Racism in American - Prom Night in Mississippi

[Paul G]

Has anyone watched this documentary?

Prom Night In Mississippi: An HBO Documentary Film

This is outrageous!

I'm watching the followup short film now on HBO. A year later there is still a White Prom!

[SuzzeQ4]

a white prom? Wow...think I'll go watch it.

[billthepill469]

Hey dreamers, racism is alive and well in America.

I was discussing current affairs the other day with a young Native. In his opinion we, the country, are currently on the right track regarding race relations. I was dumbfounded, in my opinion and personal observations, we as Americans and especially we as Native peoples are no better off than any of the other minorities, and in fact we may be worse off in terms of race relations. We are still third class, third world relics of ancient history to much of the country. Except when it comes to our casinos, then we are absolutely the cause of all of the country’s ills. In actuality we are still the forgotten ones, America’s shame, those noble savages, those drunken Indians, those gosh darned Redskins. Substitute any curse words and expletives deleted for gosh darned and…well, you get the picture.
Across Indian Country attacks both verbal and physical have frequently occurred. An ugly act called “Indian rolling” has again reared its ugly head in the NM reservation border towns dominated by Anglos with a thriving economy devoted to the selling of alcohol to Indians that reside on the dry reservations. In Grants, NM, Navajo men have been violently assaulted by roaming gangs of Hispanic youths with fists and stones inflicting major physical damage reminding Native people of the events in Farmington, NM in the not-so-distant past and in Rapid City, SD, among the various usual race crimes, two Anglo women were convicted of hate crimes for chasing a physically handicapped Lakota woman with their vehicles. In addition, the same women were also sentenced for assaulting Lakota pedestrians with rocks. All across Indian Country, merchants in neighboring towns extort Natives out of their money for goods and services that are routinely offered at a lower price to their Non-Native customers.
The dreamers among the common man feel that simply because we now have a Black president everything relating to race in America magically went away. Unfortunately the reverse is true. The election of Barack Obama has proven to be a blessing so far, he goes out for burgers, mingles with the general public and listens to people. He has established ties with the Crow Nation in Montana. Republicans see these things as an unnecessary expenditure of tax payer dollars simply because of the security involved. I think that it is a good thing due to the fact that for eight years the previous regime walled themselves inside the White House in seclusion and isolation emerging only to commit PR gaffes in Europe or for cowboy vacations in Crawford, Texas. Or in Dick Cheney’s case, retiring to unspecified locations surfacing only to shoot his friends in the face while bird hunting.
Just in time to reinforce this point of view regarding race relations, we have/had the situation in Cambridge, Massachusetts to reinvigorate the debates. Did the Black scholar, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. overreact to the Cambridge police as they responded to a burglary call at his home? Did the Cambridge Police Department overreact to the outrage of Mr. Gates having to prove his identity and residency at his own home? Yes. In my humble opinion, yes they did, all of them. Mr. Gates, a Black man from the old school, very familiar to racial profiling and bigotry in this country, got P.O.ed. The police, as all police are apt to do, responded by making a situation worse than it should or could have been. Then the President responded first as a Black American creating a controversy that the Republicans are sure to exploit, stay tuned, then re-responding as the Big Guy thereby defusing an ugly scene. Props to the Big Guy.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[klotasfeather]

I have not seen the documentary...I may watch it later. I recently moved to Louisiana and they to have a black and white prom in a small town called St. Martinville. It is a common thing here in the south from what I have observed. There is a lot of lateral racisim here amoong the light skinned blacks and the darker skin blacks. It is something that I do not agree with at all, but here this is all they know. It is sad that they are still as ignorant today as they were 40, 50 years ago.
I grew up in Kansas and there was racisim, but I have not seen as much there as I have heard and seen in Louisiana. There is a small town in Southern Louisiana called Abbeville. There is a large population of light skinned blacks that teach their families to only date light skin or whites...they believe that their children would be unattractive if they were dark skinned. What I do not understand is why some of them try to pass for white when it is clear to see that they have stronger black features than the darker skinned blacks.
I try not to let some of the views bother me, but I would be lying if I said that it did not. I have 2 daughters and I want them to grow up comfortable with themselves and not hate everything about themselves.
I grew up with a Native mom and Black father, but they always told me I came from the best of both worlds.

[Paul G]

If anyone has HBO, it is showing on there now and HBO on Demand.