High school yearbook mistake

[texasgirl]

A Waxahachie, Tx. school yearbook, listed the only African American student on the honor roll as "black girl". The picture was a group picture as all schools do of their honor students with the names of them under the picture. All white students names were listed but hers just said "black girl". The school is apologizing for it and saying that it wasn't meant to be malicious, but noone on the yearbook staff knew her name and that is was only meant to be used as a place mark until they found out her name. I don't know about any of you, but, as far as I'm concerned, she rose above MANY students, black or white to become an honor student with straight A's {a VERY hard thing to do these days} has accomplished so much, SOMEONE should have known her name also!! They knew all of the white names. And when I was in school, once the rough drafts were done, the teachers for the staff proofread ALL of the work before being printed!! This has taken away from the girls accomplishments. It's a disgrace and I hate that there is still so much racism in 2005!!

Just this morning, another yearbook in Columbine is being reprinted also. You know how throughout the year, the photographers go through the school catching people off guard to get goofy pictures to add to the yearbook pages as fun? This one had a caption below the kid as " Most likely to kill President Bush". What is wrong with people that this sounds funny!! I'm just sick that a few kids these days just don't have morals or just don't care what they say. It's a sad world.

 

[choclatechef]

ITA Texasgirl.

We can only try to do what we can as individuals and hope that there are enough caring unbiased people to outweigh the others.

 

[luvs]

i gasped out loud when i heard that.
this is a touchy issue, but it hits home for me, and i want to comment.
my little cousin is bi-racial and a very smart young gal who is on the honor roll, has won a presidential award, and is a little pro in gymnastics. if they just put 'bi-racial girl' under her name in the yearbook, i'd use my savings to sue those bas*ards. well, i wouldn't need to, lol; her parents are filthy rich and i'm sure they'd take care of that on thier own, but still...
i wouldn't let anyone hurt that kiddo's feelings. i love her very much.

 

[choclatechef]

i gasped out loud when i heard that.
this is a touchy issue, but it hits home for me, and i want to comment.
my little cousin is bi-racial and a very smart young gal who is on the honor roll, has won a presidential award, and is a little pro in gymnastics. if they just put 'bi-racial girl' under her name in the yearbook, i'd use my savings to sue those bas*ards. well, i wouldn't need to, lol; her parents are filthy rich and i'm sure they'd take care of that on thier own, but still...
i wouldn't let anyone hurt that kiddo's feelings. i love her very much.

I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything Luvs, but the type of people we are talking about would not call your cousin "bi-racial", they would call her black or the n word.

That is why it is such a farce to me, when people label kids "bi-racial". In the real world, the white world treats them as black, and most of the black community does also.

That being so, I would rather see them called black than bi-anything. There aren't any "pure" blacks in this country anyway. We most all have white ancestors, and I have Indian ancestors too!

 

[texasgirl]

I do know that the first people that her family contacted was the NAACP )
They will make sure that something is done. It can't change this, but, the school will make sure in the future before they make another sorry mistake like that.

 

[luvs]

shrug~

I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything Luvs, but the type of people we are talking about would not call your cousin "bi-racial", they would call her black or the n word.

That is why it is such a farce to me, when people label kids "bi-racial". In the real world, the white world treats them as black, and most of the black community does also.

That being so, I would rather see them called black than bi-anything. There aren't any "pure" blacks in this country anyway. We most all have white ancestors, and I have Indian ancestors too!

i have some Indian (Native American) in me too, choc, and some German, Irish, Scotch Irish, Lithiwenian,and Croation.
i see your point, and you're absolutely correct. i have several black/bi-racial friends, one of whom used to be my closest male friend, and they ARE viewed as black regardless of if they're bi-racial or not. frankly, i don't care; race isn't important to me. these guys all treat me well and that's what matters to me. they're my friends and they take care of me.

 

[luvs]

I do know that the first people that her family contacted was the NAACP )
They will make sure that something is done. It can't change this, but, the school will make sure in the future before they make another sorry mistake like that.

my little cousin's Grandpa on the other side of the family heads up the NAACP branch where i live. i'm so proud of him.

 

[Lugaru]

My jaw dropped when I read it, more from "man these guy's are stupid" than from the racial element of it which of course sucks too. I always dealt with the oposite growing up though... my "genes" are mostly white so as a child in mexico my most common knickname for people who didint know me was "guero" or blondie. Of course those things arent much of a taboo in Mexico due to how insanely integrated races are... negro or black is a common knickname and even a pet name (a mom or girlfriend calling their boy "negrito lindo" or pretty black guy).

 

[ironchef]

Their excuse was extremely lame. If anything, the fact that she WAS the only African-American student in the picture would've made her name easier to find. The students who did that page in the yearbook most likely did it on purpose and the teacher(s) in charge of the yearbook probably missed it, or else they decided to turn the other cheek. How hard would it have been to ask the other members of the Honor society what her name was? Not hard at all. There was no mistake.

 

[buckytom]

i don't think this was an overtly racist act, but like ironchef and texasgirl said, they should have known her name just because of her accomplishments. the racism part would only come in if the kids really didn't care to follow up and find out her name because of her race. more likely, they were just lazy.
some of the more academic students might be able to slip under the radar for 4 years, studying at home a lot and not joining in any school activities, but if she were an honor student, you would think that ONE of the kids on the yearbook would have taken a class with her and remembered her name.
hopefully, if nothing else, the children in the school have learned a lesson from this, and will be more sensitive to others' feelings and concerns.

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

I would call the FBI. Sounds like someone needs to learn a lesson. Am I kidding? No.

 

[ironchef]

i don't think this was an overtly racist act, but like ironchef and texasgirl said, they should have known her name just because of her accomplishments. the racism part would only come in if the kids really didn't care to follow up and find out her name because of her race. more likely, they were just lazy.

That may be, but if this happened in predominantly all black school and the one white kid in the club/group was labeled as such, the nation would be up in arms.

 

[texasgirl]

Their excuse was extremely lame. If anything, the fact that she WAS the only African-American student in the picture would've made her name easier to find. The students who did that page in the yearbook most likely did it on purpose and the teacher(s) in charge of the yearbook probably missed it, or else they decided to turn the other cheek. How hard would it have been to ask the other members of the Honor society what her name was? Not hard at all. There was no mistake.

Yes ironchef, she is the only African American in the picture!!
That's what makes it so hard to believe that noone knew her name. The teacher in charge should have proof read all of the pages that were to be in the book. Frankly, if I were looking at the picture, and saw this girl and the rest were white, I think I would WANT to know what her name was, if she were able to succeed as she had, and if this mistake shows what kind of students she had to endure, she did this under a stressful and racial environment and I feel that she did more than just being an honor student!! She deserves alot more than just that award!!

Sushi, I'm not sure who all are involved, when it's over with, I'll let you know what all happens.