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I think the people who beat up the South for sport are obnoxious. New York has had its share of racial strife.

Why do you alternately see this as either a dumping on Republican Governor Perdue or beating up on the South? I live in a border state and I certainly dont feel that most whites in the South agree that an all white prom is appropriate. I believe most of them would see it as an anachronism. Thats why some of us are shaking our heads wondering why the leaders in GA would take a pass on this. You seem to have a much lower opinion of your fellow Southernors than I do.

Well, I see it that way because it is. I also see it as morally no different than white flight, suburban schools with few minorities (by design) and sending your kid to lily white private schools. Pray tell, how many white non-Southern parents will ever have their kids junior prom held at a historically black college?

I think the kids may be racist, but we have not heard from them. They may also be petty-- thinking that the planning of the second annual integrated junior prom didn't sufficiently take into account their wishes. Perhaps, they feel uncomfortable having it held on the campus of a historically black college, I don't know why they would, but I think its a possibility.

If the kids are racists and had malice in their hearts, I reject that and I despise it. But I also despise the hypocrisy of the "outraged" who all too often are against school vouchers, send their kids to private schools, practice the bigotry of low expectations, and resist higher educational standards at every turn. They are informed by the belief that black kids can't learn and it is very racist and destructive, I abhor that.

I do have faith in the South-- which has come a hell of a lot farther in the last 40 years than the Northeast and the West Coast. Why is it that a black LA jury believed that the cops framed OJ? They had to have had some bad experiences with white cops. The acquittal of the cops in the Rodney King case was made by an all-white jury in Simi Valley, not Selma. The sentence of community service for the Korean woman who killed a young black petty theif in her convenience store was given by a California, not South Carolina jury.

Did white Southern cops sodomize a black man with a plunger?
No it was NYC cops.

All of those incidents have inflamed many African Americans and none of them occurred in the South.

The James Byrd dragging death in Texas was met with universal contempt in Jasper and the jury sent those cold-blooded killers to death or life in prison. And of course it was still used by the Democrats and their
client group the NAACP to unjustly hammer George Dubya.

My point is that I want a full discussion on race. It will not do to act like the Southeastern corner of the country is the only place that has problems with race. It's dishonest! I think people serious about race relations recognize that it is a national problem, not a regional one. To pound the South and a Southern Governor (who incidentally had nothing to do with it) makes people like O'Reilly (who throws the term "wetback" around like he gets paid for it) a chance to win brownie points, but it doesn't advance the cause of racial unity.

Kind of like Clinton saying he was a feminist while he treated women like dirt.

If that kind of thing works for you, enjoy!