Julianne Hough Crossed the Line

Halloween is coming up this week and many people are wondering what they are going to dress up as. Julianne Hough decided to go to a New York Halloween party as the character "Crazy Eyes" from the new Netflix original series Orange is the New Black. The character "Crazy Eyes" is as you would guess, crazy. 

Crazy Eyes - From Orange is the New Black

Julianne Hough and a bunch of her friends decided to dress up as characters from this show. Julianne Hough was crazy eyes and dressed up in black face.

Julianne apologized on twitter saying that she didn't mean to offend anyone and was truly sorry. 

Julianne Hough - Dressed as Crazy Eyes

I don't understand why she would do this. How could she think that no one would be offended by this. She put on black face to imitate a crazy black woman. The character may be from a TV show but to dress up in black face and mock a black character crosses a line.  

What do you think about this situation? Do you think Julianne Hough acted disrespectfully? What do you think was going through Julianne Hough's head when doing this?

The Cotillion Ball and the Ebony Ball

This past weekend was New Triers Homecoming dance. I was talking to a friend about the dance and asked him what his dances were like. He goes to Evanston Township High School and told me something really interesting. Homecoming for ETHS is not really a dance. Students show up in jeans and t-shirts. At ETHS they have two "real" dances: The Cotillion Ball and the Ebony Ball.

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?