Minnesota School Faces Lawsuit Over Racist 'Wigger Day'

[High_Gravity]

Minnesota School Faces Lawsuit Over Racist 'Wigger Day'

A Minnesota school district allowed a homecoming event called "Wigger Day," during which students wore clothes and behaved in a manner that "from their perspective, mimicked black culture," according to a federal class action lawsuit filed against the district on Friday.

The suit alleges that despite student council voting on a "tropical theme" for homecoming in 2009, a group of approximately 60 students from the predominantly white school instead attended the event dressed for "Wigger Wednesday" in "oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball hats cocked to the side and 'doo rags.'"

"Wigger is a pejorative slang term for a white person who emulates the mannerisms, language and fashions associated with African-American culture," the complaint explains.

Students also referred to the activity as "Wangsta Day" -- meaning "white gangsta" or "Red Winger gangsta" -- and created a Facebook group advocating for the event.

The plaintiff, former Red Wing High School student Quera Pruitt, an African American, claims that the school's lack of intervention caused her "severe emotional distress including depression, loss of sleep, stress, crying, humiliation, anxiety, and shame." Pruitt filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Minnesota on behalf of an unnamed class of "all students who experienced discrimination as a result of Wigger Day." The complaint states the class could include more than 40 people.

Pruitt's attorney, Joshua Williams, says her family hoped the incident would be addressed following "Wigger Day" 2008. While it was never an officially-sanctioned school event, the family discovered "Wigger Wednesday" was something of a tradition.

After the 2009 incident, "[Pruitt's] mom came up to the school, attempted to reach out to the school board, the superintendent, and the principal, but Red Wing's response was essentially to sweep this under the rug and act like it didn't happen," Williams told The Huffington Post.

According to Williams, Pruitt became depressed, quit the cheerleading squad, left student council, skipped her senior prom and even considered dropping out of school.

Pruitt also declined to participate in the school's Martin Luther King Day ceremonies, considering the memorial a "farce." She graduated in 2010 and moved back to Little Rock, Ark.

Williams added that the school district has acknowledged that "Wigger Day" took place in 2007 and 2008, but neglected to prevent the event from happening in 2009.

Red Wing principal Beth Borgen and school district superintendent Karsten Anderson, both defendants in the suit, say the school is committed to creating a learning environment free from discrimination.

According to a 2009 article on KARE-11, students participating in "Wigger Day" that year were immediately sent to change their clothes, but no additional punishment followed.

Williams, who is seeking $75,000 in damages for his client, did not know whether "Wigger Day" took place again in 2010.

A statement from Anderson obtained by HuffPost says the district "denies the allegations that it has created a racially hostile environment and looks forward to meeting these allegations in court."

Williams says that position is "symptomatic of Red Wing's response to 'Wigger Day' from the onset."

"The students shouldn't have felt empowered to hold 'Wigger Day' in 2009," Williams said. "These students were not disciplined, they were not counseled and they were not punished. This could have been a teachable moment."

Minnesota School Faces Lawsuit Over Racist 'Wigger Day'

 

[tinydancer]

Some days the words just can't express what I'm feeling about now.

Let me search for a smilie.

Aye carumba!!!!!!!!

 

[High_Gravity]

It says they been doing this since 2009, and just now someone said something? sheesh.

 

[manifold]

Wiggers are tools and deserve to be lampooned.

 

[manifold]

I think the Pruitt chick took it all wrong. They're not making fun of black people, they're making fun of white people who act like black people. And if you've ever known any real wiggers, all you want to do is dope slap them upside the head.

 

[High_Gravity]

I think the Pruitt chick took it all wrong. They're not making fun of black people, they're making fun of white people who act like black people. And if you've ever known any real wiggers, all you want to do is dope slap them upside the head.

Damn right.

 

[Swagger]

Wiggers are tools and deserve to be lampooned.

Indeed. Perhaps someone could pass this all on to the creators of South Park?

 

[Mr.Owl]

This made my day!

 

[manifold]

Is there a similarly clever term for Asians who act like they're black?

 

[Two Thumbs]

Wigger day?

See, this is where they get it all wrong and offend people.

It's supposed to be;

It's wigger Wensday fo' shizzle mutha fukkahs!! Ya know what I mean my Wiggah!?!

'member, rep to da right my wiggah.

wiggah's be pimpin out da good grades and sheeit, fo sho!!

 

[Two Thumbs]

I think the Pruitt chick took it all wrong. They're not making fun of black people, they're making fun of white people who act like black people. And if you've ever known any real wiggers, all you want to do is dope slap them upside the head.

Damn right.

GT says he's a wigger.

 

[Swagger]

Is there a similarly clever term for Asians who act like they're black?

Nippers?

 

[Two Thumbs]

Is there a similarly clever term for Asians who act like they're black?

Unemployed

 

[High_Gravity]

Is there a similarly clever term for Asians who act like they're black?

Not that I know of, although I have seen quite a few that do.

 

[manifold]

Is there a similarly clever term for Asians who act like they're black?

Not that I know of, although I have seen quite a few that do.

I think I once heard them referred to as chiggers.

 

[High_Gravity]

Wigger day?

See, this is where they get it all wrong and offend people.

It's supposed to be;

It's wigger Wensday fo' shizzle mutha fukkahs!! Ya know what I mean my Wiggah!?!

'member, rep to da right my wiggah.

wiggah's be pimpin out da good grades and sheeit, fo sho!!

Than when high school is over their parents slap the taste out of their mouths and send them to college in nice suits and a fresh haircut.

 

[You_Want_Me]

What would happen if black students had an "act like you're white" day?

 

[Salt Jones]

What would happen if black students had an "act like you're white" day?

They would dress up like Herman Cain and Alan West and denigrate other blacks to prove that they aren't like "those" blacks, ie they'd coon for their supper.

 

[imbalance]

More of an attempt to mock white kids who act 'gangsta' than an attack against black people imo

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Yes, well, school officials managed to violate state and Federal laws:

COUNT I
Hostile Environment
against
Kartsen Anderson and
Independent School District No. 256
Violation of Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d

Title VI and its implementing regulations prohibit discrimination in a federally-funded school based on a student’s race.
42. Ms. Pruitt and other similarly situated were subjected to harassment and discrimination on the basis of race.

COUNT II
Race Discrimination
Against All Defendants
42 U.S.C. § 1983

47. Plaintiff had a constitutional and statutory right to have equal access to public education, without regard for her race.
48. Defendants acted with intent as expressed by their deliberate indifference, to violations of those constitutional and statutory rights.

COUNT III
Against All Defendants
Violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, § 363A.13 et seq.

52. Defendants had a duty to provide Plaintiff with an educational atmosphere free of racial discrimination.
53. Defendants failed to take adequate steps to provide Ms. Pruitt with an educational atmosphere free of racial discrimination.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/08/02/Wigger.pdf