First, the somewhat serious link:
High school brings back segregated prom courts, from
Anil. Cause for concern? Probably. But you see, I've grown up in environments where diversity is preached, but when the chips fall, everyone hangs out in their own racially segregated cliques. I've written about experiences at UC Davis, and I won't go there again. ("Not going there" being the issue, not the school. Well, I probably wouldn't return to the school either. Anyway.) So instead of repeating myself, I bring you this completely non-related story about high-school.
The High School Graduation Story
Now for those of you who know me, like
know me, you guys know that I went to a predominately African American
high school. If you're a stats hound, I'd say that the year I graduated, probably 60% of the student body was African American, 20% of the students were white, and the majority of the rest of those students were Latino. Us Asians that didn't transfer to nearby Albany High huddled in a corner, studying for our SATs. If we weren't on the tennis courts. (You know how it is.)
So it's June, and graduation is right around the corner. The students that were at the top 20% of the class were the honors students — you got a cheesy bronze medal with the school crest on it and you sat in the front of the auditorium. The rest of the students, the regular grads, sat in the back. The day of graduation rehearsal, everyone took our assigned seats and looked around.
Everyone sitting at the front of the room was Caucasian and Asian. Everyone in the back was African American and Latino. There were some exceptions here at there, a white kid in the back, and black kid in the front, but if you stuck us all on a giant bus by our seating order, you would think you were on a Birmingham bus in the 1950's.
(Now, why's it gotta be like that, you ask yourself? Why were only the white and asian kids the ones taking the honors classes, the ones going on to college? The high school is smack dab between Kensington, an affluent white suburb, and Richmond, once called the murder capital of California. Why weren't more opportunies given to students of low socio-economic status? Gah. Who knows? That's why I majored in engineering when I got to college, and not sociology.)
Where were we? Oh yeah. At the practice, the pricipal stood on the stage. "There will be NO tom-foolery during the actual ceremony, especially while walking across the stage," he said sternly. He was looking towards the back of the crowd. "If I see anyone doing anything that robs them and us of the dignity and the respect they deserve, I will give the thumbs-down signal, the woman will not give you your diploma and you will not be able to obtain your diploma until the end of August." Yeah, like that's gonna stop anyone.
So fast forward to the night of the actual ceremony. The Senior Class President is at the podium. "Now.. I present to you, the honors graduates of El Cerrito High." We stand up. Polite applause, we cross the stage one by one, get our diplomas, sit down. I swear to god, there were 80 of us and it couldn't have taken any longer than 10 minutes. Some boring ass white/asian folk, we were.
There is a 20 second pause. And then, it happens. "Now everyone," says the class president, "STAND THE FUCK UP! EVERYONE MUTHAFUCKIN' STAND UP! EVERYONE GIVE UP FOR THE REAL GRADUATES OF EL CERRITO'S CLASS OF 1994!" All the sudden, 7 airhorns go off. I swear to you, the crowd turned into a Bulls game.
"DENISHI... BLAKE!" The class president yells out from the podium. Five girls in the front start standing up and chanting. Go Denishi. Go Denishi. Go Denishi. Denishi runs up to the stage like she's on the Price is Right and starts step-dancing for the crowd of a couple of hundred. The crowd is going apeshit. "My parents are huddled fetal position in that crowd somewhere," I think to myself. "Wondering why they ever left Taiwan." The principals smile fades away and gives the thumb down signal to take her diploma away. "Oh, HELL NAW," I hear a middle aged woman scream from the back of the auditorium. "THAT'S MY BABY! THAT'S MY BABY!!"
The principal ended up revoking around ten, twenty diplomas that night. The cabbage patch, the running man, the Roger Rabbit, the robot... just about every single dance that was popular in the 1990's I saw someone do at least once that night. One guy actually got on the floor and did the snake. That actually got the white kids to stand up and cheer.
But yeah. Best Graduation Cermony ever. Getting my college degree wasn't a tenth as exciting.
