Tom Powell, WREG-TV (Memphis), May 6, 2008
A video posted on YouTube.com is causing a lot of concern among Memphis City School parents. Now were trying to find solutions.
The clip labeled, “Mitchell High School Memphis … Rape Dat Ho,” was posted last month. It was flagged as offensive then taken down, but not before News Channel 3 recorded the clip on tape.
The images are disturbing. They are graphic and hard to watch. It shows young men and women engaging in what one parent described as “sex with clothes on.”
We knew the video would get a strong reaction. We aired the video Monday to expose the problem in order to stir constructive conversation, then offer solutions.
{snip}
MCS Administration’s Response:
We showed the YouTube video to a group of five administrators last week. They offered a response after viewing the tape.
{snip}
News Channel 3 received a written request for a copy of the tape, and we provided that copy to the administration Tuesday.
“With further investigation, if we are able to identify any student that participated in this, it totally violates our student code of conduct and they will be disciplined accordingly,” said Franklin.
The Superintendent has now responded:
“To say that we are troubled by the video that aired on one of the local television stations last night would be an understatement. We are shocked and disappointed by the behavior of students shown in the video clip. These images demonstrate a serious issue that educators, parents and community stakeholders alike must focus on—the need for a more productive partnership between schools and homes to ensure children understand how to act as responsible, mature young adults with a sense of self respect,” wrote Superintendent Dan Ward in a statement sent to News Channel 3.
School Board Members Watch the Tape:
{snip}
We wanted to talk to parents to get their reaction to the tape after it aired Monday night. We ran into another hurdle when we approached them outside Mitchell High School Tuesday afternoon. An administrator with the school tried to silence the parents. “We’re trying not to do any interviews with this right here,” he told one mother who was about to talk with us about the video.
“I would like for you to please leave,” he told our camera crew.
We didn’t leave.
Parents wanted to give us their opinions on the dirty dancing, so we stuck around to listen.
{snip}
On Your Side Investigation Uncovers New Tape:
During our investigation into the first tape, we found another clip on YouTube called “Mitchell High Talent Show.”
It starts off with a performance, but by the end several students are simulating sex on the same gym floor as the first tape.
There’s a big difference on the second clip. You can see several administrators walking past the camera. Eventually students start pouring onto the gym floor in excitement over what they are seeing. At the end of the clip an adult ushers the crowd back to the bleachers.
MCS sent us the following statement after we sent a clip of the second video:
“Pop-culture, the Internet and mainstream media greatly influence the activity and behavior of today’s youth. We trust that our partners in education—parents, guardians and school families will continue to reinforce to children the appropriate way to conduct themselves before, during and after school hours.”—Memphis City Schools
The statement did not answer any questions about how high school administrators responded to the behavior. We sent the following questions back to MCS:
* Why did it take so long for an administrator to address what was happening on the gym floor?
* Were the students reprimanded for the behavior they displayed at the end of the talent show?
* Does this demonstrate a pattern of tolerance toward this type of behavior?
{snip}
Updated 5/08/2007 Mitchell High Principal Responds:
May 8, 2008
“I would first like to apologize to the Memphis community and to the Memphis City Schools family for the embarrassment these videos have caused. I take full responsibility for the inappropriate content in one of the acts in a talent show, and understand we should have taken immediate action and ended that performance.
While the matter of another video shown on a local station remains an open investigation, I want to make it clear that we take this incident very seriously. We are working with Memphis City Schools Security to determine if that footage was also taped at Mitchell High and whether students from our school were involved.
Today, I conveyed to our entire student body the message that every student and staff member should conduct themselves in an appropriate and responsible manner. We hold high expectations of our students at Mitchell
High and expect each member of our school family to be respectful of others and, most importantly, of themselves. I would like to assure the community that this sort of behavior is not a reflection of the majority of our students who follow the Student Code of Conduct and who come to school to learn. Our goal is to continue to provide the best possible learning environment and to develop all aspects of our students’ lives.”
John Ware
Principal
Mitchell High School
Original article
Email
Tom Powell
at tom.powell@wreg.com.
(Posted on May 9, 2008)
Public School Review, no date
| Students by Ethnicity
|
This School
|
TN School Average
|
| % American Indian
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| % Asian
|
n/a
|
1%
|
| % Hispanic
|
n/a
|
4%
|
| % Black
|
136% [sic]
|
22%
|
| % White
|
n/a
|
67%
|
Original article
Comments
This is typical behavior at black majority high schools. The fact that the administration did not do anything is not surprising to me since high schools are basically holding pens anymore.
Posted by Spartan24 at 6:15 PM on May 9
The school is 136% “Black”. Apparently one of its graduates has been employed as the school mathematician.
Ronald
Posted by Ronald at 6:32 PM on May 9
Look at the words of those poor, squirming school administrators. It is clear that they completely at a loss for what to say. So they just utter vague and empty phrases about how students should behave “in an appropriate manner.” You could say that about anything.
Posted by Reader-1 at 7:15 PM on May 9
Would anyone care to guess at the sort of reaction we’d have seen if white high school students at say… Jena had made a satirical YouTube video called “Rape Dat Ho”?
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 7:32 PM on May 9
It’s obvious what their problem is: lack of diversity. This is what happens when black kids are deprived of white kids to beat u- I mean to learn with. Bus in some white kids and this sort of thing won’t happen. They’ll be too busy beating u- I mean learning with the white kids.
Posted by jewamongyou at 10:56 PM on May 9
Black’s and Whites are cut from two different branches of the human tree, its as obvious as black and white, only educated idiots can’t see this stark warning. Continents/deserts, segregated us ..stupidity brought us together.
Posted by Petrarch at 1:03 AM on May 10
If you’ve kept up with hip-hop and black-influenced pop culture over the past few years, what you’ve been seeing is blacks returning to their roots. Though older folks may have been horrified by forced integration in the 60s, as a young man, I can assure you that the blacks of yesterday are nothing like their progeny. Even older blacks are horrified by modern-day black culture. Younger blacks have been emboldened by the freedoms that have been granted to them since the civil rights era and the fact that they are told on a daily basis how proud they should be for enriching our culture by inventing things like jazz, peanut butter, and crack. For this reason they are acting more and more like the deviants they are. Lets hope this devolution continues as long as too many whites aren’t dragged down with it. Videos like this help our cause more than you know. Let’s just sit back and watch as the black community destroys itself.
Posted by at 1:56 AM on May 10
Memphis H.S. test scores are among lowest in the nation, 5 mis. away, they are relative to the national average, same old story in Memphis, black school board, black administrators, black teachers, black students, no surprise as to this type of activity, I would think in this type setting, it is fairly normal, undoubetly there is very little discipline, Memphis leads the nation in many categories, murder rate, #1 in violent crime, city schools some of worse in the nation, if it wasn’t for the federal money poured into Memphis, the city itself would be a 3rd world country.
Posted by abc at 6:07 AM on May 10
I just love “136% black”. Humour abounds on this web-site as well. Does that mean that they have a new shade of darker black?
Posted by B J Deller at 6:53 AM on May 10
With no fathers in their life, no parental supervision and no constructive role models in comes as no surprise. I wonder what percentage will make a success of themselves after high school. Many will go to prison, some will be killed in black on black violence and the rest will go to low paying dead end jobs. Tragic but a pattern repeated right across the country, even in the black middle class.
Posted by Chuck at 7:22 AM on May 10
This is why Tennesseeans refer to Memphis as Memphrica.
Posted by at 8:03 AM on May 10
They’re black. They will get away with it. A White teacher will be found and receive all the blame.
Posted by at 9:40 AM on May 10
Does anyone have a youtube link for the Rape Dance — or at least the TV news coverage of it? Maybe I’m just a Stupid White Man, but I tried several keyword combos and couldn’t find it.
Posted by Stupid White Man at 12:01 PM on May 10
I’ve heard it called Memphrica, and also Mogadishu on the Mississippi.
136% black. That says it all.
Posted by at 8:30 PM on May 10
“The clip labeled, “Mitchell High School Memphis .&nsbp;. . Rape Dat Ho,” was posted last month.”
I guess this is their answer to the white population’s community projects that seek to reach out to give their teens something to do.
If they were to put this on Bill O’Reilly’s show, I can just see and hear all the black talking heads he would have on trying to stupidly convince everybody, with childish spin, that the event really is an uplifting one and that whites can’t see it because of their racist attitudes.
Remember how one after the other, from CNN to Fox news blacks tried to actually put a happy face on what this Jeremiah Wright said, even a higher-up in a popular black church, actually expecting people to believe their childish nonsense?
The intelligent thing to do would be to denounce black wrong, but point out that progress is being made and cite a couple of examples. As it is, they create an even worse image of themselves for the whole world to see.
Posted by ice at 8:30 PM on May 10
The Tennessee school average is only 67% white???
This is the big news item, not the sex in public. The 2005 demographic data showed Tennessee as being 78.7% non-Hispanic white.
Posted by Alan at 11:51 PM on May 10
This kind of thing is nothing new; and although it might have something to do with the overtly sexual nature of modern rap, it isn’t necessarily the source. The incident in this report immediately reminded me of what I saw a long time ago:
I was one of the first victims of busing.
About 25 years ago, I was about 11 years old; I ended up in what I guess was bused to be a slightly majority black middle school.
An end-of-year school program consisted of a dance portion in which preteen black girls did a dance that involved bending over and sticking and shaking their rumps in the faces of the parents seated in folding chairs.
This was all done to the tune of some song that I never knew the name of, the chorus of which included and involved the repeated chanting of the words: ‘We Don’t Care!’.
At ten years old, the horrible irony wasn’t lost on me.
Posted by Neil at 3:46 AM on May 11
Here is a report from the local TV station that shows clips from both videos. The video is posted in the upper left hand side of the screen:
http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?s=8281465
Notice that they only play very brief clips from the video of maybe 2 of 3 seconds at a time. I’ve seen longer clips on other websites and the full video is much more disturbing. The news channel must be trying to get their story while being “sensitive” to the urban yoofs.
Also note that in while one young man is “dancing” on top of a young woman on the floor, a 2nd young woman comes up behind the man and makes exaggerated humping “dance moves” against his rear(!) - this is especially disturbing because most people don’t realize that inner city black girls are just as degenerate as the boys. That part of the video was much longer and more focused in the original; the news crew cut part of the screen off so you can’t see a full view of the 2nd girl’s “dance” behind the boy. “Rape dat ho” indeed.
These kids have no more subtlety or modesty than dogs in heat. It is truly revolting. White parents: PLEASE PULL YOUR KIDS OUT OF MIXED SCHOOLS!!!
Posted by Jill at 4:19 AM on May 11
“Many will go to prison, some will be killed in black on black violence and the rest will go to low paying dead end jobs. Tragic but a pattern repeated right across the country, even in the black middle class.”
Forget the black on black crime. How many Whites will be murdered by these people? I’ve gotten to the point where I have no sympathy for people who refuse to attempt to do anything for themselves.
Self protection by whatever means are necessary should be the principal objective of Whites and civilized non-Whites.
Posted by at 6:26 AM on May 11
Having lived in “Memphfrica” at one time, I can testify that it’s become almost uninhabitable for Whites. When I was a small child, my family and myself would walk downtown at night and window-shop without a care in the world. Do that today, you won’t last 10 minutes before you’re robbed and possibly murdered. Only a blind fool could ignore the negative effect blacks have had on Western civilization.
Posted by Torch at 9:32 AM on May 11
Why is it that parents and school administrators will only admit there’s a problem after kids post their vile behavior on YouTube? Apparently shaming the adults in this way is the only way to make them take any interest in the actions of their brood.
Posted by Karl Alfred at 9:36 AM on May 11
The high school’s young scholars frequently make headlines:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330316,00.html
Posted by PMN at 3:37 PM on May 11
A parent must be an imbecile to send their kid to this school:
http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=7868461
Posted by PMN at 3:42 PM on May 11
It’s difficult to imagine, but there are plenty of whites who don’t realize the level of barbarity that exists in the black communities due to the past 40 years of covert and overt suppression and due to the ridiculously unrealistic positive depictions of black’s on television.
Youtube is a wonderful way to capture aspects of black “culture” that would normally not see the light of day if it were for the oldstream media and their wicked,intentional,enabling suppression.
Unlike much smaller mixed culture European countries,I really don’t see any major racial conflict in the near future,we have alot of geographical room left in this country to facilitate white flights to safety.
For those whites that raise their children near inner cities or in mixed schools,I would say that it’s tantamount to child abuse.
Posted by Dave at 8:19 AM on May 12
What is scary about this story is that this is one of the better schools, given a 5 star rating by the parents. The average reading ability (by state standards) is a staggering 89%, even in maths it is 60%. I have gone through the lists of some all black schools
where those figures are 7% and 1.3% respectively. The reason that this story has come out is that this school has such a (relatively) high academic standards that the pupils not only know how to operate a video camera, but also know how to post it on the web. It makes one wonder what goes on in the 7% school.
Posted by ciccio at 2:21 PM on May 12
Seventy percent of Blacks are born out of wedlock.
Seventyfive percent of Black children grow up in a one-parent
home.
Blacks have the highest dropout rate in the public schools.
Blacks are 13% of America’s population, yet they commit almost
50% of the violent crime in America (FBI statistics).
Drug use in the Black community is rampant, even epidemic.
Gangsta Rap captures the imagination of most Black youth.
Black on White crime is 4 for every White on Black crime.
Blacks receive preferential treatment in hiring.
Blacks receive an inordinate proportion of welfare.
Wherever Blacks live there are huge gang problems.
Blacks hate Whites…just listen to Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
Al Sharpton, and Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Blacks are dragging America down. Integration was supposed to
bring Blacks up, but they dragged down everyone else.
Posted by Cooper at 10:57 PM on May 12
I don’t understand how this situation has become a “black white” one. This should be about students, discipline, and administration. I suppose every issue is a “black white” one with you. Just as the administration is blaming the music and the media for the behavior of their students you would probably blame blacks for any type of ill behavior from your children. What these children did was quite vulgar. Yet, they do not represent the entire race of black people. It would be an error to put a blanket on all black people and label them as filthy vile human beings. It would be in error to say that all of the students involved in this incident will grow up to be hindrances and menaces to our society. I don’t know what type of site I have come across but it certainly seems to be one fueled by racism. I am a black woman I am in my twenties, I don’t have any children out of wedlock (I don’t have children period), I am in college, (someday I’ll be teaching your children) I have never smoked crack, or sold any. I am proud of my heritage as an American. I am American, just as much as you. You believe your ancestors found this land? Well, I believe they gave mine a ride. Thanks for the ride.
P.S. One day I hope you will be able to open your eyes and see that what you HAVE seen is not all there is TO see. I pray that you will remove the filthy blankets that you have covered a whole group of people with. Peel the “orange” slide your finger down its center, pull it apart, now separate each section one by one. You see the way you eat an orange is the same way you should know your fellow man, one by one.
Also I’ll agree PERCENTAGE WISE Blacks are more likely to be hindrances to themselves and others when it comes to crime during this day and time. However, there was a time when whites were more likely to be a hindrances to themselves and definitely OTHERS! You know those Wild Wild West type movies were based on a reality when white people just use to shoot one another. You can’t forget what happened with the Native Americans and with Blacks. Somehow all of that changed and I just believe that somehow all of the crime in the Black community will change too.
Courtney
Posted by Courtney at 1:54 PM on May 13
“Blacks are more likely to be hindrances to themselves and others when it comes to crime during this day and time. However, there was a time when whites were more likely to be a hindrances to themselves and definitely OTHERS!” (Posted by Courtney at 1:54 PM on May 13)
Courtney, we’re not playing some abstract game of who’s worse and who’s better over historical epochs. We’re tired of getting robbed, raped, shot, insulted, our schools destroyed, etc. etc. etc., in the HERE AND NOW.
“I just believe that somehow all of the crime in the Black community will change too.”
Wish upon a star. Or, remove the laws that coerce integration, so that the races may naturally separate, as they do now in cafeterias and elsewhere where voluntary separation is permitted, and possibly even crime levels in black communities will return to what they were 60 years ago, when black social forms were modeled essentially on white forms, just as you are currently building a life for yourself that is much more the life of an American white than it is the life of an African in Africa.
“You believe your ancestors found this land? Well, I believe they gave mine a ride. Thanks for the ride.”
You are very welcome, and I’m glad you’re taking advantage of the opportunity and using it to build a positive life for yourself. Sincere best wishes for your success!
Posted by H. Dumpty at 2:18 AM on May 14
This story is just one more example of Africans reverting back to their natural state of existence.
Posted by at 9:27 AM on May 14
More to Courtney:
Your remarks reflect the view of slavery and segregation that has been taught by our agenda-driven schools for the last several decades. That is, that under both slavery and segregation, blacks were treated horribly by whites.
That was sometimes true, but it’s only part of the truth. Treatment of blacks by whites was also often kind, helpful, respectful, and often even loving, under slavery and under segregation. (and the extra-judicial hangings of innocent blacks is VERY exaggerated).
If you know elderly blacks who lived under Southern segregation, you might ask them what life was like for blacks then, compared to now.
From my own questioning of such persons, I would guess the responses you get will be full of startling contradictions, with some stories confirming to some extent what you’ve been taught in school, and others reflecting very different positive aspects of black life then—community, low crime, family life, and respectful and courteous behavior within and between the black and white races.
As for slavery: “From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration.”
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
Their accounts, a number of which are available to be read at the above site, run the gamut, from some brutal treatment to, more often, kind or very kind treatment, and some of the accounts express a longing for the happier days when they were slaves and were looked after and cared for.
True history—not the kind you’ve been taught in school.
And if present trends of recording history continue, in 100 years students will be learning that in 2008 blacks were horribly oppressed in America, having no opportunities. Of course, roughly, blacks now have the same opportunities that whites do (sometimes more, because of affirmative action admissions and hiring, contract set-asides, etc., and sometimes less, because of having less accumulated wealth to invest in themselves). You and others are making good use of these opportunities.
Slavery has always existed in the world, and still does in Africa—check out the contemporary enslavement of Christian Africans in the Sudan— and in other places.
But white folks finally put a stop to slavery everywhere that they had the power to stop it. You are very welcome for that also, and your gratitude (soon to be felt and expressed, I’m sure!) is appreciated!
Posted by H. Dumpty at 1:54 PM on May 14
