The Big Lake School District in Minnesota is responding to outrage after a photo of a racist “promposal” has gone viral.
The picture involves students holding a sign that reads “If I was Black I’d be picking cotton, but I’m white so I’m picking you. Prom?”
I guess that sounds funny to racist-ass white kids, but I honestly do not get the punchline. Anyway, parents are demanding that the kids who posted the photo be held accountable, according to WCCO-4 CBS.
Jennifer Alery, a mother of several biracial children who are in, or have gone through the Big Lake School District, said she was outraged by the photo.
“I just felt this the whole time my kids were going to school, so for it to finally come to light, it was very shocking,” Alery said.
Alery said her kids have shared school halls with the students in the photo and she is unaware of what the school can do about the photo. She does want the kids to be held accountable. Her daughter, high school senior Janaya Dimkpa, believes they should be barred from prom.
“If those kids are going to be allowed at prom, then it’s not going to be a welcome place for everyone,” Janaya said.
Alery’s son, Jayden Dimkpa, who graduated from Big Lake High School last year, said he is at least happy the racist act is in the open now.
“We’re almost glad that this came to light because like it’s always just, yeah, been swept under the rug,” Jayden said.
He added that he and his siblings have encountered racism at school from other students, teachers and coaches.
“[My brother’s] gym teacher, he threw a sweatshirt at his head and said, ‘Cover up your head,’ just because he had like curls,” Jayden said. “He’d come home sad [with] anxiety, puke on the bus because he like genuinely [did] not want to go to school because he felt different.”
The district said in a statement it’s addressed the actions of the students involved, but can’t go beyond that because of privacy laws. The father of the boy in the photo says his family is receiving threats and the mother of the girl had no comment.
Social workers are at the school working through this with students and the district is working with civil rights leaders to hold discussions on racial issues.