{"id":2887,"date":"2012-10-16T08:16:01","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T08:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=2887"},"modified":"2012-10-16T08:16:33","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T08:16:33","slug":"dont-laugh-please-were-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=2887","title":{"rendered":"Don’t laugh please, we’re black(face)!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Blackface not funny<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Administrators in the Waverly Central School District have been fielding complaints all weekend after students involved in a Friday pep rally staged a skit critics say was racist and made light of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

The issue is getting some national attention after a Waverly High School graduate posted a story on the CNN iReport website early Monday.<\/p>\n

Three white students wearing blackface put on the skit, according to the post by 2006 graduate Matt Dishler, with two of the students representing singer Rihanna and her former boyfriend, entertainer Chris Brown, who were involved in a highly publicized domestic violence case in 2009.<\/p>\n

A photo posted with the story shows one male restraining another male, with a student portraying Rihanna cowering on the floor. Students and others sitting on the bleachers in the background appear to be smiling and laughing as they watch the skit.<\/p>\n

Dishler said he didn\u2019t attend the rally, but heard about it from friends. After confirming the information, he decided to post an opinion piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can testify there\u2019s not a lot of racial diversity in that school whatsoever. We\u2019re not really exposed to that at that school,\u201d Dishler said. \u201cI felt like something should have been done about this. I don\u2019t believe the kids had any vicious intentions, but the administrators should have said that\u2019s not exactly OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waverly Superintendent Joseph Yelich said he was not aware that the students were planning to do the skit, but he has received plenty of complaints since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Waverly School District is committed to creating a positive atmosphere through all activities,\u201d Yelich said. \u201cI\u2019ll be working with building administration, staff and students to develop future activities consistent with that commitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a set of concerns that a number of individuals have had, and we want to address those concerns,\u201d Yelich said. \u201cI want to be sure administration and staff and students know what our expectations are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yelich did not indicate what if any specific actions would result from Friday\u2019s pep rally.<\/p>\n

A New Hope Center, an Owego-based agency that assists victims of domestic and sexual violence, hate crimes, rape and other abuse, is already working with the Waverly School District on bullying issues, according to Assistant Director Francis J. Bialy.<\/p>\n

Bialy wasn\u2019t aware of Friday\u2019s pep rally, but he said, in general, it\u2019s disturbing to try to find humor in grave issues such as domestic violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s intended to be humorous or putting down people, it further perpetuates permission to engage in such behavior,\u201d Bialy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at issues with race, the same thing holds true. If people act in racist ways or support racist behavior, they tell other people it\u2019s OK to act racist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hesitate to judge the intent of something,\u201d Bialy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also a dynamic that well-intentioned actions are done without a full sense of understanding that also end up being damaging as well. I think it should be looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dishler said he is still proud of his former high school and didn\u2019t want to be too critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe they will take steps to cure it. I just think sometimes things need to be brought to light,\u201d Dishler said.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Domestic violence) is nothing to joke about. I wanted people to know this mistake was made and can we please rectify it so it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d\u00a0 – stargazette.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Administrators in the Waverly Central School District have been fielding complaints all weekend after students involved in a Friday pep rally staged a skit critics say was racist and made light of domestic violence. The issue is getting some national attention after a Waverly High School graduate posted a story on the CNN iReport website … Continue reading “Don’t laugh please, we’re black(face)!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[1102,65,157,1818,745],"class_list":["post-2887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-cnn","tag-race","tag-racism","tag-racist","tag-usa"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/peprally.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2887"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2891,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions\/2891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}