Tuesday, February 10, 2009

"Dress up like a slave and for recess we'll pick cotton in the fields, kids." This is elementary school in the deep south? In 2009? Really?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009


This upcoming Thursday was slated to be "Cotton Picking Day" at Lillie Burney Elementary in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In celebration of Black History Month, the students were for a fee, which in previous years had been donated to charity, invited to ditch their traditional uniforms and dress as slaves for the day.

**pauses briefly to step up on and speak perched atop my soapbox**

How dare these southern white folk make a mockery of Black culture and history!!! Who do they think they are?!? Those little white kids need to learn about the slave trade and the era of systemic inequality, no doubt, but this is simply not the way to do it!!! The principal, who I'm sure HAS to be a not-so-closeted racist, needs to step forward post-haste and be held accountable!!!

**receives and reads a note from stage left outlining the full details
of this foolishness**


It has come to my attention that white folks weren't involved in this coonery at all. The school in question consists primarily of little black boys and girls. "Picking Cotton Day" was canceled and subsequently replaced by a much more practical "Career Day" after one of the black students' black stepdad complained to the black principal that the whole idea was simply inappropriate.

The principal, a black woman, was unavailable to explain what in the hell made her think this would be acceptable.

Oh, black people. We's gots tah do betta.

Source: The Clarion-Ledger

14 comments:

dickspot said...

I'm incredulous.

A Comedy of Errors of monumental proportion.

A dear friend of mine (and Gay Man Extraordinaire -yes you, Troy) keeps a small painting of slaves picking cotton next to his front door. He looks at it every day on his way to work to keep his complaints about his job in perspective. He wants to recall the plight of his ancestors in those fields, and worse, in the Middle Passage.

bLaQ~n~MiLD said...

Like, how do you find this stuff...?

Like I really have no words for this except to say that the principal should be fired.

~Damnit!

Chet said...

OMG! what the fuck? I am trying hard to understand the educators behind this curriculum, but to no avail. have they lost their Cotton Pickin Minds?

Kyon Saucier said...

Huh? Black People came up with this foolishness. Aie aie Mon Dieu au ciel.... Yes we gotta do a whole helluva alot better at clearing the Uncle Toms and Auntie Thomasina's from our ranks! What on earth was the principal thinking?!

Jersey Brotha said...

Amazing how ignorant some people still are.

BPS 4.0 : Soul Exposure said...

Black folks are so good about keeping ourselves down. I have no words.

Darius T. Williams said...

Yes - we need to do better indeed!

Mr. Jones said...

This is just a fool and a half. I can't believe in 2009 heads of a school full of black kids thought the initial idea was cool.

PRIMO said...

Um that is so sad. So So Sad.

And then to make matters worse they just had to be black..... ugh

deonte' k said...

Yes we gotta do better man... wtf is this!

Mr. Jones said...

This bullshit just re-angered me when I read this again. Ugh!

Acoustic Soul said...

uh. . .umm .. . .yea. . . . .wow!

Keisha Kornbread said...

We are our worst enemy.

Just mess...MESS!!

Mr. Jones said...

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

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