Whites: 'I Wasn't
Prejudiced Before9
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"I wasn't prejudiced before, attacked and beaten by a group
but.
It seems uncanny, but the
conversation almost always includes that telling phrase when
you ask a white Grimsley High
School student what effect the
recent racial disruptions there
have had on him.
Yes, they say, I see the justice
in integrating the public
schools, yes, I can even accept
busing if that is what it takes to'
insure equality of educational
opportunity. They may even say
that if they were black and experiencing the cultural dislocation and social isolation many
black students say they feel,
they would be out on the campus protesting too.
. And at about this point, when
you half expect them to say that
some of their best friends are'
black, which some of them do
in fact say, out it comes: "I,
wasn't prejudiced before, but .'
of blacks behind the library <
the first day of the recent disruptions. "It just didn't make
any sense. It wasn't a fight or
anything. I was just standing
there when about eight or 10 of
them jumped me from behind .
- . . just because I was white."
A sophomore girl now refuses
to go certain places on campus
alone. "I'm not afraid to walk
the campus; it's just that you-
have to be cautious about where
you go and when. During the
trouble I wouldn't go anywhere
alone."
Another sophomore girl complains that during an important
standardized test used by many,
colleges as a criterion for admission a group of blacks who
couldn't answer the questions
talked, giggled and otherwise
distracted the others, black and
white, in the classroom. The
teacher,' she says, tried repeatedly to quiet them but could
not.
A junior girl says that a group
of blacks in the audience at a recent school talent show mum-
IT IS POSSfflLE, of course,
that these students are only ar-
"'fKKTr S ^ bled Md S<lUirmed dU™g the
y have had for years. But it white apts_ lowin_ interesst and
is also possible, likely in fact,
that what has happened at Slack*one<
Grimsley has hardened whatev- Dk
er prejudices they may have had
and actually instilled such feelings in others.
School officials are frankly
worried about this happening.
As one of them said, "When I
was growing up, I was prejudiced because of what people
told me about blacks, but these
white acts, showing interest and
appreciation only during the
kids are becoming prejudiced seventh grade work in
_ A STUDENT GOVERN-
ment officer is critical of the
issues raised by the blacks who
recently disrupted school.
♦'They were such little picky
things," he says.
A sophomore girl feels she is
■:■■..
'sail
because of what they're seeing
and experiencing themselves.
I'm afraid that kind of prejudice
is going to be a lot harder to
overcome."
What have they been seeing
and experiencing?
A junior girl tells of one of
her best friends being1 attacked
and robbed in a washroom by a
gang of black girls. Another girl,'
a sophomore, says that she is
now afraid to go to the ladies
room alone?and always goes
with a group.
A JUNIOR BOY says he was
year. The teacher can't progress
because the blacks can't do the
work. The whole class is being
held back because of a few. And
when we do start to move
ahead, they disturb class so nobody can get anything done."
A junior boy has the same
complaint. "It's not all blacks,
just some. There are some who
•are great, really sharp dudes,
but for every one like them, you
have 10 rejects."
"It just a certain group that
causes the trouble," a junior
boy agrees. "You got some who>
won't keep up in class, not because they're dumb, but because they're lazy. They're the
ones who are always going around starting fights and stuff."
AFTER LISTENING to a
number of these replies, a certain underlying pattern begins
to emerge. Those, black students
who are making it in school —
the ones racking up good
grades, athletic honors, social
popularity — are accepted and
even genuinely liked by most
white students.
The others, the ones who
don't have the talent, inititive or
opportunity to do likewise, are
tolerated at best. "We go our
way and they go theirs," as one
Student put it.
Clearly, white students look
upon integration as a process by
which black students are supposed to enter their (that is,
white) society. An off-hand remark made by a white student
during these interviews is illuminating. Asked if he had any
black friends, he replied:
"Yeah, there's one guy I really
like. He's a real good guy . . .
acts just like a white guy."
By that he meant that this
black student and he understood
each other. They spoke the
same language. "He knows
when you're joking and when
you're not. Like I might call
him a nigger and he might call
me a honky, but we'd just
laugh, because we both knew
we were just kidding abound.
But most black guys wouldn't
know you were just kidding.
They'd get mad and want to
fight."
AT A TIME when blacks
are increasingly conscious of
their blackness — witness the
struggles to preserve black colleges, the rise of new black
magazines and films, the popular "corn row" hair styles inspired by those of natives in-
Africa — white students expect
black students to change their
speech, dress and folkways to
those acceptable in middle
class, white society.
They expect black students to
act like them. ;
As a Grimsley teacher observed, "I think most white people looked at civil rights that
way, that what blacks wanted
was the right to be like vis... to
enter our society. We thought
that if they got their rights, they
Wpuld all put on suits and ties
and act like Sidney Pi
were wronj
It is apparent that this cul
tural gap is one of the serious
hurdles between the schools and
racialamity, and it may account
for the infrequent social integration at Grimsley.
Outside class and certain organized activities} like sports
and band, blacks and whites
largely go their own ways. In
the cafeteria during'one recent
lunch period, every table was
filled, but only one was being
shared by blacks and whites.
Students are allowed to leave
campus forlunch, with parental
permission, and on another recent day, some 25 carloads of
students were observed heading-
for the nearest hamburger
stand. Only one car carried any
blacks.
- MORE OFTEN than not,
blacks and whites walk to class
with friends, of the same race.
"Integration is not the rosy
picture everyone thought it
would be," one. white student,
a junior, commented.
"Everybody thought integration
was going to mean black and
white students walking down
the halls arm-in-arm, but it's
not that way at all. We're just
so different, and throwing us together like this has made the
differences seem even greater."
Still, the white students interviewed for these articles gener
ally favor integration and are
willing to accept blacks as
■friends and equals. "I think we
ought to have integration," a
junior girl said. "After all, the'
world out there is both black
and white."
On the issue of violence, how-
-e ver, -parttetrtaTry th i
•nee that took place
during the disruptions, they are i
adamant. "If I were black, I'd
probably be out protesting too,"
a junior girl admitted. "But if I
I were one of those kids beaten
up just because my skin was
White, I don't know how much
sympathy I could feel for the
blacks."
Another junior girl commented, "I think having blacks at
Grimsley is fine, but they've got
to behave themselves and students have got to feel like they
can walk the halls in safety."
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