Prom night in Mississippi

After watching the documentary Prom Night in Mississippi in class on Tuesday and Thursday, I was actually in disbelief that something like this actually existed today. I don’t understand how after everything our country has been through and how far we’ve come that some people are still that racist. I know there are racist people out there, but I always associated it with neo-Nazis and white supremacy. I could not believe that an entire town in present day America allowed for such outwardly racist customs to continue. What was more outrageous was that the white parents actually tried to resist the integration of the prom. Before watching this documentary I always had thought that in the south today blacks were accepted and treated more fairly and equally than they are in the north. I always used to compare Atlanta to Milwaukee and thought of the south as being more diverse and accepting. Maybe it is just because I grew up near Milwaukee and I always knew that Milwaukee was a very segregated city, in which blacks are severely discriminated against. I remember in high school one my history teachers told us that in a survey of blacks, the number one city they felt most discriminated against was Milwaukee. However, the outwardly racist views of these parents is completely different than the discrimination in Milwaukee and is not something I expected to see anywhere in America regardless of where they are from. I don’t think you would ever see a whole town outwardly expressing racism in the North. After seeing this video it just adds to the stereotype that Southerners are racist hicks. In class you could hear everyone laughing, especially when they interviewed the father of the girl who was dating a black boy. He was the epitome of a racist hick, and it was hard not to laugh at him, or the whole town for that matter. Watching this made me mad, but at the same time I felt sorry for all of those people. I think that a lot of them are poor and uneducated, and they were never taught that racism is wrong. I think that even if your parents are racist, you can escape the cycle by being educated about racism. However, I don’t think that a lot of these people ever were taught about it. One of the statements I remember the most was made by a girl referring to what her grandmother or grandfather had taught her. Her grandmother had said that God had made everyone different on purpose, but if everyone started mixing races then everyone would eventually be the same, and that is not for what God intended. I think that this statement is ridiculous and makes no sense. It makes me mad that people try to use God as a way to justify racism. I do not believe that God would ever want someone to be discriminated against. All of the excuses for why the blacks and whites should not share a prom were stupid and long outdated. Their excuse that mixing the proms could be dangerous didn’t any sense because if these kids could all go to school together and get along everyday, then why would it change for one night? I think that all of this comes down to education. If these people were just better educated on the matter then maybe their opinions could change and people would learn that just because their parents say blacks and whites are not equal doesn’t make it true.