24, 2007 at 02:21 PM
******************************************
Yeah, cuz they're using the same bathrooms. Definitely full integration going on right there.
Posted by: lattalayne | April 24, 2007 at 02:55 PM
I don't think it's an "integration" issue. It's more a question of preventing the white guys from being embarrassed while dancing. (Kind of like the movement going on to have girls'-only math and science classes, so the girls can ask questions and such without feeling like they will look like idiots.)
Posted by: Steve H. | April 24, 2007 at 05:26 PM
The one guy is wearing a pink vest, and the other seems to be wearing black Dockers.
I swear, running into a caveman in Little Rock wouldn't suprise me, as far as I can tell most of the south is populated by unevolved primates. I can't believe we fought a war to keep them in the union.
Posted by: daveNYC | April 24, 2007 at 11:44 PM
Hey dave, watch it.
The town I live in is about 30-40% black. The best steakhouse in town, Dale's, only hires black waiters and they have to wear there odd red sportcoat numbers. I've only seen one black couple ever eating there.
At my favorite grocery store, which has by far the best meats and produce, the only black people I've ever seen in the building were working there. I've shopped there for almost four years now, and have only seen a handful of black people shopping there. In a town with over 40,000 people.
The south is fucked up.
Posted by: Bobby P | April 25, 2007 at 07:42 AM
And yet moving back down south is the new black American dream. Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, are in the top ten cities for blacks according to Black Enterprise magazine. There's something to be said for affordable housing and the availability of good public schools
Posted by: DFS | April 25, 2007 at 03:41 PM
I'm not sure I'd put 'Houston' and 'good public schools' in the same paragraph.
Posted by: daveNYC | April 25, 2007 at 11:50 PM
"I'm not sure I'd put 'Houston' and 'good public schools' in the same paragraph."
Ditto Atlanta.
Posted by: Jack Klompus | April 26, 2007 at 09:58 AM
By good public schools I mean that there are good schools available in the nicer neighborhoods and suburbs, and the economic barriers to entry into good neighborhoods are much lower than in the big cities on the west coast and in the northeast
Posted by: DFS | April 26, 2007 at 01:53 PM