High school student sends out racist prom invite about cotton fields on Snapchat

A white student in a Texas high school sent a prom invite to his date on Snapchat which featured a racist trope about cotton fields.

According to a number of reports, the identified teenager, from Vandegrift High School in Leander Texas, sent a Snapchat of himself holding a sign with the following words written on it:

If I was black I’d be picking cotton, but I’m white so I’m picking U 4 Prom.

KVUE reports that the school’s principle Charlie Little sent a letter to the community addressing the issue, and said that after students brought it to his attention, the school “immediately” opened an investigation.

“In the case of social media, we have a process to investigate, assess and respond to social media posts that may disrupt the school environment,” Little wrote in the letter.

We do not tolerate or permit discrimination or hate speech of any kind at Vandegrift.

…The student intended the posting to be a humorous re-enactment of a 2018 meme that garnered national attention.

The ill-informed prom invite is based on an almost identical one that happened a year ago in a school in Florida.

An 18-year-old student was seen holding up the same message in a Snapchat post. After the picture circulated around the internet and news outlets covered the story, the student apologised for offending anyone, and insisted it was a “joke” that “went too far”.

Little said that the letter, while “inappropriate and disturbing” the student’s intention was not to “harass, bully, or discriminate” against someone.

He did condemn the letter’s contents.

There is absolutely nothing humorous about slavery, and its use in this context goes against the values and ethical principles we teach.

H/T Daily Dot

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