Gen Xers: Did your HS have a “freshman slave” auction?

[Anonymous]

I’m a Gen zero from an Ohio high school and this would never have been tolerated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, but I think I've seen it in a movie or something because it sounds vaguely familiar.

Dazed and confused maybe?

No, not in Rockville HS class of 98

[Anonymous]

Class of 85

NO

[Anonymous]

Class of 96. We did a “date” auction which I hope has long been abolished. It was definitely INTENDED for boys to buy girls (I feel gross even writing it) but it was not even blinked at for same sex folks to buy each other.

[Anonymous]

This does ring a faint bell. Class of '91, went to a small rural high school outside St. Louis and I think we did do this. It was done via a sign-up sheet instead of a straight-up auction and I feel like it was something only the popular kids did. Like, it was football players and cheerleaders who donated their services for a fundraiser and they all just 'bought' each other. Yeah, it's weird, and obviously horrific terminology, but at the time it was just one of those weird high school 'spirit' things and I didn't think anything of it one way or the other. But I hope to God they aren't still doing it today (though it's Missouri, so who knows).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Disgusting!! This makes me feel terrible all over again. I am AA and was in 9th grade in an all white school and my social studies teacher had us reenact slavery and guess who got to be the slave? They all looked at me and he told me to be the slave. I wish I could just disappear and stayed home from school from an "illness" the next two days trying to avoid that class. The teacher was a vet and a racist civil war enthusiast.

OP here. I sincerely didn’t mean to make you or anyone else feel terrible. I am sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I once went on a sleepover, and the next day went to Quaker meeting with the family (this would have been in the '80's). Their meeting was having a fundraiser and the kids stood on a stage and an "auctioneer" described what they said they could do such as baby sit or mow your lawn and people bid on them.

It's mind boggling to me that people thought this was OK, and particularly in a denomination that had such a strong abolitionist presence and commitment to social justice. But that's what happened!

I’ve been to auctions for schools in present day where they auctioned off services including babysitting, portraits, photography, etc. is auctioning off services that have been donated wrong?

I think a silent auction for specific services is one thing. Parading people on a stage for a live auction of any kind is grotesque. It was just more common 30-40 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class of 1989 here.

I vividly remember being auctioned off in a “freshman slave day” back in 1984 or 1985. It was a fundraiser type of thing.

I think there’s a twist on this where seniors are the ones who are auctiones.

This was in Ohio back in the mid-1980s.

Wondering if it was common.

I am also from Ohio and graduated in 1994. I checked with my siblings who graduated in 84 and 89. No, we absolutely did not have this at my high school. Gross.

[Anonymous]

Class of 1990, we did not do this.

[Anonymous]

Class of 1991, Fairfax county. No, this didn't happen.

I did see this type of thing in either a movie or a tv show, like for a frat.

[Anonymous]

WTF! No! I went to high school in suburban VA, rural VA, and suburban NJ in the late 80’s.

[Anonymous]

Class of 92 small Maryland town,

Hell to the naw (bishop bullwinkle voice)

[Anonymous]

No. I graduated in 1987 and lived in North Carolina.

[Anonymous]

Class of 93. We had a "senior slave day." Rural California. It was a fundraising auction where groups of seniors stood behind a white sheet so you could only see their outline.,,so a blind auction, but usually they played music and the group danced around until everyone knew who it was. Usually the opposite sex bid on the group and then made them do stupid stuff for the day.

[Anonymous]

No, graduated in 1994 in Virginia (non NOVA)