The students and faculty at Riverdale Christian Academy decided to have a plantation party for their graduation. Notice that the party was not to promote any kind of understanding of history; it was a graduation party with a “Southern plantation during the Civil War” theme. So the students and teachers decided to dress up wearing blackface, and mocking runaway slaves. According to the school principal, the point of the skit was to “roast the graduates” and “poke a little fun at their mannerisms.” You can see him actually make this statement in the video posted at this link.
The photos were brought to light when blogger Tate Hill, at Urban Knowledge, found the photos at a photo sharing site called Bebo. The photos are no longer viewable via the links he provided; I’m assuming the poster either made them private or took them down.
Now Mr. Hill is getting deluged with comments from anonymous racism apologists, certainly not a big surprise for those of us who routinely blog against racism. Isn’t it so incredibly sad to see how people’s bigotry spews out when they think they are anonymous?
I also find the “well many of the school’s students are Hispanic” argument to be utterly unconvincing. Apparently, some folks think it is acceptable for Latinos to be anti-Black, which several commenters noted is fairly absurd.
I have posted just one of the pictures above, which apparently had the caption “Bringing home the runaway slave in the Senior skit.”
Readers can go to Urban Knowledge blog to see some of the other photos, and their captions. Mr. Hill also has two follow up posts in response to the bigots who tried to take over comments in his first post. You can check them out 1st here and 2nd here. Plus, I know that my readers realize that we can’t let the comments on Mr. Hill’s site be overtaken by people who think a Civil War Plantation themed party is a good way to “roast graduating students” and “poke fun at some of their mannerisms” (in the school Principal’s words not mine). Go give the man some love for fighting these ignorant folks.
I find it very sad to see how so many people think racism and slavery are a joke, but the themed parties show no sign of waning.
Un effing believeable.
Thanks for posting this and all the resultant links.
Wow, just floored. What can you say to that
Bp
Ditto Bp. Disgusting.
I can’t believe that this still happens. Or rather, I wish that it didn’t.
Latin@s can be racist too, you know. There’s this huge beef between the black community and the latin@ community in Dallas. I hope that someday we can work past these kinds of things.
Latin@s can be racist too, you know. There’s this huge beef between the black community and the latin@ community in Dallas. I hope that someday we can work past these kinds of things.
Meep, what the hell was the point of that? The post had nothing to do with that, but you decide to use it to publicize your own agenda.
That’s fucked up.
Angel, it was relevant because some of the commenters were saying the school couldn’t possibly be racist because it has many Latinos.
Sorry. My apolgies to Meep. Wrong side of the bed and all that.
LOL!
Reading the comments on Tate Hill’s site made me nauseous. Apparently one can’t judge that something is racist unless they were personally there, AND every person of colour agrees that it was racist (whether they were there or not). Also the following groups are excluded from being racists:
– christians,
– people who don’t walk around wearing klan robes and burning crosses,
– people who have ever been nice to a person of colour under any circumstances,
I could go on, but I’m sure you know the drill.
I’m almost speechless: Thanks for the links, I left a comment.