When Makalaya Zanders decided to get a custom prom dress made for her for this year’s prom, she couldn’t have predicted the impact that the dress would have on her life. The back story is as follows; Zanders mentioned to a school administrator (who just happened to be white) that she was hoping to wear an African print dress to the prom, to which the administrator retorted that such a garment would be “tacky”, and that African print “really isn’t something that you wear” to a formal event such as prom. Really!? Understandably, Zanders was knocked-back a bit by the utterly tone-deaf and insensitive words of this school administrator. Racism comes in many shapes and forms, and I simply can’t imagine how even at the time, this administrator...
