My friend told me "the Cotillion Ball is for the white kids, and the Ebony ball is for the black kids." I didn't believe him at first. Any student can attend the any dance but the majority of African American students are not invited to Cotillion, and a majority of White students aren’t invited to Ebony Ball.
New Trier is just so overwhelmingly white that the idea of separate dances for white and black high schoolers never crossed my mind. In Evanston, where the population is much more diverse, the idea of separate dances makes more sense to me, but still seems odd.
Why do they need two dances? What do you think about this? Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?
New Trier is just so overwhelmingly white that the idea of separate dances for white and black high schoolers never crossed my mind. In Evanston, where the population is much more diverse, the idea of separate dances makes more sense to me, but still seems odd.
Why do they need two dances? What do you think about this? Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?
After reading your article, I am very surprised that not only the students take part in these two dances, but that the school supports these dances. I know this isn't their intention, but It almost seems as if the administration is supporting a separation of races. I think just having these balls is ridiculous. These dances are made to create a community. For our homecoming, I felt more a part of New trier then ever before through events like the homecoming football game, free pizza on the lawn, when Kevin Quinn sang "What does the fox say?", and being with my friends on homecoming night. I feel like having these two dances creates the exact opposites, it divides the community into whites and blacks, which shouldn't be happening.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Colin's comment about how the two dances divides the ETHS community. I'm sure the school itself, along with most (if not all) of the students, want to celebrate the diversity of their school. Creating racially divided dances goes directly against this goal, and only creates greater divisions between the white and black students. There's no doubt that if something like this went on at New Trier it would quickly be protested and stopped. Although our school is much less diverse than ETHS, I think the principle remains the same that something of that nature would only tear the student body apart. I do think it's important to acknowledge the diversity between students, but creating two separate dances is not the right way to go about it.
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ReplyDeleteWow what an interesting and shocking blog. What do you mean by invited though? Invited by other students right? I always appreciate how honest students can be, I bet if you asked a teacher if the dances were segregated they wouldn't put it as plainly and honestly as this. In response to your question, why do they have two dances I would guess that it's similar to why we have homecoming and turnabout. It was just a tradition that started a long time ago and well, we just do. My guess would be that these dances were never intended to be segregated but that based on students social circles and also who it was/is socially acceptable to ask, they became segregated. I wonder if they became segregated at a time when interracial couples were unacceptable in society. This may still be contributing to why they remain segregated. While I would argue that currently, the majority of society accepts interracial couples, the majority of couples tend to be of the same race. In conclusion, I think that this segregation is caused by the students rather than the school itself. What we really should be worried about is what makes the students segregate themselves. These subconcious social pressures that students feel do more to segregate students than the school does.
ReplyDeleteActually ETHS does not fund nor administrate either of these dances and the Ebony Ball was only created because no blacks were allowed at the Cotillion at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm a former black student of ETHS. I went to two cotillions and the 1st Ebony Ball. Like everything else in high school, its a popularity contest. It's not racial. However, in my day , we were a more blended culture.
ReplyDeleteI'm a former black student of ETHS. I went to two cotillions and the 1st Ebony Ball. Like everything else in high school, its a popularity contest. It's not racial. However, in my day , we were a more blended culture.
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