{"id":32191,"date":"2022-12-06T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32191"},"modified":"2022-12-13T15:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T15:43:37","slug":"student-slave-auctions-illustrate-the-existence-of-a-hidden-culture-of-domination-and-subjugation-in-us-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/student-slave-auctions-illustrate-the-existence-of-a-hidden-culture-of-domination-and-subjugation-in-us-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Student \u2018slave auctions\u2019 illustrate the existence of a hidden culture of domination and subjugation in US\u00a0schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Barbara Harris Combs<\/a>, Kennesaw State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an otherwise normal football season, two California high schools abruptly canceled the remainder of their games for the same reason. Players on both teams participated in troublesome acts of racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2022, Amador High School in Sutter Creek<\/a> ended its season after school officials learned that several players joined a Snapchat called \u201cKill the Blacks.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In nearby Yuba City, members of the River Valley High School football team produced and filmed a modern day slave auction<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the film, three teammates \u2013 all young Black men \u2013 were offered for sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey needed another person to be in the video, and being the only Black person left in the locker room, they all turned to me,\u201d one of the Black students said<\/a>. \u201cI made it clear I didn\u2019t want to do it and tried to leave, but wasn\u2019t able to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clad in their underwear and with their eyes downcast, the three were paraded through the locker room and put on an auction block. At least one of the Black teens had a belt representing a noose looped around his neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their white and Latinx teammates feverishly bid on them. Even through the lens of the video camera, the \u201cmock\u201d enslavers\u2019 excitement and frenzy were palpable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many are upset with the Black youth for participating in their own degradation. I understand that. But as I outline in my recent book, \u201cBodies Out of Place: Theorizing Anti-blackness in U.S. Society<\/a>, I also understand that “public degradation ceremonies are meant to debase and dissuade Blacks from walking in their full humanity, as full citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than 2% percent of the students at River Valley High \u2013 31 out of the total 1,801<\/a> \u2013 identify as Black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These numbers render Black students both extremely visible and invisible at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my view, the slave auction operated as a perverse public performance used not only to reinforce the Black students\u2019 inferior status in their own minds, but also to signal the same to those watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What lies underneath the mockery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Boston University teaching guide<\/a> defines the \u201chidden curriculum\u201d as an amorphous collection of implicit cultural messages of the dominant culture. These unwritten rules reinforce an often unspoken social order in which people of color are subordinate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hidden curriculum refers not only to unwritten rules, but also \u201cunspoken expectations\u201d that serve as \u201cunofficial norms, behaviors and values.\u201d These norms become institutionalized. As sociologists Glenn Bracey II and Wendy Leo Moore write<\/a>, \u201cAlthough the norms are white, they are rarely marked as such.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mock slave auctions are not rare occurrences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2022, white middle school students at Chatham School District in North Carolina held one by staging the sale of their Black classmates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the parents, Ashley Palmer, posted on Facebook<\/a> that her son had been \u201csold\u201d by his classmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis friend \u2018went for $350\u2019 and another student was the Slavemaster because he \u2018knew how to handle them,\u2019\u201d Palmer wrote. \u201cWe even have a video of students harmonizing the N word. Since when were children so blatantly racist?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Large
A flyer detailing an auction of enslaved people in 1859. Photo12\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In another incident, students at Newberg High School in Oregon participated in a yearlong virtual slave auction called \u201cSlave Trade\u201d that was uncovered by their parents in 2021. On the chat, they targeted Black students<\/a> and used homophobic and racist slurs while joking about how much they would pay for their Black classmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These patterns continued in 2021 when students in Texas<\/a> created a social media group called \u201cN***** Auction\u201d and pretended to auction off their Black peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all of the auctions are held on virtual platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016 in Barrington, Illinois, for instance, a \u201cmock slave auction\u201d was staged by Barrington High School students in order to create what they described as \u201cschool spirit\u201d<\/a> during an event meant to bring students from Chicago and the suburbs together<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why it all matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Group performances not only serve as a bonding experience among members, but they also reinforce an imaginary social hierarchy that harks back to the days of Jim Crow<\/a> at the turn of the 20th century and legal racial segregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These performances convey a message about a sense of belonging. Without using the specific words, the acts suggest to Black students in stark images that their status is marginal at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to connect the past and present, as Yuba City Unified School District Superintendent Doreen Osumi did in a statement obtained by CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A slave auction in New Orleans is the subject of this sketch. Pictures From History\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReenacting a slave sale as a prank tells us that we have a great deal of work to do with our students so they can distinguish between intent and impact,\u201d Osumi wrote. \u201cThey may have thought this skit was funny, but it is not; it is unacceptable and requires us to look honestly and deeply at issues of systemic racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For their part in the mock slave auction, the Black students<\/a> at River Valley High School issued apologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each received a three-day school suspension \u2013 a punishment that proved harsher than that issued to some of their non-Black counterparts, according to Greater Sacramento NAACP President Betty Williams. Though it\u2019s unclear what the punishments<\/a> were for white students, Williams said they \u201cwere not equitable in their distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand Williams\u2019 frustration. In my mind, it could be argued that the onlookers were no more culpable than the hundreds and sometimes thousands of whites who packed picnic baskets and gathered after church to watch a Black person get lynched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am hurt that the school moved so quickly to punish us instead of taking their time to understand the situation better,\u201d said one of the Black students<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut looking back I wish I had done more to stop it,\u201d the student wrote. \u201cWhen the video was made I was not feeling good about it and I froze. I wanted to get it over with so I could get to practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it remains unclear why the team thought holding a mock slave auction was a good idea, one thing is clear: The harm caused by their actions continues to reverberate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was updated to correct the fraction of Black students at River Valley High School.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Harris Combs<\/a>, Professor and Chair Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Kennesaw State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbara Harris Combs, Kennesaw State University In an otherwise normal football season, two California high schools abruptly canceled the remainder of their games for the same reason. Players on both teams participated in troublesome acts of racism. In October 2022, Amador High School in Sutter Creek ended its season after school officials learned that several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[1712,11475,3762,13068,498,1538,1077,420,9481,2950],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32261,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32191\/revisions\/32261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}