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April 23, 2007

Georgia School Enters the Modern Era at Last

Color me surprised. I thought segregation ended around the time I was born. At least that's what I've been telling my kids (who were surprised I was that old). But lo and behold, all these many years segregation was still alive and well in Georgia. Until this past weekend, that is. That's when, for the first time black and white students at Turner County High School went to the same prom. I'm not making this up!

The county's school superintendent said he was proud that the kids decided to finally end their segregated proms and said, "The changes needed to come from the student body.''

Say, what? Unless I am misunderstanding what he said, it sounds as if the "adults" in the high school decided to let the kids wait until they were ready to party with their brothers of another color. I thought adults were supposed to lead kids in the right direction, but apparently in Georgia they let the kids lead the way. Or so the superintendent would have us believe, because in fact it was only last year that the county finally crowned a single homecoming queen instead of crowing separate white and black queens. I can accept that the school let the kids organize and raise funds for their own proms, but the homecoming queen election is an official school activity. So it looks to me as if the adults down in Georgia set the tone for racism in the kids. And judging by the success of the first integrated prom, that racism won't be going away overnight.

Only about two-thirds of the school's 160 upper-class students purchased tickets for the prom, blacks still easily outnumbered whites at the dance, and many whites still attended their own 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.''

Tradition? A bunch of white kids get together for an annual school party to which only white kids are invited and this is tradition, as opposed to racism? I'm glad the school is finally entering the modern era, but it sure looks to me as if they have a long road ahead of them.

Posted by Becky at April 23, 2007 02:29 PM