After Blackface Controversy, Homewood-Flossmoor Looks To Heal

HOMEWOOD-FLOSSMOOR, IL — The blackface controversy that played out on social media in the Homewood-Flossmoor area last month was front and center again Tuesday night at the last District 233 board meeting before classes end for the year. The board, parents and members of the community spent more than an hour in a sometimes heated, often passionate, exchange that revealed how the community is still reeling from the incident that put the high school in the national spotlight.

The regularly scheduled meeting also marked the first time the board has met since images of Homewood-Flossmoor students in blackface went viral on social media channels. Superintendent Von Mansfield and Principal Jerry Lee Anderson briefed the board and the members of the public on the steps they have taken in the past three weeks to help students learn about racism and to help them heal from the hurt it has caused. They also addressed what they said was "misinformation" about public facts of the case. During the public comment session, several parents and community members critiqued officials' response to the incident or demanded answers about future actions, while others supported them for handling a situation that most acknowledged caught them off guard.

"Social media has been a game changer," Mansfield said. "Social media was a catalyst that catapulted this into another realm."

At the end of April, photos and videos of four white boys went viral across several social media channels. They began as separate Instagram videos and still images were pulled from there and shared on other people's accounts. The videos were shot off campus, and at least one of the boys wore a red sweatshirt with an H-F Vikings logo on it. In one set, four white boys are driving in a car; three of them painted their faces black. Commenters on the post called on them to stop because the post was "racist." In another set of video and images, the boys are seen at a McDonald's drive-through window, and appear to be taunting an African-American female cashier while referring to her with derogatory terms. They also appear to be using Black English vernacular.

In their remarks, Mansfield and Anderson outlined the timeline of district-related events from Sunday morning, April 28, when Anderson was first alerted to the social media images. She held a meeting with the parents of the boys in the video by noon that day. By Monday, a special message to students was broadcast through the school's television system, and on Tuesday, students staged a school-supported walk out at H-F. By Wednesday, administrators met with students in all English classes to hold question-and-answer sessions and to offer support to them, she said.

After that, H-F scheduled a forum hosted by Operation Rainbow Push that featured the Rev. Jesse Jackson as a keynote speaker. Several "peaceology" and other community forums were held, and the district sponsored additional forums for parents. Administrators also held discussions with village officials and other community leaders. And last week, student members of Operation Snowball led a "Live United" campaign that drew 1,000 students to create and sign a pact in which they pledged they would work to promote peace, acceptance, community and tolerance. At the meeting, several students said that wearing neon t-shirts printed with the Live United logo helped "cheer" the school that "has been down so much."

Mansfield and Anderson reiterated that they could not legally speak about whether the boys in the video were disciplined, although Anderson said that all of the boy's parents attended the Sunday meeting she called to investigate the situation. She and Mansfield explained that certain laws govern when school officials are required to discipline students, such as when students are still in the school's chain of command. For example, if fight breaks out on a bus bringing students home from classes, school officials must discipline the students. But when incidents occur off campus on days when school is not in session, discipline no longer is the school's responsibility.

However, Mansfield said, "when you're in a homogenous setting and you're the only one of something, there tends to not be a lot of issues. We choose to live in a diverse community...and we are bound to have clashes."

What makes all the difference is how those clashes are handled, he added. He pointed to nearby Mokena, where students in blackface were seen in public just a week after the H-F incident. The school district, Lincoln-Way, which he did not name, did not address the problem and referred all inquiries to police.

However, Mansfield said, the district recognized the gravity of the situation and accepted it as community problem and attempted a holistic approach to managing the uproar the H-F blackface images caused.

Some parents, however, didn't buy the explanations and criticized officials for taking too long to respond, for tightly controlling communications with parents and for rushing toward big, community forums before student trauma could be healed. Some questioned bringing Jackson to H-F, saying it was a media opportunity rather than a student-centered approach toward education.

"We can’t let it rest," said La'Shawn Littrice, a mother who questioned the district's motives for choosing Jackson over other diversity-training methods. "Whose fault is it that they're not being taught [blackface] is offensive? We know because we are black, but those who are not didn't know."

"Don't forget," she said, "I won't let up until I see some real change."

Other parents urged patience and offered support for administrators.

"It is not about Dr. Anderson and Dr. Mansfield. It's about our kids and our school, and I am one person, but I believe they did exactly what they legally, ethically and morally had the obligation to do to," one public speaker, Leah Bailey Lansgton said. "Nothing is perfect. No response would have been perfect, but the responses that they gave were as good as a response as could have happened in this situation."

Mansfield acknowledge H-F still had a long way to go to make progress in moving past the incident and in educating students about race and racism.

"As much as blackface is as offensive as it is, some kids didn't know and it's a different generation now," he said. The movie White Chicks, a Wayans brothers film that depicts black men in white face, came up during discussions, he said. Students, he added, said "so talk to me about playing fair and what implications are."

That showed him, Mansfield said, that there "are larger conversations that still need to be held to get at the root of the issues."

Also see:

H-F Students' Blackface Photos Rock Homewood; H-F Walkout Planned

H-F Students Walk Out Of School After Blackface Controversy

H-F Releases Plans As Board Condemns Students' Blackface Videos

Peace Forum Held Sunday After H-F's Student Blackface Controversy

Jesse Jackson To H-F Students: 'Choose Direction, Not Complexion'