Case Study: Prom Night In Mississippi

Prom Night in Mississippi In a small Mississippi town, racial discrimination was taking place in the year of 2008. The black and white high schoolers had separate proms, although they all went to the same school. So, why would they have segregated proms, if they did not have segregated schools? This might be partially due to the fact that segregation was illegal at that time, however, the members in power of that society seemed to unethically slither by the law. As many white parents of that society were racist against the blacks, some of their own children were as well. Parents negatively influencing their children caused a separation between the black and white students. Typically, in high schools, there are groups of people that certain students “belong” to or are a part of.
Heavily influential societal factors caused the students in Mississippi to create In-groups, or groups in which people feel they belong to, mainly consisting of people the same race as them (Schaefer, 2015, p. 110). Students that were a different race than them would have been part of an out-group, or a group in which people do not feel as if they belong (Schaefer, 2015, p. 110). The separation between the black and white students was an effect of societal factors. These societal factors include the parents of the students and the members of the school board. All parents influence their children; they teach their children right from wrong, how to take care of themselves, and how to act properly. Since parents teach their children how to function in society, they can influence them to be racist as well. Even if the child is not racist, their prejudiced parents might influence them to make certain decisions. For example, in the movie, some white students stated that they would not hang out with their black friends because they know that their parents would not approve (Saltzman, 2009). Therefore, the