For some reason, it appears to be really hard to celebrate special occasions (or, let’s be honest, everyday life) without the whites somehow making it racist.
Christmas? Just say hi to Zwarte Piet.
Halloween? Let’s not even get started—otherwise we’re going to be here for a minute.
And then there’s prom. It is still unclear to me how anyone can turn something that is supposed to be fun, adorable and one of the best nights of your high school life into something racist, but yet here we are, another year, with more racist promposals.
Today we start in Florida (surprise, surprise), where Riverview High School in Sarasota County is investigating after a picture of a male student holding up an offensive sign to ask his girlfriend to prom started making the rounds on social media.
“If I was black I’d be picking cotton, but I’m white so I’m picking U 4 prom,” the sign read, according to the Herald Tribune, which obtained a photo of the image, which was originally posted to the girl’s Snapchat on Sunday. In the Snapchat, the caption contained two heart-eye emojis.
By Monday, several Twitter posts had lambasted the sign, with one student tweeting the image with the comment, “He seems to not know about America’s history. Racism is a problem. Definitely should not be allowed to go to the prom!!”
According to the Tribune, school district spokesperson Tracey Beeker confirmed that the student pictured attended Riverview, and noted that the sign was under investigation. School officials were reportedly speaking to the student and his parents Sunday evening.
One Riverview senior, Anton Kernohan, who has also been involved in planning gun control protests at the school, said that everyone he’s spoken to about the image is “disgusted.”
“But I think it is actually important that this issue occurred on some level,” he said Monday. “It shows that racism is still alive and well in our society, and it shows that racism is still alive in my generation, and it is something that we as the youth will have to continue to fight against.”