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With all the sudden interest in yearbooks, it's worth noting they've long been a tool used by #desegregation lawyers to uncover evidence of the “vestiges” of a school district's prior dual system. Here's a quick thread on my experience using HS yearbooks. 1/
As a DOJ civil rights lawyer (during early ‘00s) reviewing district compliance w/court-ordered deseg plans, I’d request all their yearbooks mainly to get a sense of whether extracurriculars/sports were still impacted by the district's segregative past. 2/
They too often did.
One district had never had a black cheerleader. Turns out they used a secretive selection process based on unknowable criteria that just happened to result in all-white squads year after year. You get the idea. 3/
One district had never had a black cheerleader. Turns out they used a secretive selection process based on unknowable criteria that just happened to result in all-white squads year after year. You get the idea. 3/
But if the prevalence of blackface surprises you (nb: it shouldn’t, right @juscohen?), how about separate senior superlatives for black and white students? White Most Likely to Succeed & Black Most Likely to Succeed. White Cutest Couple & Black Cutest Couple. You get the idea. 4/
And don’t forget Homecoming and Prom…on Page 14 the White Homecoming King & Queen and on Page 15 the Black King & Queen. You get the idea. 5/
This was in the ‘00s, after decades of court-ordered desegregation efforts. When pressed, staff would say they were promoting representation & diversity. Many would say dual superlatives started as a way of welcoming black students into all-white schools. You get the idea. 6/
The thing is, racism isn’t about what’s in your heart. It’s about our history of oppressing people of color & the systems that maintain that oppression to the benefit of white people, including the many/most of us with pure “hearts.” 7/
Finally, it’s not really about yearbooks. We'll never reckon with this if we only react when there's a picture. We don’t need to *prove* we’re wet when we’re all constantly swimming in racist waters. We just have to open our eyes and see the water. And then we have to act. 8/8
PS Seems like a good time to s/o some of my amazing former DOJ colleagues who've always seen the water & are daily acting to bend the arc: @anurima @jwardenski @ross_wiener @kiranahuja_NW Javier Guzman @DemocracyFwd Sunil Mansukhani @TheRabenGroup Amy Berman @NAEduc & many others
