Reacting to the Disgusting, Racist New Hampshire High School Homecoming Proposal

For the record, I want to verbally destroy this kid. The same way I verbally eviscerated that New York Times schmuck Cindy Adams when she wrote an article taking a dump on Maine.

But that was a different level than this.

That was total sarcasm -- this is real life.

Racist Homecoming Proposal

By now, you know why the internet broke in Northern New England on Friday. Word got out that an insanely heartless, idiotic, stupid, disgusting, gross, racist event went down involving a student from Trinity High School in Manchester, New Hampshire.

A post from the Black Lives Matter Manchester Instagram page showed a picture of two students who are way too proud of themselves and smiling while holding up the most insensitive, embarrassing, and hateful homecoming proposal sign possibly ever created in New England.

Here's what the sign reads:

If I was black I would be picking (cotton) but I'm white so I'm picking you for HoCo?

Truthfully, I don't know what's more disgusting -- the fact this kid thought this was a good idea in the first place, the fact that it looks like the girl he asked not only said yes, but based on the fact they were both smiling behind this stupid sign, she seemed to think it was "cute," or the fact that Trinity High School -- at first -- according to Seacoast Current, only suspended this kid for one day.

And was still allowing him to play sports. And apparently, he had support from some teachers.

Let me repeat that -- THIS KID, ROCKING THE MOST SCUMBAG HOMECOMING PROPOSAL IN RECENT HISTORY OR MAYBE EVEN EVER, ACTUALLY HAD SUPPORT FROM TEACHERS.

Look, was this a mistake by this kid? Absolutely, a stupid one. Such a stupid one. Have all of us made stupid mistakes when we were young, dumb, and trying to fit into a crowd while also lowkey trying to figure out who we are in general at that age? Yup.

But I'd put money on the fact that most of us never made a mistake as stupid and as heartless as referencing straight-up racism and demeaning an entire culture thinking we were funny with a homecoming proposal.

But then again, how can we really be shocked if this kid got SUPPORT FROM TEACHERS over this?

George Floyd murder

The fact is, we should all know better. Adults, parents, and students -- we should all know better.

Racism was at the absolute forefront of the country throughout 2020 when we were all locked down in our homes with nowhere to go and nothing to do except have our eyes forcefully opened to what actually happens all over the country, following the George Floyd murder. And the murder of every other black man and woman killed questionably and unjustly before and after.

I feel like, before that moment, most of us (except the ones that continued to spread hate) saw the world through rose-tinted glasses. We didn't realize there was a problem because depending on where we grew up and who we grew around, we were just too privileged to realize it. To notice. To understand.

I remember clear as day being a little kid growing up in the '90s not realizing racism was still a thing. Sure, classes in school would reference topics like slavery. Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King Jr. But we never heard about it still being present.

I never noticed personally it was still present. I had black friends, Filipino friends, Asian friends -- friends from all different cultural backgrounds, and I was lucky enough to be in a setting where that's all they were. They were just my friends.

Family Matters school racism episode

But as silly as this sounds, an episode of the old sitcom Family Matters aired where one of the main characters, Laura Winslow, was petitioning her school to have a Black History class added.

And during that episode, a scene aired that will forever be burned in my brain.

Watching that scene, I wasn't even fully sure what was happening (remember -- privileged and not exposed to racism at home, school, my neighborhood -- none of that), but I knew it was bad. Bad enough to make me feel hurt inside even though I wasn't even sure why I did.

And even when my parents told me what the word spraypainted on Laura's locker meant, I still didn't fully grasp it because it just wasn't something that I was exposed to. One of those "that doesn't happen around here" situations.

But here we are, 31 years after that "Family Matters" episode aired, still having the same conversation.

We should know better. We need to do better. This article you're reading right now shouldn't have to be written in 2022. Or ever again.

But it will -- guaranteed.

Because for whatever reason, people have hate in their hearts for reasons they don't even know. Because it's just what they were exposed to by their parents. Who were exposed by their parents. And their parents before them.

So, yeah. I want to verbally tear this kid apart for making such a stupid, hateful, senseless, racist homecoming proposal. Mistake or not, the anger is still there. But what does verbally ripping him apart do? He's probably already lost a good chunk of his friends and their respect. According to Seacoast Current, he's been booted off the football team and out of Trinity High School altogether.

Verbally going up one side of him and down the other would just end up being hateful at the end of the day. And based on the fact this conversation is happening right now, there's clearly still enough of that in the world.

Here's hoping he, his homecoming date, their parents, their classmates, and everyone else have learned something from this.

And here's hoping he and everyone else can make their bounce back greater than this setback. Truthfully, that's something we all need to do, whether we made a racist homecoming proposal sign or not.