Mississippi Churning

This is one of the more bizarre “diversity” stories I’ve read.

To help ensure “minority representation,” Nettleton Middle School in Nettleton, Mississippi, designated which race could run for certain class officer positions. Only whites could run for class president in all three grades—sixth, seventh, and eighth. In sixth grade, blacks could run only for the reporter position. In seventh, they could run only for secretary-treasurer. In eighth, they could run only for vice president and reporter.

It’s important to note that some article commenters claim the middle school alternated the set up annually. For this school year, the above schedule applied. The year before, things were switched around. Only blacks could run for president of each class, for example. Now this, if true, is less bizarre, and it helps me understand why the black principal and vice-principal (and parents) allowed this 30-year-old practice to continue.

People are outraged, naturally, but this is a consequence of the diversity obsession. Rather than allowing students to choose all class officers from among the general student body, the school opted for set-asides. Apparently, the white-majority school feared black students wouldn’t win elections to any office, so it rigged the process to ensure blacks would hold at least one office per grade.

The jig is up. A mother of mixed-race children filed a complaint after her daughter was told she couldn’t run for sixth-grade class reporter because she was the wrong race. According to the article, the mother took issue with the black/white dichotomy, as Hispanics and other races attend the school. An excerpt of the article:

By Friday afternoon, Superintendent Russell Taylor posted a statement on the school’s website, saying the policy had been in place for 30 years, dating back to a time when school districts across Mississippi came under close scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department over desegregation.

“It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body,” the statement said. “It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed.”

“‘Therefore, beginning immediately, student elections at Nettleton School District will no longer have a classification of ethnicity,” it added. “It is our intent that each student has equal opportunity to seek election for any student office.”
…
Springer’s plight demonstrates the complexities faced not only by interracial families, but by school officials trying to achieve racial equality in a state known for tensions between blacks and whites. The school district also manipulated prom and homecoming elections so that the outcome is an equal division of blacks and whites.

Racial preferences supporters in the audience, are you outraged over the school’s attempt to make sure black students had an opportunity to hold office?

(Photo credit: Randy Springer)