ACE #146: The Day Racism Stole the Show

It was our junior year of high school and we were very excited!  It was time for the annual Junior Miss Pageant at our high school.  We’d waited those three long years so that we could be a part of it.  It was 20 young ladies who wanted the chance to compete and to represent our high school at the statewide pageant.  We were going to be judged by an interview, our academics, a fitness component, a talent component and, of course, someone would be given the Miss Congeniality Award. 

Anticipation and nervousness had sunk in at an all-time high.  It was time for the awards and the crowning of the new queen.  One award after the other was given out – about 25 in all. The ladies were filled with glee as their names were called one by one for a specific award.  The problem was that of those 25 awards, six girls received absolutely nothing.  You guessed it, I was one of them.  The other five girls were my African-American classmates.  It was devastating, on a different level, for each of us.  We had just been labeled as untalented, unintelligent, and unfit.  Some of us cried; others seethed with anger.  I did both.  It made me feel small and defeated.  It wasn’t my first encounter with what I would view as racism in my life, but it stung.

A week later, we and our parents sat at a press conference at a local school building stating our frustrations and seeking some level of justice and fairness.  We made the news – but not because we were winners.  Our parents were there to tell our county and our school board that they would not accept their kids being treated like we didn’t matter.  What became of this matter?  The school board had worked out an agreement to give “us” six black girls $500 scholarships to Midway College.  We still lost…none of us had any intention of attending Midway College in the first place and nothing could tell me that the school board didn’t already know that. 

Racism is a giant, a bully really, just like Goliath. It despises when people refuse to back down from it and fight.  It is wrapped up in a big body with a very little heart.  It tries its best to trample on people who it views as small and undeserving.

I am grateful that I had parents and a church family who validated and supported me.  I’ve gone on to wear a few crowns in my life, but had I let that moment define me I would always feel small and would always accept defeat.  That was the moment I realized that the devil really was a liar.  I would always be more than a conqueror – no matter what it looked like.  It was a tough lesson, but a much needed one.  It’s been more than 20 years, but none of us will ever forget the day that racism stole the show.

1 Samuel 17

⁴¹ Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. ⁴² He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. ⁴³ He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴ “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

⁴⁵ David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”