It seems that the ghost of promposals is still haunting us, and while a lot of high school students are guilty of doing the utmost, two students at the same California high school went way too far by using blackface and lynching references in their own promposals.
Fact: It’s never cute to be racist when asking someone to prom.
A student from Los Gatos High School claims that he wore the blackface just to depict a “bitmoji” on Snapchat to ask someone to go with him to prom, but now he has found himself in a whole heap of trouble.
“My intentions were to just ask a girl to prom, not to be racist,” the unidentified student told NBC Bay Area.
According to the student, he asked a girl to prom with his bitmoji on Snapchat. However, when that didn’t work, he decided to show up at her house dressed as the bitmoji, including the blackface.
“To dress up like my bitmoji, I had no racist intentions. I didn’t mock the African-American community at any point,” the student said.
“I just want to say I’m sorry if I offended anyone. That wasn’t my intention,” he added, according to KTVU. “I’m not a racist kid, and I just want to say this is a big misunderstanding.”
“People are offended by the stupidest things these days,” the student said. “At one point do we say enough is enough and let the offended kind of run the world?”
There’s nothing more attractive than being wrong and strong.
Nonetheless, the promposal isn’t going over well with some parents at the school.
“I was shocked; I was horrified,” said Pilar Crawford. “But then it also shows me that he doesn’t think that’s wrong, he doesn’t understand—or maybe he does—how black people feel about blackface.”
And, according to the news station, it is not the first time a Los Gatos High School student has shown his or her true colors. Just last month, a junior asked a girl to prom using a poster that read, “Do u wanna be like a nigger and hang at Prom?” complete with a depiction of a lynching.
According to KTVU, the school issued a statement to the school’s newspaper saying, “No communication about any school event should denigrate another person or group for any reason. We are aware of two prom asks this spring that have been of [a] racist nature and want this choice never to recur.”
The school is now looking into offering cultural-sensitivity programs for the next school year. The student who wore blackface said that he was required to attend a 45-minute counseling session at the school as a form of discipline.
Read more at NBC Bay Area and KTVU.