Racial Segregation

I watched the full movie "Prom Night in Mississippi" and it was a very interesting film. Morgan Freeman offered to pay for the senior prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi under one condition: the prom had to be racially integrated. His offer was ignored. In 2008, Freeman offered again. This time the school board accepted, and history was made. Morgan Freeman created the opportunity for Charleston High School first ever integrated prom. Racism was a very common issue for the small town. The parents were unhappy about the idea of white kids mix and mingling with the blacks. On the other hand it was the complete opposite with the students. White students were friends with black students and black students had no problems with the white students, they were all friends. The white students were placed in a very awkward position in choosing which prom to attend. They wanted to obey their parents but also wanted to have a prom together with their black friends. Although the student's parents had a racism problem both white and black students tried not to go down that same road. They wanted united and peace. This related to our class about Racial Segregation in the U.S. We looked at maps of racial and ethnic divisions in U.S cities. According to Mills, the most common way to address racial inequalities is by ignoring race altogether. “Just as the white citizenry increasingly insist that the surest way of bringing about a race-less society is to ignore race and that those (largely people of colour) who still claim to see race are themselves the real racists” (p.1385). Schools in the U.S. are now more racially segregated than before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that legally desegregated schools. Residential segregation in big cities with large black populations is virtually unchanged.