links for 2009-05-25
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"The ACLU is demanding that school officials in the northern San Diego County community of Ramona apologize to a sixth-grade student who was not allowed to present her report on slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk during class time.
Instead, the principal sent letters to parents giving them the option of not allowing their child to listen to the presentation by classmate Natalie Jones. Officials cited the district policy requiring that parents be notified before any classroom instruction about sex, AIDS or "family life.""
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"The American Indian Graduate Student Alliance and the Graduate Student Association have voiced their concerns about the headline, “SB Scalps Aztecs in 15-8 Win[,”which was published on Thursday, April 2 on the sports page. The article was a recap of a baseball game between the UCSB Gauchos and the San Diego State University Aztecs. The AIGSA sent letters to the Nexus, the UCSB Press Council and Chancellor Henry T. Yang about their issues with the headline."
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"He was followed by Ronnie Khalil, who has appeared on Showtime Arabia, a Viacom subsidiary in the Arab world, and has headlined around the Middle East. He talked about how Muslim feasts are all about suffering. "Our holiday Ramadan," he said, "is 30 days of self-deprivation. There's a reason why the Grinch never stole Ramadan.""
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Mainstream media’s responses to the protests have been overwhelmingly racialist, exposing many of the limits of Canadian multiculturalism. In order for Canadian multiculturalism to accept any given group of people as a cultural community, it must define that group by differentiating it from a supposedly mainstream Canadian identity. This focalising Canadian identity—in effect a non-identity—is white and middle-class. Thus, when the Toronto Star publishes an editorial entitled “Protesters vs. the public” [1] it effectively notes that the protesters are not part of the public by pitting (Tamil) protesters against the (Canadian) public. Rather than focusing on the war, media outlets have focused on the inconvenience posed to commuters, thereby shifting attention away from deaths in Sri Lanka to traffic regulations in Canada. "
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"In a series of decisions in the past four years, the Chief Justice has expressed the view that the time has now passed when the Court should allow systemic remedies for racial discrimination. The previous week, the Court heard a challenge by a group of white firefighters in New Haven who were denied promotions even though they had scored better than black applicants on a test. Roberts was, if anything, even more belligerent in questioning the lawyer defending the city. “Now, why is this not intentional discrimination?” he asked. “You are going to have to explain that to me again, because there are particular individuals here,” he said. “And they say they didn’t get their jobs because of intentional racial action by the city.” He added, “You maybe don’t care whether it’s Jones or Smith who is not getting the promotion,” he said. “All you care about is who is getting the promotion. All you care about is his race.”
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"North Dakota's Board of Higher Education has agreed to drop the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname and Indian head logo, a move intended to resolve a decades-long campus dispute about whether the name demeans American Indians."
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"Nabil Abou-Harb, a 24-year-old from Georgia, won the grand prize of "Best Overall Video" and $20,000 for his contribution to "The American Muslim Life" category: Arab in America. The five-minute video was a satirical, bittersweet yet ultimately optimistic depiction of Arabs having to "whitewash" their identity to blend in and avoid harassment. The Arab protagonist changes his name to "Samuel Adam Baker" in order to obtain a lucrative job, and he lies about his piquant Islamic practices to avoid "detection" by his often ignorant co-workers."
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"Racially segregated proms have been held in Montgomery County — where about two-thirds of the population is white — almost every year since its schools were integrated in 1971. Such proms are, by many accounts, longstanding traditions in towns across the rural South, though in recent years a number of communities have successfully pushed for change. When the actor Morgan Freeman offered to pay for last year’s first-of-its-kind integrated prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi, his home state, the idea was quickly embraced by students — and rejected by a group of white parents, who held a competing “private” prom. (The effort is the subject of a documentary, “Prom Night in Mississippi,” which will be shown on HBO in July.)"
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
jen* wrote:
on prom in Ga: “I really don’t understand,” she said. “Because I’m thinking that these people love me and I love them, but I don’t know. Tonight’s a different story.”
I think that quote sums it up – the white kids think it’s just “tradition” and figure they might as well go along with it. But it never is *just* tradition.
Posted 25 May 2009 at 1:05 pm ¶
Mahsino wrote:
That New York Times article (and accompanying slideshow) was all sorts of disturbing. Did we really need to spend that much time and detail on the fact that the black kids ate 2 buckets of fried chicken at KFC? No. Did they really need to end the slideshow on the picture of the black kids grinding on each other? No.
I did however love the whole excuse of “that’s just the way it’s always been”. It’s like hon’- let’s be a bit more creative cause that excuse got played out during slavery and legalized segregation.
Posted 25 May 2009 at 4:04 pm ¶
EvilAngelfish wrote:
@Mahsino
The mention of the 2 buckets of chicken seemed gratuitous to me too. A not-so-subtle touch of ‘this is what black kids do when they’re not around the white kids. Eat chicken and bump ‘n’ grind.’
Posted 25 May 2009 at 6:36 pm ¶
BSK wrote:
Oi vei. I think what is most ridiculous is the fact that it’s not really a “black prom” and “white prom”… it’s a “white-only prom” and an “everyone else prom, but white people can go to, if they want.” Ugh.
Posted 25 May 2009 at 8:36 pm ¶
jen* wrote:
ok – so it wasn’t just me noticing the chicken. and the mentioning of the grinding. eh.
Posted 25 May 2009 at 10:06 pm ¶
Whitney wrote:
RE: segregated prom
Seems to me that it’s more about the white parents wanting to have control over their kids, instead of letting them do what they want by having a prom with the whole school. Sure, some of those students are over 18, but some parents hold stuff over their kids like you wouldn’t believe. I was almost kicked out at 18 because I got a tattoo. I think it’s also a problem with the school, because obviously students are very interested and very into not doing the segregated prom thing, but they seem reluctant just because one year it was poorly attended. So why can’t the school sponsor the dance? Why give the control to the (white) parents who insist on segregating it? Some parents just don’t want to relinquish control over their kids. Like when Morgan Freeman paid for his school’s prom last year, some white parents *still* wanted that control and threw their own private dance. How stupid is that? I really just don’t get it.
I feel sorry for those kids whose parents are like that, and then it just sucks for everyone, for the whole school. @BSK: Yeah, that’s what I got too.
RE: UND Logo
Good, I’ve always thought that it was inappropriate for sports teams to use Native American names and logos and mascots. I do think that if they want to use them, they should be legally obligated to be granted permission by the tribe/nation.
RE: Harvey Milk report
Good for the ACLU. I think it’s ridiculous that the school required students to get permission slips to hear a report about a gay man. Because, obviously, it’s always about sex with teh gayz and an absence of “family values” and all of teh gayz have teh AIDS. All it does is encourage stereotyping and homophobia and misinformation. I hope they get sued.
Posted 25 May 2009 at 11:42 pm ¶
Paz wrote:
@Whitney – even if it’s the parents that are pushing the segregation, the kids’ complacency with the system is still sending a message. They could always boycott the white prom and attend the black prom.
I did a blog post on this, and a commenter actually wrote this:
“before we rush off and judge the actions of the parents perhaps we need to know if there has been a high rate of intimidation, thuggery, sexual harassment, etc. If the answer is no, then there should be no reason for separation.”
*headdesk*
Posted 26 May 2009 at 7:38 pm ¶
David Cone wrote:
This NY Times story is decades late, to be honest. I attended the University of Virginia in the mid 1990’s and being an out-of-stater that had lived in VERY well-integrated communities in the DC Metro area, imagine my shock and dismay when I met an attractive black lady who said she was a prom queen only to have a white guy say “But that’s because she went to Black Prom.”
I had to ask some questions to clarify, but apparently, that year GW-Danville HS in Danville, Virginia had two girls that were crowned Prom Queen. One white. One black. WTF?!?!
I read the Times magazine article. And I was surprised that the bucket of chicken was “thrown in” there. Honestly, I’m just glad that there’s no such thing as a segregated prom where I live. Those things are as antiquated as calling someone “mulatto” or an “octoroon” or something.
I feel sorry for the people that have to live in communities like that. Black and white. There IS an effect on those kids, though, and I don’t think that anyone condoning the practice truly understands it.
Posted 26 May 2009 at 7:47 pm ¶
Whitney wrote:
@Paz:
But at what price, though? These parents don’t sound like the most reasonable of folks. You don’t really know what they’re threatening their kids with. I got a tattoo of all things when I was 17 and I almost got kicked out and almost didn’t get to go to college over a stupid tattoo (I negotiated and paid to have it removed so I could stay living under their roof). I’m just speculating here, but what if a parent threatened to not pay for college for you, or worse, kick you out of the house upon graduation simply for going to the black students’ prom? Would it be worth it? And there’s always the option of not going, of course, but I didn’t go to either my junior or senior proms and I wish I had been able to go.
I really think it’s closed-minded parents who are basically punishing their kids for their own bigotry. I don’t think that all of the white students are complacent with the situation, and that they simply feel that they can’t really do anything about it. It’s like they’re in a catch-22.
I think it’s easy for us to forget what it’s like to be a teenager and still be under the control of your parents, both legally and psychologically. Some parents are just totally unreasonable and don’t want to relinquish their control over their kids. One example I can think of, when my boyfriend’s father graduated from high school, his dad simply kicked him out of the house and put him on the streets just because. He was homeless for quite some time, and neither of his parents would let him come back home. Some parents are just really fucked up in the head and I think this story is an example of that.
The only thing I think that would change this situation is if the school took action and hosted a school-sponsored prom, which is how it should have been from the get-go. Sorry, I’m rambling, but stories like this just get under my skin.
Posted 26 May 2009 at 11:12 pm ¶
hall monitor wrote:
Check out http://detentionslip.org for an AWESOME video trying to end segregated proms!
Posted 28 May 2009 at 8:30 pm ¶