Costume controversy shadows larger issue

The controversy surrounding an incident at Havre High School late last month, where a student came to school with what has been called a racially insensitive Halloween costume, continues as parents of students seek action from the school to address the issue.

Shanetrice Allen is the parent of a Black student at HHS who complained about the costume which she said featured the student painted black from head to toe, the student was wearing a formal dress or gown.

Allen said she received word of the incident from a friend of hers who sent her pictures of the student in costume, but when she called the school she was told the student in question was dressed as Carrie from the book and movie of the same name, a character that has been depicted as white in every major iteration of the story.

She said she was also told that the student in question didn’t realize that the costume would be offensive and would upset their classmates. She was told the student, when confronted about the issue was genuinely sorry and attempted to wash the paint off, but she added the intention of the student was not her concern.

Indeed, Allen, and the group she represents, is not looking for disciplinary action against the student but is instead concerned about the fact that the student was apparently allowed to wear the costume well into the school day without any teachers or administrators responding to it until enough complaints were made by students and their parents, Allen said.

The controversy

The incident upset numerous students at the high school, many, but not all, of whom were African-American, Allen’s son being among them.

Allen said her son brought the matter to the attention of the school but no one addressed his concern until the next day, when he was pulled out of class and handed a generic harassment complaint form and was told if he didn’t feel harassed to throw the form out.

No effort was made to explain the form or what was being done to address the issue, Allen said, and she was never called back by the school administration regarding the issue.

She said no one treated her son as if he had any valid reason to be upset and the lack of communication with them, along with the fact that it took until after the first period at least for the student to be told to wash the paint off, are the primary aspects of this incident she and her fellow parents are concerned about.

“To me this incident falls completely on the shoulders of the staff,” she said.

Allen said, given the times, it is striking to her that seemingly no teachers or administrators saw a problem with the costume in all that time, or thought so little of it that it wasn’t worthy of their time to address.

“In 2021 I’m sure more than just the Black kids are aware of blackface,” she said.

She said the fact that this was allowed to go on for so long and the ensuing lack of action has created an environment where her son and other students of color feel like it’s OK for them to be made fun of.

Beyond how long it took to respond, she said, the fact that her son and other students who complained were pulled out of class to be given the complaint form singles them out among their classmates, which is especially bad in her son’s case who already feared backlash from other students for complaining about the incident.

“Our kids want to be heard and seen, but they don’t want to be singled out,” she said.

Allen moved to Havre two years ago, she said, and when she did she didn’t do so thinking this was something she would need to deal with, but the possibility of racially charged incidents like this were always in the back of her mind.

What she wasn’t thinking about, she said, was the possibility that her son might lose friends over something like this, a fear her son has expressed to her, and a thought she doesn’t relish.

She said she understands there are not a whole lot of Black or mixed-race students at the school, but they deserve to have a safe environment and have their voices heard, and given all that has and hasn’t happened she believes the school needs to recognize and acknowledge the problem.

“They owe (our kids) an apology, they really do,” she said.

Havre Public Schools Superintendent Craig Mueller said the incident is under investigation and there are many aspects that he can’t talk about at this time, but when Allen brought the matter to the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees earlier this week he did offer to meet with Allen and her group.

Allen agreed to the meeting, but criticized the district for not making efforts to keep her and her fellow parents informed about the investigation and its progress and what is being done to address this problem.

Blackface, past and present

While many have been supportive of Allen and her group’s concerns, she said, many others have acted like this issue is somehow not serious, but, historically, blackface’s very origins are rooted in racism.

Blackface, where a white person darkens their skin to portray a Black person, is a practice that dates back to the early 19th century when white actors, on stage or in film, would would depict people of color with exaggerated facial features to entertain white audiences, said University of Montana African-American Studies Director Tobin Shearer.

Shearer said the practice was used to portray African-Americans as buffoonish, uneducated and objects of ridicule, and it contributed to a culture of racism that propped up the systematized subjugation of Black Americans under Jim Crow.

The practice was still being used in the early 20th century, he said, and it has always reinforced stereotypes and dehumanized people of color, and that history is echoed every time it is done, regardless of intention.

“You can’t separate it from its history,” he said, “And we’ve heard clearly, repeatedly and uniformly from members of the Black community that this is an offensive practice, and that’s all we need to hear.”

Intention and results

Allen said, while many people in the community have expressed support for her and the group of parents she represents, the community response as a whole has been largely disappointing.

She said most people seem to be focused on the intention of the student who wore the costume and the fact that they were embarrassed when they found out about how offensive the costume was.

She said the fact that the student was apparently sincerely sorry isn’t nothing, but lost in all of this is the effect it had on other students.

Indeed, by all appearances, the public discourse surrounding this controversy has largely revolved around the personal intentions of the student who wore the costume, discourse which Allen and Shearer have both said is a problem.

Shearer said intention isn’t unimportant, but the fixation on intention when it comes to incidents like this often distracts from the fact that the practice is hurtful, regardless.

He said the natural inclination of institutions like schools when something like this happens is to focus on combating the perception of racism instead of addressing the issue head-on, and this tendency is a massive obstacle to greater change.

He said he recently gave a presentation to a national group where he outlined a consistent pattern of institutions having some kind of racial crisis, immediately scrambling to make it go away, and make no lasting changes in the aftermath.

Shearer said for institutions to solve this problem they need to disconnect the crisis from the need to deal with the racism. He said they need to acknowledge what happened, not get defensive and learn from it so they can make changes to prevent it from happening again.

Every time an institution is more concerned with appearing racist than with dealing with racism it hurts the long-term goal of creating a better environment, he said.

This echoes much of what Allen said regarding last month’s incident, particularly with what happened to the student who originally posted the photos that caused this incident to become known to the public.

She said the student who took the photos was suspended for violating school policy about posting pictures of students online, which she said seems like an extreme reaction considering the student who wore the costume was apparently given the opportunity to wash the paint off and more-or-less go about their day.

In response to questions about this suspension Mueller said he cannot confirm whether the student had been suspended.

Allen said it creates the appearance that HHS was more concerned with covering the incident up than dealing with it.

“They could have given (the student who took the photos) the chance to correct their mistake and take it down, just like they gave the student who (wore the costume) the opportunity to go into the bathroom and wash it off.”

Mueller said this perception is unfortunate and offered assurances that the issue is being dealt with.

“I am sorry that the perception is that anyone involved in this situation is covering anything up or that we are not addressing it,” he said. “... We are addressing the situation and following through on what we believe are actions steps to ensure this is handled in a fair and equitable manner for all.”

HHS Principal Ed Norman has been on administrative leave since the investigation began.

Shearer said the apparent double standard is an extremely common element in incidents like this and plays into the problem of addressing the appearance of racism instead of addressing the problem itself.

“We don’t get to (these issues) if we’re defensive, we back away from them,” he said. “... We need to walk toward them with maturity, with level-headedness, with an openness to learning, and that is what I’m hoping can come out of these situations. It rarely does, but I’m always hopeful.”

He said this problem is hardly exclusive to Havre, and is one that is seen in predominantly white communities across the U.S. and the fact that, in this instance, the student wasn’t stopped immediately by the school raises the question of whether more training is needed for staff about why this is such a serious issue, which Allen said as well.

Mueller said the school is looking into some kind of training as a result of this incident, but the matter is still being investigated.

“The district is planning to conduct training for administration and possibly staff members,” he said. “... We are in the process of developing a plan to address the concerns raised through this investigation.”

Community response

Discourse surrounding this incident has made Allen and others in her group concerned given that so much has cast them and their children in a negative light, she said.

One parent in the group received a threat and had personal information of hers put on the internet in an apparent attempt at intimidation, Allen said.

While that has been the worst of it so far, she said, and the instance of information being posted was handled by local law enforcement, the response from the community seems quite hostile to her group.

She said there have been plenty of people who have been supportive, but the overall atmosphere has made her concerned that her children may become targets themselves.

Allen said she loves the area and has ever since she moved here, but the fact that there are people who have been supportive does not erase the hostility she and her group have experienced from others that seem more angry that the story got out than the fact that it happened.

Shearer said these are volatile times in the U.S., especially when it comes to issues of race, but he’s hoping people are willing to practice the democratic values of this country and be willing to listen and learn, and if they are everyone will be better off.