Black and White
It has been so hard to write anything lately. To paraphrase another Teacher Corps friend, it takes hope to write. So true. But it takes a precise, certain kind of hope, to me, like a belief in the meaning of your own words. There have been plenty of things to write, but not much belief.
My students are racist, I can say that. For some reason this fact has not bothered me much until now. For example, my colleagues can say anything they want to the students, and the students just shut up and sit down. But of course, if I say anything remotely harsh to a student, they react like they are going to get me fired or something. I am 100% sure the main difference is the color of my skin.
The other day, I offered bonus points to the first person who could name the best soccer player in the world currently, with justification. The point was to get them curious about the outside world and encourage them to research something they know nothing about. It seemed like a good idea at the time, perhaps something that could become a weekly routine. Except no one has taken me up on the offer yet. The question just provoked some ignorant talk like, “Who that Brazilian guy?” Trouble is, Ronaldinho (who I’m pretty sure they’ve only heard of because he has dark skin and kinky hair) has had some injuries lately and not played particularly well for a year or two. It is like suggesting Dwayne Wade for MVP of the NBA. And then someone asked if David Beckham is black. “He the whitest man in the world!” another classmate scoffed. These kids would not know David Beckham from the man on the moon, and all they care about is his skin color! That really irritates me. I feel like lecturing my Algebra II class about their racism, but I cannot think of a way to talk about it and be heard. Maybe I will ask them to write about it tomorrow. Perhaps something like, “You are reading a resume. Do you care what color the person’s skin is? Should you care?”
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"It is mostly the amount of time you have been at the school..."
Not really. One of the examples fresh in my mind was a first-year teacher at my school. Sure, time at the school is important, but not as important as race.
In regard to "the centuries of slavery and cultural domination over african people": Past oppression does not justify present prejudice. There are plenty of white racists in Mississippi, to be sure, but my students don't even know them. They are so segregated, mostly by mutual agreement, that most of my students don't know a single white person besides a few of their teachers, who in fact have dedicated their careers to help them. The racism is mutual, destructive, and absurd.
So I asked the question in Algebra II this morning. Most students said they do not care about skin color if they are looking at a resume. One student said she shouldn't care, but she kind of does, which I thought was probably the most honest answer.
Before reaching high school most of our students are cynical about and skeptical of authority, mainstream institutions, leadership, law, order. Newness in the building definitely makes a difference, but new white teachers are surely at a disadvantage with many of the students -- certainly not all of them, and I wouldn't say most, but enough in every classroom to make a perceptible difference. I noticed this much more starkly in the small, rural school I taught in than in Jackson (the rural community being the more strictly segregated), but in Jackson too.
There was a NYTimes blog article pertaining somewhat to this a while back:
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/understand/
It's also worth noting that many of our students have such a stiflingly narrow view of "blackness" that even black Yankee teachers (and African ones?) end up being lumped in prejudicially with the white ones by some students. It has seemed to me that one of the most fundamental and important internal motions some of my students could make is one toward a more expansive and inclusive understanding of race.
(I've talked a lot about Obama to my students since 2005, when none of them had heard of him and I told them to remember his name because he would be the first black president; they've all heard of him now, of course. When discussion of race comes up, I have often found myself asking, "What about Obama?")