On Friday, the local high school in my New Jersey neighborhood– Cherry Hill East– issued an apology for not being sensitive enough, and honestly, it was kind of silly. There had been some outrage over wording on the school’s prom tickets which read, “let’s party like it’s 1776.” The school – the very same one that was embroiled in national controversy over the use of the N-word in a production of Ragtimelast year – wasted no time caving to the pressure, and accepting blame for being “insensitive and irresponsible.” Really, though? Now all reference to the American Revolution is racist?
It’s misplaced outrage like this that causes idiots like Aaron Schlossberg to rant his way through a law career without anyone calling him out for his bigotry; when everything is cause for a big fuss, then nothing is. In this district’s well-intentioned rush to throw out a mea culpa, it does a disservice to all its students – particularly those who value history.
I get the concept of the complaint. If we’re analyzing at the wording of these prom tickets, something’s not quite right. Black students would certainly not want to party like it’s actually 1776, since things would’ve been decidedly different for them back then. I suppose it’s nice that the “African American students” got a shout-out in the district’s apology, although it might be good to point out that if we’re issuing sorries, then women should get some too. Any partying done in ‘76 would’ve meant women doing only what their landowning husbands had permitted. Oh, and what about Jewish students, who would have been largely shunned back in colonial times? And any students of recent English descent? They were the enemy, right? Any apologies for those kids?
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Cries over the “offensive” prom tickets are absurd. There’s a reason why Hamilton tickets cost as much as mortgage payments. The American mindset is firmly grounded in our shared history of the fight for freedom. That revolutionary spirit belongs to all of us, whether our ancestors were unjustly dragged here in chains, whether they arrived wide-eyed on Ellis Island, or whether they arrived here much more recently. That no one noticed a slogan referencing the celebration of American independence might offend black students is not a manifestation of racism or insensitivity; it is a testament to our 2018 belief that we are all Americans, and that our country and its history belongs to all of us.
AAN Staff
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