Homecoming contest sparks racial issues
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POLSON – Homecoming took a wrong turn from the usual festivities at Polson High School last week when a color contest brought up issues of racism.
Students participated in different dress up contests each day of the week to celebrate school pride. On Thursday, students dressed in designated class colors like they have for several years. This year, the student government got together and decided to have each class choose their own color. The teachers usually assign colors including yellow, green, red, and blue.
“The juniors chose white because they thought more students would have that color and they could win the spirit wars,” said Polson High School Senior Anabelle Smith.
In the morning hours, each class gathered together on the bleachers for a group photo. Two juniors were wearing white shirts with the words “white power” and “white pride” written on them in marker. The words could have been just another part of the school pride contest, but the shirts also said “Trump 2016” and a Confederate Flag was on the front of one of the two shirts.
“I saw them and knew it was going to be a huge problem,” she said explaining that the words and the flag combined were symbolic of racist rhetoric.
In a small school, Smith was familiar with the two students wearing the shirts. “I don’t think they directly meant to hurt anyone,” she said. “In my opinion, it was meant as a joke, not a political statement, but it’s sad that they didn’t think through the effects on the Native American population and the community.”
School administrators asked the students to change their shirts, but images were already being posted on social media.
“What happened on Facebook was insane,” she said.
Comments went one of two ways: people focused on peace and education, or harm.
“Grown adults were threatening these kids,” she said. “They were drawing KKK robes on (their photos). I’m not saying that what (the students) did was right but the backlash was disturbing.”
Students and adults also organized a peaceful protest against racism during Friday night’s homecoming football game with representation from different racial groups.
Throughout the week, the color contest incident was reported by news organizations across the country.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that Polson received so much attention for this mistake when they could focus on something better,” she said.
She emphasized the work Polson student Marita Growing Thunder is doing to bring awareness to miss
ing or murdered indigenous women by designing and wearing traditional regalia to school. “Why couldn’t we get more attention for her project?” she said.
Smith hopes Polson High School isn’t branded nationally as a racist high school.
“We need to grow together from this,” she said, adding that the school has some work to do in the next few weeks to come together, talk, and respect the differences within the school. Polson School District Superintendent Rex Weltz released a statement on Friday.
“Yesterday, a few of our students took part in an inexcusable incident involving homecoming activities. When staff members were made aware of the offensive and inappropriate clothing, they immediately took steps to remedy the situation.”
The messages on the shirts were considered harmful to many students and the school is taking action.
“The Polson School District does not and will not tolerate harassment or discrimination in any form toward any person. As a district, we are disappointed in the actions of those few students and will take appropriate action based on our policies and procedures, which may include discipline for the individual students.”
In the coming weeks, the school will focus on educating the students about harmful behavior.
“We applaud the students who stood up against this conduct and will continue to educate all of our students about our policies and practices forbidding discrimination in any form,” he said.
The incident started discussions about racism of all kinds across social media. One of the big questions was about why saying “white power” or “white pride” is considered racist when saying “native pride” or “black pride” is acceptable. The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana released a statement answering that question saying the words “white power” were historically symbols of intolerance and hate.
People also commented that perhaps it’s time for change to happen to allow for pride to respectively occur for every heritage.
