I guess I have been living in the comforts of liberal California way too long to realize that racial segregation still has a dominate pressence in some areas of society. Having gone to public school for thirteen years and being in such a diverse educational institutional in San Francisco, I suppose I really took the dose of diversity for granted more than I realized.

I visited the South once several years ago in order to trace the path of the Civil Right’s movement. When it came to social segregation the way our teachers talked about it as merely an aspect of history that it never really dawned on me that some areas of the South still remain in segregated. The senior class at Turner County High School in Ashburn, Georgia are trying to break the segregation habit within their school. Up until now Turner High has held separate proms for both black and white students. The title of their prom: Breakaway.

When I came across this article I forced my eyes to do a double take. Even with the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education that took place in 1954, people still haven’t come to accept that they have to live together, go to school together, dance at prom together. Unless one decides to colonize the moon for future academic use. Prior to this decision prom at Turner High embraced the idea that “I may have to go to the same school as you, but it doesn’t mean I have to dance near you.” Though the move to bring both sides together into one giant prom elebration is a small step in a very long uphill battle on a universal scale I can only imagine how much further there is to go in order for the population of people to “love thy neighbor” no matter the color of their skin. Whether the Breakaway prom is a success is yet to be determined but effort put towards the event is the step in the right direction.
—Eming Piansay