“He deserves to have been shot.”
When I logged into Facebook for the umpteenth time last week, I should have expected to read this. At any given moment, I’m reminded that we shouldn’t ever be desensitized to injustice and inhumanity, yet, I’ve grown so used to it that I deflect it, block it, or respond to it swiftly and concisely in the hopes that I don’t drain my energies that I could be using to lift up so many others doing great work. But I didn’t do any of that, but instead kept reading the thread, exalting the virtues of former officer Darren Wilson. Because the person who typed it wasn’t a random troll trying to spark vitriol with weird memes or FOX News talking points.
It was an educator, and (s)he’s going to carry that feeling to a classroom.
It’s important to say that there’s no one school of thought from where educators learn their craft, nor a standard set of beliefs education schools ascribe to that make the “perfect educator.” For many of us, the word “passion” and “love” create the foundation of our classrooms and the things we do. Even in our toughest moments, the “fake-it-till-you-make-it” mantra fits. Students will try their best to get on our last nerve, but we’re consistently in the business of building and re-building these relationships, putting our person aside for hours at a time and pulling our students into our lessons and into learning itself.
In some educators’ minds, that’s license to say whatever they want about kids without repercussions. An activist / unionist educator has worked for decades on anti-standardized testing and corporate reform. An art teacher who had to pay for all their supplies just to keep their class going. A teacher who came into teaching after working with children in India, Ethiopia, and Brazil. A teacher who gets the highest test scores for their students in the entire district. A teacher who uses civil rights leaders in their classes frequently as models for students to see. A nationally recognized educator with plaudits from organizations across the spectrum.
None of their qualifications disqualifies their versions of racism. None of it.
I’m not given to calling people racists on the fly, either. Yet, at this point, I’ve had hundreds of educators confide in me about all sorts of drama / trauma in their own school where they left with mouth agape, hoping that someone else might have heard the same thing come out of that one teacher’s mouth. Because of the nature of our business, we’re not quick enough to call each other in or out when they habitually line-step. How could the word of an educator of color trump the word of any white educator in a profession where educators of color only make up roughly 20% of educators overall? That’s maybe one or two for every school in the country it seems.
“YOU DON’T KNOW ME OR MY HEART!” I’ll hear. No, but, when given the chance to present themselves, some educators choose to present the worst, the ugliest, and the most malignant in us, and the rest of us stand by too often with our hands under our butts and our eyes to the clock.
How many adults do we know call kids a piece of crap and tell them so to their faces, but wouldn’t so much as utter that if they taught in an affluent neighborhood? How many adults expect less than nothing from children of color, or call them students of poverty a la Ruby Payne instead of students in poverty? How many adults made a joke about watermelons, turbans, or dogs in Chinese food and consistently degrade students in spite of the fact that they told the offended student “Oh don’t take things so seriously?” How many administrators make a teacher or student of color do something because they know they’ll be outnumbered, out-voiced, or out of a job if they don’t? How many of those administrators consider certain cultures subservient, model, quiet? How many anti-racists educators have taken a prep period to console a new white teacher to explain something about the children of color they’re working with only to get thrown under the bus the very next year by that very teacher?
How many of our students drop out not because they’re not capable, but because they don’t feel welcome in the school? And can we blame [insert favorite pundits from the left or right] for all of it somehow?
I have this school ID which says that I supposedly belong to this large network of educators across the country, who are sworn to love and protect the students in the building. We all have a mission and vision statement in our school buildings that say so. We say a pledge of allegiance every morning that secures liberty and justice for all.
Except I don’t believe everyone wants the same for all of our students. It’s one thing to try one’s best given the circumstances and working conditions and quite another to not see everyone in the classroom as worthy of the same love and care as is wont for students on the more affluent side of town.
Currently, the only education that’s currently the same across the country seems to be the status of race relations in our country. I don’t need everyone to hear me, but I need them please do take a listen to the stories of educators whose life experiences match the students most oppressed by our system. Our Trayvons, Aiyanas, and Michaels. If these educators won’t hear it from their fellow teachers, exemplary and confident and qualified, too, then the kids will speak.
If the stewards of this education carry out exactly what America does, then they are indeed doing exactly what their job is, and the rest of us standing up against racism are subversive.
How dare us.
“Well your friends with their fancy persuasion,
Don’t admit that it’s part of the scheme,
But I can’t help to have my suspicion,
Cause I ain’t quite as dumb as I seem…..
How long, has this been going on?….”
Since we are rarely if ever in other teachers’ rooms we can’t verify what we hear from students about what’s said by other teachers. My head still freezes like a computer when I hear of adults spewing these vile words; and these people are responsible for children? While we may sense disturbances in the Force from some of our colleagues, I do feel that those with these insidious feelings go to great pains to hide them in my presence given my skin color and gender; the last thing they want is an angry black male math teacher causing trouble.
As the kids say it today, “I wish a $#^* would” say something that ignorant in my presence.
Author
Hahah right, Peter. That’s something else we need to consider. Sometimes, the students don’t have the language to articulate why they don’t like the teacher. Sometimes, it’s because they think the teacher is too difficult, but other times, it’s because it’s something deeper and harder to tell.
The thing is, we do know her/ him all too well. Our voices cannot be ignored. Just signed on to blog for real- wish me luck.
Author
Good luck!
I’m all for an honest and open look at the presence of racism in our nation’s public schools. I hope the discussion is not targeted at or only limited to white educators, though. Let’s be honest about potential prejudiced mindsets that can surface in teachers that affect non-white students, but there is a serious danger in a Nazi-esque approach to villanizing a population of education based on ethnicity. I don’t think you were doing that, but I hate to see others go that route. For someone who is black to say “Well, most white teachers” is no different than someone who is white saying “Well, most black students”, and neither gets us anywhere productive.
I’m white. I’ve taught for almost 20 years…in the South. I think whether intentional or subconscious (and I think the subconscious/subtle is actually the more dangerous) prejudices against students, they need brought into the open, discussed, and addressed. Let’s not be so naïve to think that prejudiced thinking tied to race is limited to whites, though, and that there aren’t black teachers out there who bring racial prejudices into their classrooms. (Or any ethnicity.) Statistically, there are more white teachers, so I have no problem with them being addressed directly, but by no means should these discussions be limited to them.
I teach in a city school whose study body is very diverse, and have spent most of my career here. I also taught a few years early in my career at very rural, mostly white schools. I am not wanting to negate anything you state about negative experiences that non-white students experience, because I do think our nation needs an honest dialogue and diagnosis of the issue, but two decades in public schools has taught me that shortchanged students have as much (if not more) to do with income than skin color. I don’t think race should be the only participant at the table of this discussion. Compare the average upper middle class or upper class black student’s school experiences to an impoverished white student’s, and I think you will find gaps there as well.
Author
To that, I would just say that research shows that, even if you norm for income, race still plays a factor, which says a lot about the disparities our country has across racial lines. Upon further inspection, qualitative and quantitative data shows that even rich black folk often feel out of place in spaces where they often shouldn’t. That speaks to culture and curriculum in a big way. Otherwise, I agree with your assessment about having better and honest dialogue.
You stated “How could the word of an educator of color trump the word of any white educator in a profession where educators of color only make up roughly 20% of educators overall? That’s maybe one or two for every school in the country it seems.”
First, check your math. Twenty percent is not one or two for every school in the country. Twenty percent is twenty for every 100 teachers in a system. This is by no means a majority but, it is not insignificant either.
Let’s be sure some of this is not simply the blowing off of steam that is sometimes heard in a teacher’s lounge. Teachers and administrators who state what you have said do need to be held accountable particularly if it is in a classroom situation.
You also stated “How many adults expect less than nothing from children of color, or call them students of poverty a la Ruby Payne instead of students in poverty?” This statement caught my attention for some reason more than any other. I like it. It puts another perspective on the program. I found the statement to be intriguing and thought provoking.
I am new to your website. Do you have an article that addresses students in poverty versus students of poverty?
Thank you.
Author
David, I did check my math. If it’s 20 for every 100, and your school staff is around 30-40 staff members, that brings the staff members down to 10. Now, that might be the average, but then that goes down across socioeconomic lines and who’s considered to be a “teacher” and who’s not. It’s normal to see staffs with only one or two per school even in a supposedly diverse neighborhood. But that’s actually dealing with reality and not simply trying to test a math teacher’s math skills.
Otherwise, David, the difference between students of poverty and students in poverty is that “students of poverty” comes off like students are meant to be poor (or rich) whereas students in poverty says that this is the situation that students have found themselves in and we have to keep an eye towards that bias. For more, please read Paul Gorski’s work on this matter, but you can search for the rest on your own.
Best.
Who exactly are “students in/of poverty”?
Are we referring to students of color?
When are we going to stop using such terms as- Less advantaged, high needs, students in/of poverty to describe students of color?
I read an article on takepart.com, that our schools are even more segregated today than they were before the Brown vs. Board decision.
How can we continue to lump students of color into segregated, less advantaged, high needs, poverty schools and expect a miracle?
I refuse to believe that students of color are students in/of poverty, are less advantaged or are high needs. Students of color need to stop hearing the message that they are in poverty, less advantaged or high needs.
Teachers, no matter where you are from, please just teach. You are not teaching less advantaged students, you are just teaching our children.
Author
No, I was referring to students in poverty, precisely.
As for your assertion that teachers should just “teach,” what does that exactly mean? Teaching looks different everywhere you go, and often, we’re better off keeping in mind the efforts we have to put forth to teach students from disadvantaged situations. In the vein of the old adage of having to work twice as hard for equal the work, teachers who teach with an anti-racist lens know that it’s better to teach with all those intersections of race, class, and gender in mind, consciously, rather than try to blindly lead students through a curriculum that may or may not involve them.
I mean that teachers should teach all students to be productive citizens of the world. The education our students receive should be not be dictated by race, class or gender.
Hold all students and parents(not just teachers) accountable to the standards dictated by the curriculum(regardless of their race, class or gender).
Lets be very careful, that in our desire to be anti-racist that we do not water down the standards for some of our students.
Author
At the same time, we have to be conscientious of the fact that the way curriculum has been framed has often been of a Eurocentric sort, thus ostracizing people of color from the inspiration and hope usually assigned to the dominant culture. Make no mistake: I’m all for “high expectations,” but I’m also for affirmative curriculum, positive school environment, and building good citizens via citizenship.
I find it interesting that the NFL players weighed on the injustice in Ferguson! Wow the wait was so exasperating . Where are the rappers , musicians, folks my age, and our actors/ actresses!? Honestly I haven’t sen them at rallies or forward step conversations , nada! Teachers should be the first to stand up and lead a conversation about race relations! Many times educators hide behind the mask of look at me and look at how I can do this thing I do better than my grade partner/ pleasing no one accept administration! Every school and college should open a dialogue about race and equity in America! I do mean the dialogue has to be authentic and not scripted requiring measured outcomes! Actually if we just open with the micro aggressions detailed in the movie , Dear White People that might be a start? We also need to look at how athletes are revered in high school , college , and the pros and how this mini secret society gets award with godless acts against women and children ! Maybe the moral clauses in NCAA and the NFL need to written by actual moral people. I was an athlete in high school and college . I don’t remember anyone cutting me any slack especially not my parents!
How dare we.
:-)
I recommend your blog and book to many, many people.
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