Students Asked To Wear African Animal Clothing For Black History Month

by Julia Rubin | 2:44 pm, March 21st, 2012

Today in total WTF, a North Carolina elementary school asked its students to wear “African-American attire” for Black History Month. What exactly is “African-American attire”, you ask?

According to Western Union Elementary School in Waxhaw, NC, it is “animal print clothing or shirts with animals native to Africa (zebras, giraffes, lions, elephants, etc.)”. This is, of course, entirely insane. Unicorn Booty sums up our thoughts quite nicely:

What’s the point of celebrating – or hell, even learning about – diversity if school administrators are unable to ascertain the difference between Black, African American, and African? Or for that matter, the difference between black people and African animals?

Yeah, total WTF. There’s no word on how this was received at WUES, though other schools in the Union County school district appeared to have celebrated the month more appropriately. A 4th grade class at New Town Elementary School read biographies about “different famous African-Americans”, while a Benton Heights Elementary School pre-kindergarten teacher described her class’s Black History Month plans as such:

“In the past few weeks, we have read tons of books about famous athletes, authors, and inventors and learned all about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Mrs. Sparkle, an artist from Blumenthal, came to our classroom to teach the children all about life in Ghana, West Africa. She played great music, showed traditional African clothing, and taught the children hand games and dances.”

Books: good. Animal clothing: bad.

[via BuzzFeed]

African-American attire Black History Month Western Union Elementary School

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