First White & Black Joint Prom in a town in Georgia?

[astrosfan64]

I thought this was a joke at first. I didn't realize this still goes on in the US.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18034102/?GT1=9246


ASHBURN, Ga. - Breaking from tradition, high school students in this small town are getting together for this year’s prom.

Prom night at Turner County High has long been an evening of de facto segregation: white students organized their own unofficial prom, while black students did the same.

This year’s group of seniors didn’t want that legacy. When the four senior class officers — two whites and two blacks — met with Principal Chad Stone at the start of the school year, they had more on their minds than changes to the school’s dress code.

They wanted an all-school prom. They wanted everyone invited.

On April 21, they’ll have their wish. The town’s auditorium will be transformed into a tropical scene, and for the first time, every junior and senior, regardless of race, will be invited.

The prom’s theme: Breakaway.

“Everybody says that’s just how it’s always been. It’s just the way of this very small town,” said James Hall, a 17-year-old black student who is the senior class president.

“But it’s time for a change.”

There are excited announcements of the upcoming dance plastered all over the school, where about 55 percent of students are black and most of the rest are white.

A makeshift countdown to the prom is displayed as a cardboard cutout on a main hallway. Student council members canvass the hallways, asking students to buy a $25 ticket and be a part of history. In the cafeteria, images of palm trees and waterfalls brighten up the sterile walls. “The First Ever!” a poster exclaims. “Got your haircut?”

Difficult task
Students say the self-segregation that splits social circles in school mirrors the attitude of this town of 4,000 people. So getting every student to break from the past could be a difficult task.

With prom night about two weeks away, only half of the 160 upper-class students have bought tickets. And there’s talk around the school that some white students might throw a competing party at a nearby lake.

“Everyone is saying they’re not going to the school prom,” said Steven Tuller, a 17-year-old white junior who doesn’t plan to attend either event because he wants to wait until he’s a senior. “They’re saying it’s tradition.”

Yet Turner County High already has defied tradition this year. The school abandoned its practice of naming separate white and black homecoming queens. Instead, a mixed-race student was named the county’s first solo homecoming queen.

'Life's got to move on'
Some alumni welcome change at Turner County High.

“People still think of how life was 20, 30 years ago,” said Keith Massey, a 1990 graduate who now runs the popular Keith-A-Que restaurant in town, about 75 miles south of Macon. “And life’s got to move on.”

Massey recalls an attempt to integrate one of the prom parties when he was in school, but few whites showed up. Attempts to organize a school-wide prom in recent years failed because of a lack of student support.

Stone, serving his first year as the school’s principal, has been enthusiastic about an integrated prom. He’s funneling $5,000 of his meager discretionary fund to hire a DJ and buy decorations, and he’s persuaded a photographer to set up shop at the civic center to snap photos of the couples before the dance.

“This senior class is a close-knit group from top to bottom, and they want to do what’s right,” said Stone, who is white. “They wanted a full school prom. And I told them if they would do it, I’d do them right.”

[wade moore]

Good for the senior class.

[astrosfan64]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Good for the senior class.

Agreed 100%, I guess I just find it so very strange that there are still places left like this in the USA. Don't get me wrong, I realize there is still racism in the US, but I thought this sort of thing at Public Schools had at least been stamped out.

[lungs]

Which one did the interracial couples go to before this?

[molson]

I remember a certain poster from Georiga on this board criticizing the racial intolerance of the northeast. I couldn't believe what was reading.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Good for the senior class.

My thoughts exactly. That would be quite the legacy to establish in highschool.

[Daimyo]

The school abandoned its practice of naming separate white and black homecoming queens. Instead, a mixed-race student was named the county’s first solo homecoming queen.

That line is funny to me. Did they intentionally pick a mixed race student or did it just happen that way?

[Ben E Lou]

I'm not familiar with Turner County, but as I expected, my first guess as to the catalyst for this was dead-on balls accurate.

2002

Date	Day	Time	Opponent	Location/Score
Aug 30	Fri		Fitzgerald (1-AAA)	Lost 19-58
Sep 06	Fri		Wilcox County (4-A)	Tie 27-27
Sep 13	Fri		Westover (1-AAA)	Lost 0-35
Sep 20	Fri		Americus-Sumter (1-AA)*	Lost 0-56
Oct 04	Fri		Sumter County (1-AA)*	Lost 18-20
Oct 11	Fri		Terrell County (1-AA)*	Won 39-19
Oct 18	Fri		Randolph-Clay (1-AA)*	Lost 0-40
Nov 01	Fri		Early County (1-AA)*	Lost 7-56
Nov 07	Thu		Albany (1-AA)*	Lost 20-30
Nov 15	Fri		Mitchell County (1-AA)*	Lost 25-28

2003

Date	Day	Time	Opponent	Location/Score
Aug 29	Fri		Fitzgerald (1-AAA)	Lost 0-13
Sep 05	Fri		Wilcox County (4-A)	Lost 9-12
Sep 12	Fri		Westover (1-AAA)	Lost 6-41
Sep 19	Fri		Americus-Sumter (1-AA)*	Lost 6-52
Oct 03	Fri		Sumter County (1-AA)*	Lost 15-49
Oct 10	Fri		Terrell County (1-AA)*	Won 40-19
Oct 17	Fri		Randolph-Clay (1-AA)*	Lost 16-30
Oct 31	Fri		Early County (1-AA)*	Lost 11-42
Nov 07	Fri		Albany (1-AA)*	Lost 7-28
Nov 14	Fri		Mitchell County (1-AA)*	Lost 20-56

2004

Date	Day	Time	Opponent	Location/Score
Aug 21	Sat		Wilcox County (4-A)	Won 20-12
Aug 27	Fri		Irwin County (2-AA)	Lost 8-45
Sep 03	Fri		Lee County (1-AAAA)	Lost 0-49
Sep 10	Fri		Berrien (1-AA)	Lost 20-28
Sep 24	Fri		Seminole County (1-A)*	Won 33-7
Oct 01	Fri		Lanier County (1-A)*	Won 20-14
Oct 08	Fri		Pelham (1-A)*	Won 13-7
Oct 15	Fri		Clinch County (1-A)*	Lost 7-57
Oct 22	Fri		Atkinson County (1-A)*	Lost 19-21
Oct 29	Fri		Miller County (1-A)*	Won 41-13
Nov 05	Fri		Savannah Country Day (3-A)	Lost 36-38

2005

Date	Day	Time	Opponent	Location/Score
Aug 19	Fri		Wilcox County (4-A)	Lost 8-21
Aug 26	Fri		Irwin County (2-AA)	Won 14-12
Sep 02	Fri		Lee County (1-AAAA)	Lost 32-37
Sep 09	Fri		Berrien (1-AA)	Won 46-20
Sep 23	Fri	7:30 PM	Seminole County (1-A)*	Won 33-13
Sep 30	Fri	8:00 PM	Lanier County (1-A)*	Won 28-13
Oct 07	Fri		Pelham (1-A)*	Won 28-0
Oct 14	Fri		Clinch County (1-A)*	Won 14-7
Oct 21	Fri		Atkinson County (1-A)*	Won 42-3
Oct 28	Fri		Miller County (1-A)*	Won 49-6
Nov 04	Fri		Pacelli (2-A)	Won 12-7
Nov 11	Fri		Savannah Country Day (3-A)	Lost 6-17

2006

Date	Day	Time	Opponent	Location/Score
Sep 01	Fri	7:30 PM	Worth County (1-AAA)	Won 20-14
Sep 08	Fri		Macon County (5-AA)	Won 15-14
Sep 15	Fri		Crisp County (1-AAA)	Lost 24-35
Sep 22	Fri		Montgomery County (2B-A)	Won 51-0
Sep 29	Fri	7:30 PM	Treutlen (2B-A)	Won 36-0
Oct 13	Fri		Wilcox County (2A-A)*	Won 20-13
Oct 20	Fri		Hawkinsville (2A-A)*	Won 18-13
Oct 28	Sat		Dooly County (2A-A)*	Won 22-18
Nov 03	Fri	7:30 PM	Irwin County (2A-A)*	Won 21-14
Nov 10	Fri	7:30 PM	Wheeler County (2B-A)*	Won 46-0
Nov 17	Fri	7:30 PM	Bryan County (3-A)	Won 33-16
Nov 24	Fri		Pacelli (4-A)	Lost 20-21

[Pumpy Tudors]

I'm not sure what the correlation is between football results and the integration of the prom. OK, I see that the football team is winning a lot more games now, but I'm not seeing why that would affect the prom.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I'm not sure what the correlation is between football results and the integration of the prom. OK, I see that the football team is winning a lot more games now, but I'm not seeing why that would affect the prom.

I assume SD is suggesting there is a correlation between the number of black football players on recent teams and the grudging acceptance by whites of the black community as a necessary by-product of having a sucessful high school football program?

If that's not the intimation, I'm not quite sure what he's getting at either.

[Critch]

I think the message is that the country would be more integrated and racism would be a thing of the past if only black people were better at football.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I assume SD is suggesting there is a correlation between the number of black football players on recent teams and the grudging acceptance by whites of the black community as a necessary by-product of having a sucessful high school football program?

If that's not the intimation, I'm not quite sure what he's getting at either.

Not quite. I seriously doubt the demographics of Turner County have changed all that much. What HAS changed, though, is that a winning football program causes people to get to know each other across racial lines. Again, without even looking, I'll bet you bottom dollar that Turner County has dirt-poor blacks, *maybe* a few poor whites, and a "ruling class" of middle class and wealthier whites. In towns like that, even though they're at the same school, they don't tend to get to know each other. Usually in these types of towns, the black kids are in more remedial classes, and the white kids are in college prep classes. However, a winning football program puts kids together in the stands, and adults together in the booster club, and attitudes can change very, very quickly. I don't think it's "grudging acceptance" as much as it is kids actually getting to know each other as people, perhaps for the first time.

[astrosfan64]

Originally Posted by Critch

I think the message is that the country would be more integrated and racism would be a thing of the past if only black people were better at football.

LOL

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Not quite. I seriously doubt the demographics of Turner County have changed all that much. What HAS changed, though, is that a winning football program causes people to get to know each other across racial lines. Again, without even looking, I'll bet you bottom dollar that Turner County has dirt-poor blacks, *maybe* a few poor whites, and a "ruling class" of middle class and wealthier whites. In towns like that, even though they're at the same school, they don't tend to get to know each other. Usually in these types of towns, the black kids are in more remedial classes, and the white kids are in college prep classes. However, a winning football program puts kids together in the stands, and adults together in the booster club, and attitudes can change very, very quickly. I don't think it's "grudging acceptance" as much as it is kids actually getting to know each other as people, perhaps for the first time.

I only say it that way because when I was in high school in Georgia, in a very white area, and we had a very good football team one year that was undone by the fact that the star (and pretty much lone black) player on the team was ruled ineligible after the season, it probably set back race relations about 15 years. Although the kids, in general, weren't the problem, of course. It was the adults.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I only say it that way because when I was in high school in Georgia, in a very white area, and we had a very good football team one year that was undone by the fact that the star (and pretty much lone black) player on the team was ruled ineligible after the season, it probably set back race relations about 15 years. Although the kids, in general, weren't the problem, of course. It was the adults.

See, there are two different rural prototypes in Georgia, really. The situation you describe is the one that most people picture: a very rural, very white area. From the article (and the location south of Macon), it's clear that this is the other "typical" scenario: a sizeable poor black population that has been there through slavery and sharecropping, and in most cases has never advanced much beyond that mentality. This particular locale appears to be near or in what is known as the "Black Belt" of South Georgia.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

This particular locale appears to be near or in what is known as the "Black Belt" of South Georgia.

And I thought I'd never live to see the day that SkyDog brought Chuck Norris into a thread...

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I assume SD is suggesting there is a correlation between the number of black football players on recent teams and the grudging acceptance by whites of the black community as a necessary by-product of having a sucessful high school football program?

If that's not the intimation, I'm not quite sure what he's getting at either.

I think that was the point as well. Whites accepting blacks far more because of the need for the "black athlete" (to use a turn of phrase from "Friday Night Lights" - the book) on the football team.

[Leonidas]

The obligatory, I first thought this was a thread about black on white porn in Georgia finally being legal.

[Hurst2112]

When are the effin rednecks in the south gonna turn into full time humans? I can't believe it took us till today to read something like this. I can't believe it's news at all. Good for the schools, great for the students. They got balls and I salute them all.

Sherman should have done a couple laps in that state. Looks like there were some idiots left to breed.

[Pumpy Tudors]

In before the lock

[molson]

Originally Posted by Hurst2112

When are the effin rednecks in the south gonna turn into full time humans? I can't believe it took us till today to read something like this. I can't believe it's news at all. Good for the schools, great for the students. They got balls and I salute them all.

Sherman should have done a couple laps in that state. Looks like there were some idiots left to breed.

Sometimes I wish the Civil War was a stalemate, with the compromise being Slavery ended, the free blacks could go anywhere else in the country if they so chose, and the confederacy gained it's independence.

[Hurst2112]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

In before the lock

that should be interesting. maybe my first ban in 8 years too! nummy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm amazed at the press this story has been getting this week, since I'm almost positive that this is at least the second time around for this "news".

Hopefully this will ring a bell to SD or one of the other Georgian's on the board (since they're the likeliest to have heard what I'm talking about).

I'm thinking sometime in the past 3-5 years this same school (that's the part I'm not 100% certain of right now) tried to have a joint prom but failed when the students rejected the notion & chose to attend only the single-race prom (can't remember whether the joint effort was ultimately scrapped or went forward with hardly anybody there).

The kids were interviewed by various media outlets & nearly all of them, black or white had pretty much the same general take on things -- we don't like the same music, we don't like the same food, we don't want to have the prom(s) in the same place, why on earth would we stop doing something we enjoy in order to do something that we won't enjoy?

Apparently something has changed from then until now, but at the time I was rather impressed by the way that the kids handled the attention they were getting. They spoke their minds, they appeared honest & sincere about their reasons, and they generally felt like it was their business not everybody else's.

If the mood/climate/attitude/whatever has changed since then, that's fine.
But darned if I see any problem with the decision being theirs, whatever they decided to do, then or now.

(Worth highlighting, so that it isn't missed, that the prom(s) are private affairs & are not organized by the school system - that was a point that was frequently made the first time this was in the news, that there was no real school involvement in the planning beyond allowing the group(s) to promote their event on campus)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by molson

Sometimes I wish the Civil War was a stalemate, with the compromise being Slavery ended, the free blacks could go anywhere else in the country if they so chose, and the confederacy gained it's independence.

Oh, if only ...

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'm amazed at the press this story has been getting this week, since I'm almost positive that this is at least the second time around for this "news".

Hopefully this will ring a bell to SD or one of the other Georgian's on the board (since they're the likeliest to have heard what I'm talking about).

I'm thinking sometime in the past 3-5 years this same school (that's the part I'm not 100% certain of right now) tried to have a joint prom but failed when the students rejected the notion & chose to attend only the single-race prom (can't remember whether the joint effort was ultimately scrapped or went forward with hardly anybody there).

The kids were interviewed by various media outlets & nearly all of them, black or white had pretty much the same general take on things -- we don't like the same music, we don't like the same food, we don't want to have the prom(s) in the same place, why on earth would we stop doing something we enjoy in order to do something that we won't enjoy?

Apparently something has changed from then until now, but at the time I was rather impressed by the way that the kids handled the attention they were getting. They spoke their minds, they appeared honest & sincere about their reasons, and they generally felt like it was their business not everybody else's.

If the mood/climate/attitude/whatever has changed since then, that's fine.
But darned if I see any problem with the decision being theirs, whatever they decided to do, then or now.

(Worth highlighting, so that it isn't missed, that the prom(s) are private affairs & are not organized by the school system - that was a point that was frequently made the first time this was in the news, that there was no real school involvement in the planning beyond allowing the group(s) to promote their event on campus)

Different school. I think you're referring to another TC in the same general area: Taylor County, but everything else about your recollection jibes with mine. I know the first one was Taylor County, though, because I'm very familiar with them. (They were in our subregion in HS.)

[Hurst2112]

Originally Posted by molson

Sometimes I wish the Civil War was a stalemate, with the compromise being Slavery ended, the free blacks could go anywhere else in the country if they so chose, and the confederacy gained it's independence.

that wouldn't have been a stalemate then would it? I'm thinking that Lincoln would have considered independence a failure (as I always thought slavery was second to secession in his eyes).

[Ksyrup]

I definitely remember a thread on here a year or 4 back about a multi-racial prom.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Hurst2112

that should be interesting. maybe my first ban in 8 years too! nummy.

I doubt that single outburst, however completely idiotic it was, would do it.

But seriously, what part of the phrase "self-segregation" do you not understand?

This isn't a case of anybody being locked out of anything, or unwelcome (indeed there were a few crossover attendees at each prom IIRC from the first time this story went around), this is about people with common interests choosing to have an event together.

I grew up in a town that was about 98% white, or at least the high school was. But I can promise you that our black students weren't too blown away with the band playing covers of The Little River Band at the prom. By the same token, I would have been one of very few whites who would have enjoyed hearing The Gap Band either. (Yeah, I know. I'm old. Tough).
If the raw numbers could have supported it financially, I'd say there's a very good chance that there would have been interest in separate proms there too. And damned if I see the harm in that, if it made for a more enjoyable event for everybody.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Different school. I think you're referring to another TC in the same general area: Taylor County, but everything else about your recollection jibes with mine. I know the first one was Taylor County, though, because I'm very familiar with them. (They were in our subregion in HS.)

Sounds right, easy (for me at least) to mix those two locations. They're both in an area that's further south than I go for anything other than football or heading to Florida

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Hurst2112

When are the effin rednecks in the south gonna turn into full time humans? I can't believe it took us till today to read something like this. I can't believe it's news at all. Good for the schools, great for the students. They got balls and I salute them all.

Sherman should have done a couple laps in that state. Looks like there were some idiots left to breed.

I will never forget looking at the high school yearbook of the mother of one of my black classmates, and noticing that everyone was black. This was in 1971. It just kinda hit me that in 1971, this particular area was still segregated. Not just that racism still existed, etc., but that they hadn't even done a damn thing to comply with Brown v. Board of Education 17 years earlier. It blew my mind.

[Hurst2112]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurst2112 View Post
that should be interesting. maybe my first ban in 8 years too! nummy.

I doubt that single outburst, however completely idiotic it was, would do it.

Just another member of the Fof idiot list.

I understand self-segregation. I also can say that when I hear about such practices, it usually comes from the south. Hence, my Sherman comment. I think self-segregation is lame and wrong. Seems like a bullshit ideology that has been fostered by races growing up over generations IN THE SOUTH.

[Hurst2112]

dola:

and yes, i realize that metropolitan areas in the north are prone to issues similar to these.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Hurst2112

and yes, i realize that metropolitan areas in the north are prone to issues similar to these.

But that's the South's fault too I guess.

It's a pity that you don't seem to have figured out that "equal" does not mean "identical". Or maybe we should just force a percentage of blacks to go to country bars on Friday night & a percentage of whites to go to a hip-hop club, to whatever degree needed to mirror the local demographic split.

[Coder]

I came to Georgia in 1994 as an 18-year old Swede who had never been to the United States, and who's only image of the USA was from Hollywood movies. Imagine the culture-shock for a scrawny white cityboy arriving in the deep rural south .

During my years in Tifton, I made many great friends, both black and white. However, the segration was very noticeable... I think perhaps more so for an outsider than for an "insider", because the general feeling was that just as Jon said, it was a case of "self-segration". People didn't dislike eachother, at least not "openly", but they didn't hang out together either.

In the dining-hall, whites sat on one side and blacks on the other.. in between was a line, usually made up of international students. Friends across the line weren't unheard of, but they weren't common either. You simply didn't see blacks and whites hang out together. To be honest, there were more "international" blacks making white friends than I saw American blacks and whites hanging out together.

In school-activities, and I worked as part of the newspaper staff, but also had a lot of contact with most school-organizations, in blacks in general didn't seem to take part in the same things as whites. I think this also has to do with what Jon said.. they simply didn't share the same interests. Well.. come to think of it, watching Ricki Lake did seem to cross borders .

For what it's worth, I roomed with a 7-foot black guy and we got along just great.. he was a basketballer but he wasn't from the US, he was from Nigeria.

Eh.. this post is probably quite incoherent.. but what the hell.. I just wanted to say that as an outsider coming to the deep south, I was made quite aware of the fact that there still was/is considerable segregation, but that I completely agree with Jon in that it's often self-segregation, chosen by the people themselves. I'd also like to point out that there were definately people "crossing racial boundaries" and that what I'm describing is in part a generalization.

[Hurst2112]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

But that's the South's fault too I guess.

It's a pity that you don't seem to have figured out that "equal" does not mean "identical". Or maybe we should just force a percentage of blacks to go to country bars on Friday night & a percentage of whites to go to a hip-hop club, to whatever degree needed to mirror the local demographic split.

The south has a lot more to answer for. I won't burden it with that particular blame.

I'll bring it back to the orig post. I think it's a shame that stuff like this is 'news'. There are volumes and VOLUMES of instances where segregation (self or forced) has reared its head. This is an extension of that way of thinking that doesn't seem right or human to me.

[wade moore]

Hurst,

I don't even know how to respond to your absurd and outrageous statements. As you've said, you're taking one extreme situation in the South (which as you seem to be admitting, is not something forced on blacks by whites) and using it to pain this ridiculous picture of the South, and Georgia in particularly. You yourself admitted that there are outrageous things in the North/midwest also. So why not take one of those stories to paint your broad stroke?

I mean seriously. Back out now. I've never had a bad opinion of you, but it you are quickly headed that way.

[Karlifornia]

The black kids will probably pine for re-segregation of the prom once they see the white kids take the dance floor.

[Hurst2112]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Hurst,

I don't even know how to respond to your absurd and outrageous statements. As you've said, you're taking one extreme situation in the South (which as you seem to be admitting, is not something forced on blacks by whites) and using it to pain this ridiculous picture of the South, and Georgia in particularly. You yourself admitted that there are outrageous things in the North/midwest also. So why not take one of those stories to paint your broad stroke?

I mean seriously. Back out now. I've never had a bad opinion of you, but it you are quickly headed that way.

Your opinion of me isn't a concern of mine. Really, it's a fricken forum.

I won't back out now because I still don't understand why something like this has to be news. It's sad. It pisses me off that people have been brought up to 'self-segregate'. I'm sorry if I'm adding to the already unfavorable painting of the south.

Am I the only one who thinks that a prom that is breaking barriers by being mixed is a 'well duh!' issue? Maybe it's because proms in the upper midwest are school sanctioned. Maybe it's because I couldn't ever dream of having a segregated prom.

I still feel that self-segregation is a product of generational views. It's not quarantined to 1 part of the country but I'm more aware of the south's history with such issues.

So keep it coming fellas. I can eat crow. I'm not afraid to be called out. So far, I won't be getting an xmas card from somebody in GA and VA. Anybody else from down there care to step up?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'm amazed at the press this story has been getting this week, since I'm almost positive that this is at least the second time around for this "news".

You are amazed? Last month here in So Cal the news was that some fat ass chick found out she was 9 months pregnant...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Coder

Imagine the culture-shock for a scrawny white cityboy arriving in the deep rural south . ...During my years in Tifton ...

What the hell is this, Jon-finds-out-stuff-about-Coder-he-didn't-know- Week?

Okay, I had a pretty good idea you were a white cityboy, but other than that ...

[Drake]

As far as I'm concerned, any sentence that features the word "prom" stops containing anything worth getting upset about roughly 5 seconds after high school ends.

[Antmeister]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

...I grew up in a town that was about 98% white, or at least the high school was. But I can promise you that our black students weren't too blown away with the band playing covers of The Little River Band at the prom. By the same token, I would have been one of very few whites who would have enjoyed hearing The Gap Band either. (Yeah, I know. I'm old. Tough).
If the raw numbers could have supported it financially, I'd say there's a very good chance that there would have been interest in separate proms there too. And damned if I see the harm in that, if it made for a more enjoyable event for everybody.

Man, if I were going to that school during that time people and it had seperate proms, that would suck because if your school had 500 people graduating with those percentages, I would be 1 of 10 people going to my Black prom. That would suck. Especially if there were more males than females.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Antmeister

Man, if I were going to that school during that time people and it had seperate proms, that would suck because if your school had 500 people graduating with those percentages, I would be 1 of 10 people going to my Black prom. That would suck. Especially if there were more males than females.

Nah, 'cause it didn't/couldn't happen because the raw numbers weren't big enough to make it feasible. My graduating class was only like 106 people or something to give you some idea of the size of the school.

But if you extrapolate it over some of the new mega-schools, with over 1000 Seniors & maybe 1200 juniors, shift the percentage just a little from like 98 to even 95 and you've got 2200 x .05 = 110 people which is probably as many as went to our prom back in the day.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I grew up in a town that was about 98% white, or at least the high school was. But I can promise you that our black students weren't too blown away with the band playing covers of The Little River Band at the prom. By the same token, I would have been one of very few whites who would have enjoyed hearing The Gap Band either. (Yeah, I know. I'm old. Tough).
If the raw numbers could have supported it financially, I'd say there's a very good chance that there would have been interest in separate proms there too. And damned if I see the harm in that, if it made for a more enjoyable event for everybody.

Its weird to me how different of an experience others have growing up than I did. I am pretty much the complete opposite of this at least for my early years. I was born in Decatur, and lived in the Atlanta City limits, just north of Forest Park in the 70s and early 80s. In my school, I was one of two white students in the entire school. I guess I grew up with friends of different skin color, and it never seemed a big deal to me.

I have always told people that growing up in metro Atlanta was quite different than growing up in rural Georgia, but articles like this just reinforce that for me. My significant other is hispanic, I hate country music, don't like deep fried greens and don't have a southern drawl. (All of which seem to be stereotypes people I am friends with now wonder about me)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I guess I grew up with friends of different skin color, and it never seemed a big deal to me.

Oddly enough, so did the people you went to school with
And, even more oddly, so did I.

Maybe there's something else in play here though. Up until about age 17, my activities with friends were pretty well segmented. There were people I played ball with, other people I saw movies with, other people I played tabletop games with, other people I talked pro wrestling with, etc. Very few people were in more than one of those segments. From about 18 to maybe 24 or so, there was more of a "core group" but even within that things were pretty compartmentalized, just a few more people who were multi-compartment.

Thinking back on those years, I'm pretty sure that this was the case for the majority of people I knew. I can remember too many different cliques that changed membership depending upon the scenario for there not to have been some significant similarities to my own pattern. So for, in this case, people who have different ideas about what they want in a prom (or at least in the case I referenced from a few years back) doesn't seem the least bit unusual to me.

Is this compartmentalization not what other people experienced/remember?

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Is this compartmentalization not what other people experienced/remember?

It isn't what I experienced, but my class (just over 100) was fairly unique (so I've been told). We didn't really have different groups and pretty much everyone hung out with everyone else. Some people were more interested in some things over others, but it was a fairly open class.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Hurst2112

Your opinion of me isn't a concern of mine. Really, it's a fricken forum.

I won't back out now because I still don't understand why something like this has to be news. It's sad. It pisses me off that people have been brought up to 'self-segregate'. I'm sorry if I'm adding to the already unfavorable painting of the south.

Am I the only one who thinks that a prom that is breaking barriers by being mixed is a 'well duh!' issue? Maybe it's because proms in the upper midwest are school sanctioned. Maybe it's because I couldn't ever dream of having a segregated prom.

I still feel that self-segregation is a product of generational views. It's not quarantined to 1 part of the country but I'm more aware of the south's history with such issues.

So keep it coming fellas. I can eat crow. I'm not afraid to be called out. So far, I won't be getting an xmas card from somebody in GA and VA. Anybody else from down there care to step up?

You'd be doing fine if your first comment in the thread wasn't taking a big-ass swipe at the south.

And how is it not news? Many people would say that it is a positive change that these kids are mixing their proms. How is it not news that something generally positive is happening, and it's being advanced by teenagers (who usually don't get much credit for doing something responsible)?

Anyway, the way your initial comment came out, it's as if you've just got some kind of issue with the south and its "effin rednecks", and you found a place to go off about it. Even as you try to defend yourself in the post I quoted, you take another jab at the south in your last two sentences. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it reads like you're just baiting southern people into an argument.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm just falling for it or not. Then again, being from New Orleans originally, I'm not even sure if I'm from "the south" as most people know it. New Orleans is a completely different place altogether.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Is this compartmentalization not what other people experienced/remember?

Being a really smart kid with a geeky side who was also a pretty good athlete, I definitely experienced this from middle school on. It wasn't any fun for me to play sports with my geeky friends, but my athlete friends weren't interested in learning to use Visicalc to track stats in Microleague Baseball. And, most of my activities were nearly fully with one racial group, just because of interests. I've never been to a Charlie Daniels concert with anyone but white people, but I've rarely kicked freestyle with any white person except for my buddy who beat-boxed. Basketball is about the only thing I've done routinely with a fairly mixed-race group. And in high school, that was mainly because the best three or four white players in the city were from my school. We always got a kick out of going to various gyms and parks and whipping some unexpecting bruthas.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Being a really smart kid with a geeky side who was also a pretty good athlete, I definitely experienced this from middle school on. It wasn't any fun for me to play sports with my geeky friends, but my athlete friends weren't interested in learning to use Visicalc to track stats in Microleague Baseball. And, most of my activities were nearly fully with one racial group, just because of interests. I've never been to a Charlie Daniels concert with anyone but white people, but I've rarely kicked freestyle with any white person except for my buddy who beat-boxed. Basketball is about the only thing I've done routinely with a fairly mixed-race group. And in high school, that was mainly because the best three or four white players in the city were from my school. We always got a kick out of going to various gyms and parks and whipping some unexpecting bruthas.

I concur with Skydog, only from a white boy perspective. Although we did kick it freestyle and beat box.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Being a really smart kid with a geeky side who was also a pretty good athlete, I definitely experienced this from middle school on. It wasn't any fun for me to play sports with my geeky friends, but my athlete friends weren't interested in learning to use Visicalc to track stats in Microleague Baseball. And, most of my activities were nearly fully with one racial group, just because of interests. I've never been to a Charlie Daniels concert with anyone but white people, but I've rarely kicked freestyle with any white person except for my buddy who beat-boxed. Basketball is about the only thing I've done routinely with a fairly mixed-race group. And in high school, that was mainly because the best three or four white players in the city were from my school. We always got a kick out of going to various gyms and parks and whipping some unexpecting bruthas.

All of this is pretty much true for me (well, except replace freestyling with linedancing and a few other corrections )...

But really, what I mean is that I had a couple of key activities that had some pretty dramatically different groups of people in those activities..

But, at the core, I had a small group of friends that I did a majority of my activities with, except for the one Varsity sport I participated in - they were not a part of that. But the core of friends I played pickup sports with, played video games with, went out to the movies or whatever with, etc... there was a small core (and I mean like 4 guys and to a lesser extent whomever their g/f's were at the team) that were generally together for most activities...

Of which, 3 of those guys will be the groomsmen in my wedding... (for fair disclosure though, one of them [lordscarlet] is my twin brother which is unique for me compared to most (all?) of you)...