Reply #52: I was part of a similar exercise..

[Cassius23]

When I was in around 8th grade I went to a private school in mid/southern Alabama in which they had as their tradition a yearly slave auction. Now before this had happened I had been at the school for less than a month and still had some illusions about the basic goodness of people. The money was to support the student council and I was told that nothing too terribly bad happens to people who were volunteered and so I was strongly encouraged to volunteer to be sold on the block(and, being the type of person who likes to help out, I went ahead and went up).

Long story short, I was sold to two student atheletes, was forced to dress in a dress and blackface during the schoolday, and during the "performance" part of the day was forced to sing "Swing Lo Sweet Chariot" in front of the whole school.



Because of this I have definite opinions on stuff like this. They should have told the parents, who should be the best judge of the children's character and ability to handle the exercise and give the parents the chance to opt out on behalf of the child(that is assuming that you consider secrecy absolutely vital, otherwise, tell the kid, tell him or her of the potential circumstances and let them decide).

Lates
Cassius23


*EDIT* P.S.- Because of this and being raised with mostly WWII vets(I'm 29 now), I had a rabid and unreasoning hate of racists, and a whole host of other such side effects.