Racially segregated High School reunions - Is it a big deal or not?

[Magiver]

@Aeschines

Sickening discrimination. They ought to be ashamed.

So to summarize:

• It’s bad to socialize with (and take care of) one’s “own kind”.
• It’s discriminatory to limit scholarships based on race.

No disagreement from me. I’ve always been on the “melting pot” side of the fence.

[Miller]

I’d say it’s not a big deal, because it’s a frikkin’ high school reunion, for Pete’s sake. Who cares?

But it’s definetly racist.

[Gamaliel]

If I was running this thing and I truly wanted a sock-hop type thing and not a Klan meeting, I’d simply announce the theme and then open the doors to all alumni. If the event truly would “have no appeal to” post-1969 grads, then they would simply not show.

As far as the Texas example goes, if there were two reunions or parties or whatever, one geared towards whites and one geared towards Hispanics, I can’t get too upset about that as long as they were open to all. Surely there must be some people who would feel comfortable at both events, such as those couples mentioned. Self-segregation does happen, of course, but that’s no excuse for exculding or not inviting people.

Perhaps some enterprising alumni will crash the party or burn a cross on the lawn.

[Bippy_the_Beardless]

@astorian

. So, on the “white” bus, the kids all played kicker music on their boomboxes, while the Hispanic kids played Judas Priest and Iron Maiden on the “brown” bus. The white kids all liked barbecue and chicken fried steak, while the Hispanic kids liked tacos, enchiladas and fajitas. By having parties separately, both groups got to eat the foods they liked. And the Hispanic kids could break into Spanish (or, more accurately, Tex-Mex) without anyone feeling left out).

Would I have been welcome on the “brown” bus, I hate country music and love metal. I also prefer Tex-Mex food. But I’m as white as an angels knickers.

And your reunion organisers were crass in the extreme not catering for half the people invited.
If the reunion was in a strip show bar would they not be considered sexist for discriminating against the female allumini? So providing food and music for oly the white peoples taste makes them rasist, either by deed, or by lack of understanding.

[iampunha]

@Bippy the Beardless

If the reunion was in a strip show bar would they not be considered sexist for discriminating against the female allumini?

I feel a little unnecessarily retentive for saying this, but in the name of fighting ignorance:

alumnus: one male graduate
alumna: one female graduate
alumni: at least two male graduates (or, IIRC, multiple graduates at least one of whom is male, but I might be assigning to Latin the rule as it is in French)
alumnae: at least two female graduates

Many have taken to using alumni as the all-purpose plural or - Og forbid - using alumni as the all-purpose word. “I’m an alumni” is something I see/hear far too often. Barring “alumni and alumnae,” Of the options reasonably available, I prefer just “alumns,” which while bastardizing the language leaves us without the awkward gender split otherwise present. Graduates would be best (IMO), but for the individual who simply must use the Latin, there you go.

[Sternvogel]

@iampunha

Graduates would be best (IMO), but for the individual who simply must use the Latin, there you go.

“Alumni” doesn’t refer only to graduates – the term also encompasses any former students (dropouts, transfers, those who died while enrolled, etc.)

[astorian]

@Bippy the Beardless

Would I have been welcome on the “brown” bus, I hate country music and love metal. I also prefer Tex-Mex food. But I’m as white as an angels knickers.

And your reunion organisers were crass in the extreme not catering for half the people invited.
If the reunion was in a strip show bar would they not be considered sexist for discriminating against the female allumini? So providing food and music for oly the white peoples taste makes them rasist, either by deed, or by lack of understanding.

I’m 100% pasty-faced Irish, and I’d have been with you on the brown bus, at least from a musical perspective.

[cogitator]

@Cardinal

This is discrimination, and I find it hard to argue that it’s not racial discrimination.

It’s probably not illegal, though, I would guess.

Yeah, yanno funnily enough, if you take a look at that marvelous 13th Amendment of the U.S. constitution, you may notice that slavery itself never exactly got made illegal. Those old white guys sorta had a play on words but I’ll be darned, slavery is still legal and was, in fact, part of what helped the great success of the Reconstruction (reconstruction of the White South, by Black Prisoners. The irony!). Har har har, ain’t that just the darndest thing?

Legal or not, that party sucks and any honorable invitee would have sent their regrets. I’da given bonus points to those who encouraged other alums to turn it down too.