Posted on 05/26/2003 2:39:22 AM PDT by oldconservative
This spring, white students at Johnson County High in Wrightsville, Ga., continued a tradition they have followed since desegregation. They held a prom separate from the school prom – for white students only. As did the juniors at neighboring Taylor County High.
News of the separate proms reached Bill O'Reilly at Fox News, who angrily demanded that Gov. Sonny Perdue attend the official Taylor County prom in protest. As columnist Sam Francis writes, O'Reilly seemed miffed that there was no law or authority to stop this outrage:
"You can't sue because the event is being held off-campus. It's a private party, and no person of color is welcome. Yet, the party is being held under the banner of Taylor High's junior prom. Yes, there is an alternative prom where everyone is welcome, but still a number of your classmates do not want to celebrate with you."
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, law student Jeffrey Shapiro seemed even more indignant: "It's hard to imagine that the practice of segregation still exists in the United States, but it does," Shapiro states. "Authorities are powerless to intervene."
Yes, and a good thing they cannot intervene, Jeffrey. For if this country is about anything, it is freedom. And just as the Bill of Rights prevents the state from interfering with what Shapiro or O'Reilly writes or says, the Constitution protects the freedom of school kids in Taylor County, Ga., to associate with whomever they wish
When O'Reilly says that an all-white prom appears to be a snub of black schoolmates, he may be right. But it may also mean the white kids simply prefer to party together. As for Shapiro's assertion that "segregated proms" are one of "the worst public displays of racism in today's America," that is absurd.
The ugliest manifestations of racism today are not all-white proms, but interracial crimes such as gang assaults, gang shootings and gang rapes.
As this term racist is tossed about, perhaps it is time to define it. To this writer, racism means a hatred or hostility toward some other race that manifests itself in a desire to deny the other justice.
What O'Reilly and Shapiro are upset about is something else altogether. For there is no evidence the white kids of Taylor County hate all their black classmates. A preference for socializing with one's own is not hatred. CYO dances used to be restricted to baptized Catholics. That didn't mean the priests and nuns hated all non-Catholics. The same is true for the Newman clubs and Hillel houses on college campuses. These clubs represent the desire of a group to socialize together. This is not racism. It is natural and normal, and there is nothing morally reprehensible about it.
As for the new separatism or self-segregation in schools, this appears to be more the wish of black students than of whites. Here, for example, is Washington Post writer Michael Fletcher describing the graduation events at Penn:
"The presentation of the class of 2003 was the central event at this year's Black Senior Celebration. The ceremony here, attended by almost half of the university's 140 black graduating seniors, followed separate celebrations that honored Asian American and Latino seniors in the weeks leading up to Penn's general graduation ceremony today. University officials say these racially and ethnically themed ceremonies are a way for minority students to celebrate their cultural connections."
If it is acceptable for black students in the Ivy League to hold segregated ceremonies to celebrate their "cultural connections," why is O'Reilly beating up on white high-school kids in rural Georgia for doing the same thing?
Vanderbilt, Michigan State, Michigan, Stanford and Berkeley all host separate ceremonies for black graduates. Across America, writes Fletcher, there are black "fraternities, sororities and culture centers." Black students "study in separate groups, they eat at segregated dining tables, and they unwind at separate parties."
Does this mean black students hate their white classmates? Of course not. They simply prefer to socialize with one another.
At Penn, the university even pays for the kente cloths and the sumptuous banquet at the graduation ceremony at the black student center Makuu. In Johnson and Taylor counties, parents pay for the white proms.
Again the question reasserts itself: If it is perfectly acceptable for black, Asian and Hispanic students to have separate dorms and cultural centers in college, subsidized by tax dollars, why is it an outrage that white high-school kids in rural Georgia have their own prom, paid for by their own parents? Whatever did these white folks do to lose the right to equal respect and equal treatment?
What about an all-black beauty contest or something like a hispanic chamber of commerce? They have those here and no one points out the racism in those.
What would happen to all the magazines like that if they had to include an appropriate number of whites and others to match the ratio of the overall society? They would also have to include a fair number of articles in Spanish.
Creative thinking.
I forget where I read this: "'Not that bad' = 'Not that good'". I'm afraid that measuring O'Reilly against his competition is a false comparison - one dope vs. a bunch of Leftists. Back in 1999 or early 2000, when I heard him mindlessly repeating the Klingon administration's meaningless assertion that oil companies' profits were up 500% from the days of $10/barrel oil, he really turned me off. So I permanently returned the favor, and haven't missed him a bit. O'Reilly, Geraldo, Alan Colmes, and Regrettable Van Susteran are good evidence that Fox News is NOT a strictly conservative news channel.
This demonstrates to me beyond a shadow of doubt that Buchanen hates both Jews and Blacks, and probably gypsies and slovaks as well.
I'm not going to toss about the over-worked nazi label, because too many use it on non-socialists, and the heart of nazism is socialism (national socialism). I do NOT think Buchanen is a socialist, but I had no idea that Buchanen was such a hater.
To affirm the right of "association" is fine. But to claim that this white prom was not racially based is absurd. Segregation is the heart of racism. And I hate it for the way it twists the minds of our young.
Asbestos suit in place. Flame away.
It may not be hatred, but if by "one's own," you mean one's own race, then one is a racist.
My preference is for socializing with Conservatives who may be of various colors.
Pat continues to expose himself and it's not a pretty sight.
This demonstrates to me beyond a shadow of doubt that Buchanen hates both Jews and Blacks, and probably gypsies and slovaks as well.
Pat Buchanan pointed out that religious groups have often restricted their activities to their own membership and that this action doesn't represent hatred. He makes a valid point, and you are trying to twist his making of that point into claiming that he hates blacks and Jews. Your little rant about the Roma and slovaks only shows your own prejudice against Mr. Buchanan. (Many of the Roma consider "gypsy" to be a racial slur against them. If you are going to play the racial sensitivity game, you need to avoid the use of racial slurs.) He says nothing that suggests a hatred towards anyone. His contempt is for the racism of political correctness and those who support it. From other comments that he's made in other places, I think he has an irrational dislike of the nation of Israel, but generalizing that flaw to a hatred of Jews is a stretch.
We don't know the racial make-up of this school or how their public prom was handled. If the entire public prom was done in a way that gave preferential treatment to blacks, I can understand some people wanting to hold a separate prom with more traditional themes. Rather than openly restrict the prom to whites only, I think they should have set the theme and made clear that they would tolerate no change to their choices in music, decoration, and other details. If blacks wanted to enjoy that kind of prom, they'd be welcome as well. However, if these people had tried and tried to reach reasonable compromises and received nothing but grief in return, I can understand their wanting simply to avoid the source of conflict. The truth is that we don't who did what or who was being unreasonable in this situation. Any guess we make on either side is just a guess based on our own prejudices.
Segregation is the heart of racism. And I hate it for the way it twists the minds of our young.
Again, you have it exactly backwards. Racism is the hatred and contempt that is one cause of people segregating. The separation doesn't cause the racism. The racism is one cause of segregation. Again, I don't think that all segregation is driven by racism. I've been romantically involved with a woman who was black, but I think most people are going to be predisposed to romantic relationships within their own race. Generally, that's my preference as well. I don't think this predisposition is evil or racist. I think people may segregate along racial lines when they feel that they are misunderstood by those outside their race. I don't think that all blacks who eat dinner only with other blacks at a school or work environment have hatred or animosity towards whites. Some do, but others are just gravitating towards their own. In a predominantly black school, I would guess that whites often do the same thing for the same reason. That segregation is not a cause of racism.
Like you, I hate racism for the way that it twists people's minds, but racism is only one of many lies that I hate for the same reason. Politicaly correctness is a similar lie that twists people's minds and needs to be opposed.
WFTR
Bill
He found out just how far he'd stuck his foot in it when the poll he had on his wedsite showed that most people think the white kids had every right to have their own prom outside of the school. He tried to blame it on an attack by a neo-Nazi group. The poll was locked, and he said he would try to get it back up by the upcoming weekend so the polling could go on, but he never did. For a supposedly no-spin zone, Bill was spinning like crazy that night.
LOL! That was my thought, exactly.
Now that's hysterical.
But unless it manifests itself in violence or descriminatory acts by the authorities government has no business intervening.
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