South Dakota high school rodeo club cancels annual 'slave auction' fundraiser

[mahatmakanejeeves]

National

South Dakota high school rodeo club cancels annual ‘slave auction’ fundraiser

By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
April 22, 2021 at 6:54 p.m. EDT



An advertisement for a slave/branding auction for Faith High School's Rodeo Club has been circulating on social media this week. Rapid City Journal

In the tiny South Dakotan town called Faith, the high school Rodeo Club planned to hold its annual fundraising event next Monday night at the Legion Hall, complete with a pancake supper, bidding on pies and a “Slave/Branding Auction.”

For decades, Rodeo Club members offered a few days of their labor to a rancher in exchange for a donation — and although there have long been calls for clubs across the state to stop labeling this slavery, the name in Faith has stuck. But this year, as a poster circulated on Facebook, Legion Hall host Glenda McGinnis said she received dozens of calls from people around the country wanting to know “how such a racist and hurtful name could be used in 2021.”

“I thought it was a joke. We have the event every year, for about 40 years now,” said McGinnis, vice president of the Community Action Club that owns the Legion Hall in Faith, a town with fewer than 500 residents. “I even got a call from a local cowboy who said: ‘How’s this going down? It’s not right.’ I told him we weren’t doing anything wrong. And he explained, ‘Well, it’s how it was advertised that’s wrong.’ ”

McGinnis further explained: “I didn’t even think of ‘slavery’ in racist terms. It’s just kids work for free to raise money for their club. Now I see; this is a very bad choice of words. But I’m naive enough, I guess.”

{snip}

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux is a National staff writer who covers national news, with a focus on gender issues and social movements for the America desk. She is an award-winning former foreign correspondent who covered Africa and India for nearly a decade. Follow https://twitter.com/emily_wax

News

Faith High School Rodeo Club's 'slave auction' canceled due to controversy

Abby Wargo Rapid City Journal
Published 10:05 a.m. CT Apr. 22, 2021

An advertisement for a slave/branding auction for Faith High School's Rodeo Club has been circulating on social media this week. ... A recent advertisement for Faith High School Rodeo Club’s “Slave/Branding Auction,” a fundraising event that includes a pancake supper and a pie auction, has caused backlash on social media, forcing it to be canceled. ... The auction was scheduled for April 26 at the Legion Hall in Faith, which is near the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation. ... The concept of a “slave auction” for fundraising purposes has existed in South Dakota since at least 2008, when the Belle Fourche School District held a slave auction fundraiser.

“A 'slave auction' offers a day's work from each of the active competitors. Club members are proud that most of them could handle about any chores from waiting tables to hauling hay or moving cattle. Club members also brought craft items they'd made for the auction,” the Butte County Post reported in a March 30, 2011 article about a BFHS Rodeo fundraiser.

Slave auction fundraisers have also been held for the Pierre/Fort Pierre High School Rodeo Club for over a decade. In 2018, a Capital Journal article noted that several years earlier an African American resident asked the club to change the name of the event, but the club decided to leave it as is because they could not decide on an alternative. The name was not meant to be derogatory, according to the club’s adviser.

The Rapid City Journal reached out Wednesday to the Faith School District. A receptionist said the fundraiser is not run by the school, rather the Rodeo Club. She added the event was not listed on the school calendar as a slave auction but as a “branding crew auction,” and she wasn’t sure on the event’s status. ... The Journal attempted to reach the superintendent but received no response.

The South Dakota High School Rodeo Association said they don’t have any knowledge about the high school’s fundraising efforts and that rodeo clubs and schools are responsible for their own fundraising efforts. ... Slave auctions are not unique to South Dakota, and are not limited to rodeo fundraising. In 2015 in Alaska, the NAACP complained about a slave auction fundraiser in Sitka for its volunteer fire department. The complaint caused organizers to change the name of the auction to “Alaska Day Auction.”

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[TheBlackAdder]

1. What kind of sick fuck wakes up and says, "I've got a great idea for a school fundraiser?"

.

Then, what other sick fucks actually say, "Yeah, that's a great idea. Let's organize the committee. The principal and PTA are all on-board with it. Who'll print the flyers?"

.

[jimfields33]

2. Started 40 years ago. Hard to believe this is the first year complaints were made.

Simple solution is call it Junior Rancher/branding action.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. It sounds as if the local radio station or newspaper could have a contest.

People would make submissions by five o'clock on Friday afternoon. A new name is chosen and announced on the following day.

It can't be that tough.

I'm going with "Britches for Riches," but maybe that's too much for western South Dakota.

[jmowreader]

10. The kind of sick fuck that lives in a 100 percent white town

True story from the place I grew up:

There’s a road connecting St. Maries, ID to Plummer, ID. It’s got three segments: from Plummer to Lake Chatcolet, around the lake, and from the lake to St. Maries. There’s a steep hill at both ends of the lake segment. The one connecting the lake segment to the St. Maries segment was officially named N-word Brown Hill. That wasn’t a nickname. The hill was named after a Black civil engineer named Brown (seriously) who lived there in the 19th Century and designed the entire road. It was listed on maps with that racist name, and when the state listed road construction projects it was named in official documents with that name.

Then Vernon Baker moved to town to invest in land. Mr. Baker was a Black man you may remember as one of the Black WWII vets to have their acts of heroism reevaluated with the intent of correcting past injustices. Shortly after he moved to town President Clinton called him to the White House to receive his Medal of Honor. (He singlehandedly took out three machine gun nests, an observation post and a dugout, then led his entire battalion safely across a huge minefield.) And shortly after that he found out the official name of that hill. He was on the phone to the state that day, and got the name of the hill changed. Not sure what it is now, but I can tell you what it isn’t.

[cyclonefence]

3. Anybody who argues that racism is not systemic in the US

is out of his/her mind. The fact that it took massive cinderblock-over-the-head complaints until someone realized that this shit is wrong (or was shamed into pretending that they felt it was wrong) is all the proof a sentient being should need.

It's just fundraising for new band uniforms.

in case you need it.

[left-of-center2012]

4. Would it be okay if they did away with the name slave auction

Would it be okay to auction off services of a student to a local rancher farmer etc without using the name slave auction?

"Free help For a Day" student auction ?

But I must admit the idea of adults bidding on high school students sounds a bit perverted.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. It's on a par with high school students having a charity car wash.

The promotions for those can be risqué.

Maybe they've been dialed back. I'm not going to link to an image.

[left-of-center2012]

6. I guess I have led a sheltered life

Over the years I have been to a few high school or youth club charity car washes and none were risque.

[3Hotdogs]

8. I'm guessing it was 1971. (Memory gets rusty when ya gets old).

Anyways, it was probably my first or second year of teaching at the school..... N.J. public high school. School was 100% Lilly white... not a Black, Asian or Laltinx in the school - probably not the entire town. No gays either.

Seniors held a fund raiser, "Rent a slave for a day." Kids dressed in togas and winning (or losing) bids carried teachers' briefcases, cleaned blackboards and washed cars after school.


The Toga thing became quite popular. A couple of years later, seniors were holding parties as seniors will do. One kid decided to start a business furnishing props for senior parties. First party was a toga party because they were studying Julius Caesar.

Kid buys sheets, rope for belts and cuts 'em up. Of course, ya need the laurel wreath. So out into the woods he goes with a pair of clippers. By evening, he was blistered out and the party went on without togas and without the master of ceremonies.

[jpak]

9. Kids at my local high school held a car wash

Called "The Washing Dead"

They dressed up like zombies and made all the growling sounds as they worked.

It was hilarious and they made a ton of money.

No slavery required.

Nope