From time periods spanning well after the Civil War to those where we claim folks should have “known better.” Nationally, we want to talk about yearbooks and to out people who did inappropriate things. We want them to own it, apologize, resign, and atone, right?
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But what if our expectations will bring down a system so large, that we may not be able to truly deal with it and that’s why we haven’t really dealt with it to begin with?
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What if our expectations entrap our own family and community members – folks we have access to more regularly than politicians – and they expose a nasty sore that is uniquely American in nature?
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Too many senior sections to count featured the nickname “nigg**” for seniors such as “Hey Nigg** Bennet” (Dexter High School, Dexter, Maine, 1962) or “Nigg** Bob” (Galena Park High School, Galena Park, Texas, 1956). Others mentioned the word darky.pic.twitter.com/bghumyx4WM
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Athletics pages also had the epithet. Have a particularly “strong” or “brutish” player? Use the nickname of “nigg**” for a basketball player, like at at Helena High School in Helena, Montana (1947) or even a football player like at Lubbock High School in Lubbock Texas, 1939.pic.twitter.com/wbOTevkrkI
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Oh, it gets worse. I even found an insinuation of promiscuity, perhaps with Black men, where a female student was issued the nickname “Nigg** Merritt.” The same student’s favorite pastime was allegedly “Men.” (Cocoa High School, Cocoa, Florida, 1950).pic.twitter.com/JEtZZamEp8
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“Nigg** Doll,” the name of a character for a play called “The Toys That Had to Wait” for grades 1-6 (Walbridge High School, Walbridge, Ohio, 1936)pic.twitter.com/w0m5uuKn5M
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A Halloween carnival where “the boys…had much fun at their ‘Nigg** Baby Ball Throwing Booth;” (Lucerne High School, Lucerne, Indiana, 1937). Yes, an actual booth where balls were hurled at African American children. Common as per the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia.pic.twitter.com/nr3tou5Kdy
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What about colors? Yes even that. A shade of pink known as “Nigg** pink” was an official club color for the “I Love Me Club” (South Texas State Teachers College, Kingsville, Texas, 1929). One can only wonder who in the world these teachers ended up teaching.pic.twitter.com/EncHLbY1eF
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Even one of our esteemed military institutions, West Point, had a cadet who was originally from Idaho who was given the nickname “Jack Nigg** Jack” (United States Military Academy West Point, 1921).pic.twitter.com/FiPWLTUFBA
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While we’re at it, we can’t leave out the prom. Horrid plantation themes like the one for a prom held for Nixon High School in Nixon, Texas in 1960 had people in blackface, including children in makeshift blackface masks, acting as “mammies” and pickaninnies” to set the mood.pic.twitter.com/LLtVOYl2bb
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A dance performance, “Sleepy Time Down South,” with filled with tap and “character dances” of the Deep South (Pekin Community School, Pekin, Illinois, 1949).pic.twitter.com/Xr62BrJkGW
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Sororities and fraternities were also in on things. The same year as the March on Washington (1963), Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority at Saint John’s College in Winfield, Kansas held a rush party where sorority members were “Darkies” who “entertained.”pic.twitter.com/uMdSIxrSGu
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Kappa Alpha Order at Wesleyan College (Buckhannon, West Virginia) sponsored an “Old South Week-end” including a mock “Klu Klux Klan convention” the same year Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated (1968).pic.twitter.com/XG1Ypfhuht
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There was a pledge “costume party” at the University of Southern California where a couple of attendees dressed up as members of the Klu Klux Klan the same year as the Freedom Rides (1961).pic.twitter.com/CmSIdxKzbN
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Delta Sigma Epsilon at Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, Missouri held “The Delta Darky Minstrel” in 1952.pic.twitter.com/KUKL8e17CL
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A teacher allowed students to don white hoods like the KKK during a lesson in American History (Fort Madison High School, Fort Madison, Iowa, 1976)pic.twitter.com/Vopuub420t
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Southwest High School in Kansas City, Missouri had a “Blackface Dance Line” in 1958pic.twitter.com/TzOKpZzTCC
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Masontown High School in Masontown, Pennsylvania had a “Blackface Dancers” group in 1960pic.twitter.com/6NMqcaLMVX
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A Junior Class Minstrel show, “The Blackface Bombshells” took place in 1951 at Christiansburg High School in Christiansburg, Virginiapic.twitter.com/6cIynpPOAX
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Washougal High School in Washougal, Washington allowed students to dress in blackface during a school play in 1967pic.twitter.com/uZXQW9uYiC
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Mount Carmel High School, in what’s supposed to be liberal Los Angeles, California had “The Hawthorne Darkies doing the can-can” with names such as “Fechit, Charoal, Eggnog, and Poke” in 1951pic.twitter.com/n3yt1OFsld
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Minstrel groups were all the rage and were in full effect like at Manual Training High School, Peoria, Illinois (1932) and Winthrow High School, Cincinnati, Ohio (1933).pic.twitter.com/L49Pf7dEv7
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A sophomore class play, Hobgoglin House by Jay Tobias, featured “The Darky Gardner” and “The Darky Cook” as roles at Gideon High School, in Gideon, Missouri (1952)pic.twitter.com/WTiYfvWD75
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Cathedral Latin School, in Cleveland, Ohio, noted “Our Melody and Minstrel Men” in a almost unfathomable spread in 1942.pic.twitter.com/TmFJnCi1BC
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Valley City, North Dakota’s Saint Catherine´s High School, a Catholic school, featured a Junior Sophomore Assembly with “Ol’ Black Joe” and “Darkies’ Crazy Rhythm” in 1954.pic.twitter.com/NbkphCTJqS
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Folks are looking for public figures to own their shameful past, but that’s shortsighted. If we’re addressing this truly and deeply we should be having conversations with parents, grandparents, and community members that supported and participated in the behavior I’ve outlined.
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We can attribute some of this to what was going on at the time, but with a lot of these examples I’ve shared, they took place as the Civil Rights Movement was happening. If politicians in Virginia have to own it, we have to do that nationally, whether a photo or video exists.
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