Essay by a teacher in a black high school

[capefeather]

This essay... I just had to share it (´･ω･`)

The responses in that thread have worried me and they're the main reason for any second thoughts I have posting this. So I'd like to clarify something. I believe all the anecdotes given. I don't see a reason to doubt them. I don't see a reason to doubt racial statistics in general. The ridiculous thing about this is the attitude of this teacher going into it. I get that teaching is a really hard, underpaid job, more than I probably even realize, but to use excuses like this to give up is just perpetuating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I would comment more on it, but it's just too damn long and this guy has already spent nearly an hour doing just that. Watching the video is probably less painful than reading the essay.

(ftr I never read the Zimmerman thread in this forum at all, and I don't plan on it, but I'm aware that it caused some kind of shitstorm. Still, I really, really hope that everybody can see the sheer stupidity of this particular rant.)

 

[Myzozoa]

"Do you think I really hate black people?"
"Yeah."

Not hard to see why, the essay is outrageously racist. Not sure why a thread is needed to reveal or discuss this.

 

[doomvendingmachine]

An indirect counterpoint:

http://www.thefader.com/2012/04/12/based-scripture-the-full-transcript-of-lil-bs-lecture-at-nyu/

 

[Daenym]

Having worked with fifth graders pretty extensively in an almost entirely white school, it's not a racial thing. It's a parenting thing. When the parents aren't instilling a desire to learn in their kids, the kids will just do whatever they want and completely disregard the teacher. And since it's impossible to do anything resembling discipline, but parents won't take time to do it themselves, the kids continue to run wild. :/

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Oh God that hurt to skim.

I love the little rants against the Democratic party to, it puts the cherry on the insane cake.

 

[Nastyjungle]

time to wait for the fun half of smogon to come and explain why this person is most likely an upstanding citizen and not racist whatsoever while trying to veil their own racism

 

[moonbound]

Wow, there are racist people in the South? As someone who has lived in Kentucky for 17 years, this greatly surprises me.

Seriously though, there are people like this everywhere, in every city of every state. It's just a shame that people like this manage to slip through the system and end up in charge of children.
I've seen many of these things, but I've also seen the same or worse from redneck white kids. It sucks, but you can change the way people think just as much as you can change the way children act.

Now, before this thread goes off the deep end...

 

[RODAN]

the essay is fucking hilarious im sorry

 

[Layell]

When this thing decides to come back online can someone just C/P the essay please?

edit: http://pastebin.com/2ad55qj3

 

[Daenym]

When this thing decides to come back online can someone just C/P the essay please?

What do you mean? The essay is in the first link in the OP. That guy c/p'd it from craigslist

 

[JimBob]

plot twist - what if the poster is black??


real point - I grew up in a pretty black school (I was a minority), and if you replace 'blacks' with 'some blacks' or 'a few blacks', it's true. But he really ignored that diversity among black people is just as common as diversity among whites.

edit #2 - the video poster said something about "humour based insults are common among the impoverished because it's free" or something like that.. Uh, humour based insults are common among the middle/high school people because they're funny, and you can generally get away with being a dick in high school.

edit #3 - the 'you too fat' vs 'you too dark' thing definitely happened to me (well, to people who were standing next to me) and it was /hilarious/

 

[Houndoomsday]

smh rap is a good genre

 

[Snkz]

you'd be a fool to believe he's describing the whole school

also fuck you if you refuse to believe rap is capable of amazing music

 

[Steamroll]

Alright I tried to read this seriously but I couldn't stop laughing about a quarter of the way through. The only thing that "essay" makes me feel sorry for are all the public education teachers and people who actually enjoy rap.

 

[breh]

I read this a short while back (I think rodan linked it on irc) and I really don't feel like this.... happened. I mean holy fuck, racism just kind of oozes out of this essay; nothing I've ever seen on the internet (even stormfront shit) comes close.

 

[Myzozoa]

plot twist - what if the poster is black??


real point - I grew up in a pretty black school (I was a minority), and if you replace 'blacks' with 'some blacks' or 'a few blacks', it's true. But he really ignored that diversity among black people is just as common as diversity among whites.

edit #2 - the video poster said something about "humour based insults are common among the impoverished because it's free" or something like that.. Uh, humour based insults are common among the middle/high school people because they're funny, and you can generally get away with being a dick in high school.

edit #3 - the 'you too fat' vs 'you too dark' thing definitely happened to me (well, to people who were standing next to me) and it was /hilarious/

The entire german exchange student thing never happened. I promise 100%. If he lied once for certain I tend to believe the entire thing is bs.

 

[JimBob]

i dunno, i tend to believe that he took a cell phone call and left the room, and came back to at least two girls twerkin or something (which goes miles to say what a great teacher he is).

I could totally see the german thing happening - they weren't "BEING BLACK LOL" they were making fun of him. No one ever made fun of you when you were in high school?

 

[Myzozoa]

I tend not to believe that his school had money for an exchange student or that the german government sends their exchange students to shitty schools. Or that exchange students give slideshows on landmarks of their country. And those are just the details that I remember off the top of my head.

 

[New World Order]

90% of what he wrote is bigoted bullshit. But to be fair he does actually bring up a few true points, such as how a lot of black children are poorly raised and end up having a very narrow view of the world (much like the author himself ironically), and how there's a definite cultural barrier between blacks and whites in less progressive regions of the states, and how there are issues when it comes to holding students back, be it pressure to move them ahead or whatnot.

Like the reposter, I'm extremely disappointed that this essay was removed. It's not like the author wrote it in a malevolent or hostile manner or anything. He was merely trying to bring to attention his perspective, however flawed it may be. Honestly, when it comes to freedom of expression, it's you either allow everything except those that directly threaten people's well-being, or you don't allow anything at all. America claims itself to be some fucking beacon of freedom, yet even minute things like this get quashed on the spot. More restrictive societies move forward by enforcing some beliefs and censoring others, and are justified in doing so because that's precisely what makes those systems work. But for "freedom of expression" based societies, people should welcome these extremist viewpoints. If someone says something so blatantly wrong, it should be met with structured, refined criticism and debate, not labelled blasphemy and thrown to the wayside. By successfully refuting a "false" notion, you only strengthen the morals/values/opinions that are "correct". And if said "false" notion does undermine "the truth", then it's probably because your "truth" isn't as right as you thought. But at the very least, it allows for debate.

Seriously, reading some of the responses make me cringe. Half the comments are some derivative of: "this guy is such a racist", "this guy is so close minded", "this guy is an embarrassment to our education system and needs to be fired" etc. Fucking keyboard warriors probably can't actually rebut half the points made by the author. In so many ways they're even more of a joke than him. It's embarrassing.

And yes I realize the can of worms I just opened. I know that some idiot will start the argument "some things just should never be said", so I'll probably avoid this thread before it inevitably devolves into a cesspool. This is just my $0.02

 

[faint]

the entirety of my k-12 education was spent in a public school, which ranged from 8-12% white in my elementary and middle school to 2.5% white in my high school.

while many of you are blinded by your white guilt, i can say that some of this stuff is not uncommon. i'm not saying that this story is true, nor do i know what triggered this teacher to come out and write an essay (fiction or non-fiction) about this nonsense, but yeah, shit like this happens, so get over it. he clearly comes off as a racist regardless of if this man is white or black, but like jimbo said there is diversity among all groups of people. just because this man choose to write about a small group of them (perhaps a single class even) doesn't say anything.

i don't think anyone who read that essay is going to change their opinion on black and white children. it almost seemed pointless to write unless he was targeting the racist teachers community, which probably shouldn't even be teaching in the first place.

 

[Houndoomsday]

i think it would be cool if people started twerking in my classes

 

[elcheeso]

I enjoyed the part (i.e. the entire essay) where he was referring to the black kids like they were a different species. Maybe he thought he was really helping by doing some sort of nature documentary for those poor white folks who are only not racist because they've never met a black person before. Dehumanisation is fun!

 

[tehy]

I enjoyed the video

Especially where he points out something I totally missed-the writer says that the only response to a white girl getting asked out by a black guy is no. And then he always calls her racist, too? (Well, maybe if she's addicted to drugs?)

 

[Chou Toshio]

Summation of my opinions:
-I do believe this man is (extremely) racist.
-However, like capefeather, I believe all the anecdotes of this essay are likely true-- there are many black communities and black schools that are in a state of affairs similar to what is described here.

So what?
Of course that is a serious problem. However, it's not an easy one to solve. If the teacher isn't going to give some insight on the bigger picture of what to do about the situation-- than this essay has little merit.

For those of you who somehow don't believe that these conditions are real:
PBS Frontline: Dropout Nation

I'm not saying Frontline is completely objective (it's not), but their documentaries are both excellently done, and enlightening. I'd definitely recommend this one.

 

[uragg]

a very Fun To Read article =]