Hipsters Win for Mississippi Racial Equality
What you’re looking at is a copy of a letter sent home to Nettleton, Mississippi Middle School students outlining the requirements for holding Class Office. The discerning reader will instantly notice that each office for grades 6 through 8 includes a racial requirement…and 8 of 12 offices are for whites only.
I love you Mississippi but you’re breaking my heart. Since this story popped up on Gawker (posted for the lolz / tragic self-reinforcement of the Southern stereotype), it’s gotten a lot of attention…enough to persuade the school to reverse the policy. Sick reminder of the depths of racial inequality? You betcha. Weird reminder of the power of internet past-timery to actually catalyze real world change? Uh huh. Final nail in the coffin that holds all my hopes and dreams for my flawed and fierce, redneck’d and much vexed home state, the one I call the Dirty Dirty, the Big Sippi, the Queen of the South? Hell no! That ain’t no coffin, it’s a hot air balloon; no nail, just reckoning. And every dragging sand bag of outdated circa 1960 make that 1860 bigotry that we drop – regardless of the reason – takes us higher. So thanks, Gawker. And to all my neighbors in Nettleton…seriously, WTF?!?
