A Mississippi middle school is taking heat over a “slave letter writing” assignment that asked a group of mostly white students to “discuss the journey to America” or “tell about the family you live with.”<br />The assignment at Purvis Middle School also gave students the option to write about “how you pass your time when you aren’t working.<br />The school and the Lamar County School District did not respond to requests for.<br />Middle school Principal Frank Bunnell acknowledged the assignment was part of an eighth grade history lesson and apologized for “something like this happening under my watch.<br />But he said the outrage took the assignment out of context.<br />“A person could read just the assignment and draw a very unrealistic view of the true tragedies that occurred,” Bunnell wrote. “That was not intended.<br />“However, the intent does not excuse anything,” he added. There is no excuse to downplay a practice that (even after abolished) spurs unjust laws, unfair economic practices, inhumane treatment, and suppression of people.<br />While about half of Mississippi’s public school population is black, the student body at the Purvis Middle School is approximately 80 percent white.
