Crime & Safety

Two Hopkins Students Charged After Protesting 'Modern Day Blackfacing'

The black students said they were upset about white ski team members who dressed up for 'ghetto spirit day.' The white students said they called it 'rapper day.'

Prosecutors have charged two Hopkins High School students with misdemeanors following a confrontation in the assistant principal's office, Minnesota Public Radio reported Wednesday. The confrontation arose when the students tried to protest the school’s handling of an incident in which they say several white students mocked black culture.

On Feb. 13, Hopkins ski team members dressed up for what they told officials they called “rapper day.” Black students said the ski team members actually called it "ghetto spirit day."

MPR quoted one of the students as saying:

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They dressed up like gangsters basically. There were sagging chinchilla coats with the chains, joint in the ear just mocking our culture. Really how we reacted, we felt it was modern day 'blackfacing.'

The black students complained to school administrators, but school officials said it was too late in the day to do anything.

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Several black students made posters protesting the school’s actions. Administrators took down the posters because they were not brought to the school office beforehand for approval.

The next day, two black students went to the assistant principal’s office and tried to take the posters back. Officials called a Minnetonka Police officer who works in the school, and a police report states one of the students put his hand on the officer’s chest and tried to leave with the posters.

He was handcuffed.

Both students deny that they ever touched the officer.

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