Separatism, racism and so on...

http://www.msnbc.com/news/908072.asp

WHILE MANY whites say they still plan to attend next week’s integrated prom, the decision to hold the whites-only prom this Friday saddened senior Gerica McCrary, who helped organize last year’s dance.
“I cried,” said McCrary, who is black. “The black juniors said, ’Our prom is open to everyone. If you want to come, come.”’
Juniors are in charge of planning the prom each year and last year they decided to have just one dance — the first integrated prom in 31 years in the rural Georgia county 150 miles south of Atlanta.
Until then, parents and students organized separate proms for whites and blacks after school officials stopped sponsoring dances, in part because they wanted to avoid problems arising from interracial dating.
This year, a small number of white juniors decided they wanted a separate prom.
“They influenced the others,” said McCrary, who plans to major in biology at Columbus State University. “They didn’t vote on anything. They said, ’This is what we’re going to do.”’
The school has 439 students, 232 of them black. McCrary and a white friend passed out fliers informing students of all races that they would be welcome at the May 9 prom at nearby Fort Valley State University.
The private prom is Friday night 50 miles away in Columbus.
Erin Posey, a white senior, said the entire junior class joined together in hosting last year’s prom, but this year’s junior class wasn’t as unified.
“I think a lot of seniors were disappointed,” she said. “Now we have to choose between two groups of friends.”
Posey plans to attend both proms.
“I had some white friends who were not going to the other (inclusive) prom,” she said. “I wanted to have time with everybody. I’ll have a lot of (black) friends there, too. A lot more of the seniors are going to be at the mixed one.”
After school integration, separate proms were common in the rural South, but Taylor County was among the last to cling to the practice.
Glenda Latimore, a 1972 graduate, was in the first class to have separate black and white proms. Now her 16-year-old son, Gerard, is preparing for prom night.
As the black junior class president, her son helped organize the open-to-all prom. The class also has a white president.
“I would have liked to see it together this year,” said Latimore, an outfielder on the school’s baseball team. “My class would have, too. It just didn’t happen this year.”
Glenda Latimore said relatives in Philadelphia and New Jersey laugh when they read about Taylor County’s prom. She said residents here are “nice and friendly,” but they still have a problem with proms.
“It seems like it’s something secret,” she said. “The white people are afraid to speak up against the separation.
“But I went to a black prom and I had fun,” she said. “It didn’t kill me, so I tell my son, ’Just go to the prom and have fun. Don’t come out hating anyone.”’

The return of separatism or just a single case? To me it seems that attitudes are terribly hard to change, especially in Southern States...

What should we think about these yongsters? "..because they wanted to avoid problems arising from interracial dating.."

pfft

if people think about so called problems of inter-racial dating then racism wont ever go away

Crap, I wake up, check out it JoviTalk, and I see an article posted about my hometown..(sort of) that I didn't post. Weird.
I live in Columbus, Ga

Just so you know, not all white people who live in the south feel the way they do. Racism is still alive here in the states..not just the southern ones. It's sad and I see it everyday. And I see from blacks and whites. It's the truth, I work in a mixed company, I hear so many comments about people of all races..asian, whites, blacks, mexicans, native americans..I hear it all. Most days, I just keep my mouth shut.

thats pavement man the sooner people get there heads out of there arses and stop thing like seperate schools for catholics and protestants or different schools for races the ****ing better.

it looks like its only going to get worse here as theres talk of having seperate schools for blacks or muslims or something like that here.

how can u stop racism and prejudice when ur being brought up around the idea of being different?

Racism, unfortunately is found all over the United States, and the world. Its something that cannot be stopped by one war, one year, one week, or one day. It takes many many many years, decades, centuries to get the point of time when people can live together, despite the shade of their flesh.

Racism is not fair nor right, especially since one group of humans can do the same as another group. Mexicans, Whites, Blacks, Asians, can all do the same things. Everyone is the same - we think, we breathe. Everyone is different from everyone else - but we all come from the same mold.

Not one single person can stop racism by themselves. "Safety in numbers." Yet, through dedicated hard work, and patience eventually (hopefully) the world will live in a time and place where humans live together where its all right to date others of different colors.

However, because personalities differ from person to person there are obstacles that must be taken into consideration. People have a tendency to think they are superior to everyone else, they become bigheaded and stubborn - everything they say is right, and you are wrong. These are the people that fuel the issue of racism. Also, if your father, grandfather, great-grandfather tend to lean towards one end of the spectrum of an issue, the chance is higher that you will lean the same way (especially with close families, or family members that feel they have to live up to the standards of the members before them).

I wish the issue of racism could go away - but until everyone works together, this wont be achieved.

Thats a bit of a serious post for u reincarntaion!!!!