[Tim]

* I am in the camp with red devil MC. There was a reason that these organizations were created. On some date the Miss America pageant began allowing everyone to be a part of the show. Was that the same date that the underling reason for the exclusion went away?

No - but by calling it the Miss Black America Pageant it sounds like the people who started it said "You have your thing and won't let us un, so we're going to have our thing and not let you in. " While understandable, this perpetuates the very racial segregation these people are whining about. From the Miss Black America web site -

"From the time J. Morris Anderson first created and produced the Miss Black America Pageant on August 17, 1968 until the present, there has always been one major question asked: Why should there be a Miss Black America Pageant since there is already a Miss America Pageant? Always, the answer has been: “To provide a forum for the Black Man to say his wife is mentally, spiritually, and physically beautiful the same as the white man has a forum through which to say his woman is beautiful.” The MBA Pageant has always provided a stage on which the Black woman could display her talent; a platform on which she could air her views; and, a pedestal from where she could reign as a universal symbol of pride and dignity. "

Interesting they use "Black Man" while also using "white man". While it's hard to find the idea of a pageant giving a man - black or white -a forum "to say his wife is mentally, spiritually, and physically beautiful" actually making any kind of sense - this pageant is clearly for black contestants only, as is stated several times on the site.

*With all due respect if whites were to create a "named" all white organization the word or the feeling of the non whites would not be "offended or offensive". Most whites and non whites would be fearful of whats going to happen next.

Why? Should we be fearful al blacks-only organizations?

*Are you really saying that the underling logic for having a Miss Black America pageant is the same as the underling logic that denied them entry into the regular pageant?

No. Excluding blacks from the Miss America Pageant was absolutely wrong. Excluding white women from the Miss Black America Pageant is just as wrong.

*BET is owned by a white man...and I would bet my last dime that a white female could be in the Miss Black America pageant if she wanted...Mariah Cary would be my choice (Is she white?? huh.gif ) I would challenge the assumption that they are EXCLUDED...They may not promote entry but I guarantee they do not deny based on race.

Any MBA Pageant info you read refutes that idea.

I will be the first to agree blacks were wrongs for years - even generations - by the white side of the equation. But as for the people who started things like the MBA Pageant, was racial integration really their goal? Were they trying to find a better way for blacks AND whites? Or were they playing "you did it to us so we're going to do it to you."?

It's my opinion that by calling any organization "The Black....." the latter is true - in some but certainly not all cases.