I was thinking about the things I have done that I could be called out for. There are a lot. Some, I am sure, I have either forgotten or purposely blocked out. Two do stand out.
My junior or senior year of high school I sold license plates bearing the Confederate flag. I was taking free enterprise and one of our projects was to pick a product to sell to our fellow students in order to make a profit. My high school, by the time I attended, was about fifty percent Black/white with a small percentage of Asian, mostly Southeast Asian, Americans and a scant handful of students from “Brown” countries. It was also named after Confederate general Robert E Lee. We were the Lee High Rebels, and our mascot was, I shit you not, a little general in a Confederate uniform.
The incongruity of our majority Black sports teams wearing uniforms that celebrated the people and culture that held their ancestors enslaved did not begin to occur to me until I was in my twenties. It probably will not shock you to learn that my high school was still teaching the “Lost Cause” version of history in which the Civil War was about State’s Rights. Racism was so embedded into our normality no one even questioned whether or not it was acceptable. What can I say? Other than a few pop culture highlights the 80s was a shitty, shitty decade.
By the way, we did not make a profit. We may have sold half a dozen license plates outside of the ones we sold within the group. Lee High was not known for its class spirit. As true then as it is today if you want to make a profit in the hallways of a high school: sell food. Preferably fast food like candy, chips, or soda. I think even packing lunch bags for sale would have made us more money. Though I doubt we would have been allowed to cut into cafeteria profits for too long. It was a very rigid school.
The other thing that comes to mind are a couple of less than PC Halloween costumes. One year, not so long ago, I went as a Voodoo Queen. The costume was fabulous. Like most of the costumes I have worn the last decades- I made it myself. I wore all black, elaborate (for me) make up, a top hat, and a skull topped staff. It was inspired by Dr. Facilier, the Shadow Man in Disney’s the Frog Princess. As with many things inspired by Disney the premise is deeply problematic.
In a very real sense, there is actually no such thing as the spiritual practice of Voodoo. What we call Voodoo is the bastardization of Voudon. Voudon is a complex Afro-Caribbean religion that originated in Haiti and is practiced by many in parts of the Caribbean and in the US, mainly in New Orleans. Dressing as a Voodoo Queen was to caricature a profound and powerful religious tradition that is often demonized solely due to the color of the majority who practice it. Of course, that was not my intent. My intent was to have a cool costume I looked good in. Intent, however, is trumped by impact every single time.