A few months ago, I watched a young man and a woman in their 30s become involved in a heated discourse involving race relations in the United States.
The disagreement stemmed from the young man stating that although things have dramatically improved in this country, racism on all levels and within different races still existed in an institutionalized manner, undetectable to the unfocused eye. The woman, offended, responded that racism was not institutionalized and that the existence of racism is due to the acknowledgment of its existence.
Now you may be familiar with the age-old question: “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This philosophical question deals with perception, observation and acknowledgment, which are key necessities to the existence of sound. In the 18th century an Irish philosopher, George Berkeley, motto summed up his convictions, as “Esse est percipi,”: To be is to be perceived. As an idealist he believed that existence depends upon the mind and or that everything that exists is the mind. Although I do not wish to enter a philosophical debate with an 18th century British Empiricist, I will say that I think that the existence of things surpasses acknowledgment. I bring this point up to merely touch upon the woman’s notion that racism would not exist if it were not acknowledged.
This thought only recently this week came into my line of sight upon reading on the CNN Web site that the students of Turner County High School, founded in 1903 in Ashburn, Ga., attended their first black and white prom on Saturday. In the past, this high school, which is composed of 455 students, 55 percent black, 43 percent whites, had their proms organized by parents who arranged for private segregated dances.
According to the article, Lacy Adkinson, a freshman at the school, said, “Whites always come to this one and blacks always go to that one. It’s always been a tradition since my daddy was in school to have the segregated ones, and this year we’re finally getting to try something new.”
Mindy Bryan, Adkinsons’ sister, was in attendance at the 2001 prom. “There was not anybody that I can remember that was black. The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It’s nothing racial at all,” Bryan said.
The tropical-themed “Breakaway” prom was based upon breaking away from “tradition.” In the past, each group would have its separate proms and prom kings and queens. This year the four senior class-officers, two black and two white, announced with the support of their new principal, Chad Stone, that they wanted to try for an integrated prom.
The prom brought in $5,000 that from supporters nationwide who heard of this story and another $5,000 Principal Stone spent from his discretionary funds.
“We didn’t want to put emphasis on integrated blacks and whites coming together,” Stone said. “We just wanted to put emphasis on this was our first school prom.”
In discussing this story with others, many were surprised that segregation at this level is still occurring. What has happened in Georgia is a reflection of people acknowledging the unnaturalness of dividing people based on skin color. Although this is a good step toward change, there was a separate “white prom” that occurred the week before and many kids, black and white, were not allowed by their parents to attend the integrated prom.
Turner High student Nichole Royal said,”I’ve asked, ‘Why can’t you come?’ and they’re like, ‘My mommy and daddy – they don’t agree with being with the colored people,’ which I think is crazy,” Royal said.
Throughout the years in this county, black and white students have been contributors towards the organization of their separate proms. This is not just a black or a white issue or an Ashburn issue. Although the issue of race is a topic that must be dealt with extreme sensitivity, it must be dealt with beyond Georgia. Race issues still exist and although this situation in Ashburn is a rare one, it is not an isolated example of racial issues that plague this country.
All it took was a few students to engage in racial discourse to make a difference at a school dance. It is important to talk about issues, to overcome them and go beyond them. It is the ability to acknowledge certain realities, no matter, how taboo they may be that paves a road toward change.
Magnolia Howell is a senior journalism major.
