Post-Racialism Mississippi Style

Taunya Lovell Banks

The Smoking Gun just reported that the Nettleton Middle School located in a tiny town a few miles south of Elvis Presley’s birthplace, Tupelo, Mississippi, distributed an informational memo to its students about the forthcoming elections for class officers.  According to this memo students running for 8^th grade class president or reporter must be white, and students running for vice president or secretary-treasurer must be black.  The requirements differ slightly for 7^th and 6^th grade class officers.  Black seventh graders are only eligible for the secretary-treasurer position, and black six graders for the reporter position.  Otherwise the eligibility criteria, B average, good attendance and disciplinary record, are the same for all grades and positions.

After the press got a copy of the memo an embarrassed school superintendent issued a statement saying that the selection criteria are “under review,” and that his office is looking into “the origin of these processes, historical applications, compliance issues, as well as current implications and ramifications.”

But according a post on mixedandhappy.com which first reported the story, the school handbook also separates “the prom and homecoming king and queen by race — black or white, and nothing in-between.”   Aside from the obvious race discrimination problem, what happens if you have a bi-/multi- racial child?  The mother of multi-racial children who wrote to complain was told: “Go by the mother’s race b/c with minorities the father isn’t generally in the home.” According to this parent school officials justified their policy saying “a city court order is the reason why it is this way.” Undoubtedly the court order mandated integrating school activities.

This response does not help Asian, Native American or Latino children who seem totally excluded under the policy.  Mississippi has never been entirely a black and white state.  Chinese Americans have lived in the State since the 1870s and the Mississippi Choctaws pre-date white settlers.

Now most readers probably are thinking that this policy originated in the minds of some white school officials intent on preserving a white supremacy ideology by protecting leadership positions for white students.  But a check of the school's website indicates that the school principal is a black woman and two of the three assistant principals are white men.  The third is a black woman.  Hmmm, maybe this is where they got the idea.  Stay tuned for any updates.

Update: 8/28/2010

Here is the statement from the Nettleton (Mississippi) School District issued Friday August 27^th announcing the end of a 30 year policy mandating which class offices are open to white and black Nettleton Middle School students:

"After being notified of a grievance regarding upcoming student elections at Nettleton Middle School, research was conducted that evidenced that the current practices and procedures for student elections have existed for over 30 years.  It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body.  It is felt the intent of these election procedures was to ensure African-American representation in each student office category through an annual rotation basis."

"It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed to help ensure minority representation and involvement.  Furthermore, the Nettleton School District acknowledges and embraces the fact that we are growing in ethnic diversity and that the classifications of Caucasian and African-American no longer reflect our entire student body."

"Therefore, beginning immediately, student elections at Nettleton School District will no longer have a classification of ethnicity.  It is our intent that each student has equal opportunity to seek election for any student office.  Future student elections will be monitored to help ensure that this change in process and procedure does not adversely affect minority representation in student elections."

I have only one question, why did it take 30 years to change a policy that was inappropriate from its inception?

Comments

[Penelope Andrews]

A very interesting story with a ironic twist. This superb piece highlights how complicated race and racial identities are, and how uncovering this complication requires more than superficial glimpses.
Penny