NAACP Florida State Conference calls for firing of teacher for using the “N” word

[JonLP24]

Source: The Westside Gazette

FORT WALTON BEACH, FL —The Florida State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) calls on the Jackson County School Board to reconsider its recent decision to suspend and reassign Greg Howard, the teacher who repeatedly used the “N” word on a seventh grade classroom chalkboard to refer to the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. Jackson County School Superintendent Danny Sims is wrong when he noted that Howard’s comments were directed at a political party and not at a particular group of students. The fact that, in the year 2008, a teacher hired to teach and lead young people used a word so reviled that the Jackson County Floridian deemed it unprintable is unfathomable; the fact that he retains a job in the school system at all, teaching young adults, is unacceptable.

“In this day and time when the “N” word is considered a racial slur and offensive to African Americans, I cannot understand how in the world this person can be allowed back into a classroom to contaminate vulnerable minds,” said Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida State Conference NAACP.

“As a tax payer in Jackson County, I am appalled because if the situation was reversed and a disparaging statement was made by an African American, there would be no doubt in my mind, he would have been fired,” stated Richard Patterson, president of the Jackson County Branch NAACP.

The word Howard used was not only clearly aimed at African American students and their community; it was aimed at all students seeking a tolerant, safe, racially diverse educational environment. Howard sent a clear message that racism and bigotry are acceptable in his classroom, not only to the African American students, but to white students. His actions, as a governmental employee, were not only offensive, they most likely violated the civil rights of the African American students who heard or read them. By choosing to merely discipline and reassign Howard, the school board essentially condones his comments and opens itself up to civil lawsuits as well. The Jackson County School Board must fire Greg Howard so that he can never again hurt students and create a hostile environment.


Read more: http://www.thewestsidegazette.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=91746&sID=4&ItemSource=L

[noonwitch]

1. What was the teacher's explaination?

Was he discussing racially provocative speech and it's history in the USA? Were they discussing the use of the word in Huckleberry Finn? Those are two acceptable reasons why he might have written the word on the chalkboard.

[leftofcool]

2. As a former and now retired teacher, I would think #1

on your list is probably correct. Maybe not, but I think the school board would have fired him otherwise.

[TankLV]

7. No - it was intended as a slur - a bad "joke" - nothing even remotely suggesting a "legitimate

discussion"...

An ingnorant bigoted slur. Period.

[Maeve]

4. Here's the original story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3524459

And, IMHO, it was racist.

[9119495]

9. I won't say what it was but here is a clue

He wrote C.H.A.N.G.E on the board and said to his students it meant "Can Help A ______ Get Elected."

Fired. This was not an issue of academic freedom.

[noonwitch]

10. If it was being expressed as the teacher's sentiments, then he should be fired

That's blatantly racist.

[sonias]

3. Greg Howard is unfit to be a teacher - period

This man is obviously a racist and ignorant educator if he thinks he can use this word around his students. There is no acceptable excuse. He should go. :grr:


Sonia

[WriteDown]

5. What about if they were reading Huck Finn?

:evilgrin:

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. But they weren't

He was telling them what Obama's CHANGE message means. And he wrote it on the board.

Come Help A N______ Get Elected

[sonias]

12. If you follow the original story link - they weren't

It was used in a political setting and it was about Obama.

And if the class was reading Huckleberry Finn, I bet a good teacher would even take that opportunity to go into a discussion of the time period (published in 1884) and make sure the students understood that the word in that book was not acceptable today.

Sonia

[sonias]

13. dupe

[JonQ]

8. I was waiting for this

since I first heard of this story. The guy sounds like an idiot, but I don't have all the details.

[kay1864]

11. Here's Mr. Tolerant himself!

(Can his racist ass, I say. And even if he lies about the incident in future interviews, there's always the Google :patriot:)

[classysassy]

14. Rush Jr

sir, you are evil.

[Igel]

15. Can't tell anything from either post.

Neither gives enough information.

I saw one of Vickie Fromkin's lecture. She took the podium and said, with little warning, "Fuck, cunt, shit, pussy, and shit. You probably aren't used to little old Jewish woman getting up and saying 'fuck'. Well, there, 'fuck'. Repeat after me: 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck ,fuck.' Are you offended? Some abso-fuckin'-lutely are, from the expressions I see. Good."

Now, I imagine that's what some of the undergrads in the lecture hall with 300+ students took home and told their friends. Little old Jewish professor shouts "fuck" in lecture and is glad that she offended students. That's the kind of report I see in the OP, the DU thread discussing this, and the article that the other DU post is hung on.

Now for context, the part of the story that allows us to accurately interpret what happened, which shows that the understanding in the previous paragraph was simply wrong in pretty much every respect that actually mattered--the bare facts may have been right, but the inferences and deduced facts were simply wrong.

Vickie was in her 70s at the time, a little short Jewish woman who spoke "correct" English most of the time. She almost never swore around students, her undergrads or the TAs, just the infrequent 'hell' or 'damn' when she was mad or things seriously were not working out; what she was like in her private life, I can't say. But she was a linguist, and a damned good one.

She took the podium that day and said, "Today's lecture deals with expletives. 'Fuck, cunt, shit, pussy, and shit.' You probably aren't used to little old Jewish woman getting up and saying 'fuck'. Well, there, 'fuck'. Repeat after me: 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck ,fuck!' Are you offended? Some abso-fuckin'-lutely are, from the expressions I see. Good. It means that they haven't lost their linguistic value, and that's one reason they continue to be used." She went on to talk about their linguistic uses, euphemisms, oddball grammatical properties (Haj Ross, etc.), and expletive-insertion.

Oddly, most of those embarrassed by the use of the terms, when forced to use them themselves, laughed. Nervously. As did one or two of the TAs, also nervous about using the words in front of Fromkin and in class. Point: Laughter does not always indicate that you think something is funny.

Fromkin distinguished between citations and her own usage quite nicely, only using the terms to exemplify her discussion. It's not the introduction of the terms into discussion, it's the use they're put to in the discussion. The claim was intent trumps interpretation. It's a claim that's used freely by a lot of people when their intent is concerned; many of those same people claim that their perceptions trump intent when their perceptions are concerned. The only thing you can say is that they're so self-centered that only their perceptions matter.

So I can't tell anything from either post, without knowing what the discussion was *after* C.H.A.N.G.E. was written on the board and the acronym spelled out. I distinguish between what a person cites and what a person uses in his/her own speech. I can make assumptions based on skin color, weight, or geographic origin, since the teacher's white, or overweight, or Southern, he must be racist. But I try not to make assumptions like that based on skin color, weight, or geographic origin, but to keep an open mind; and when I make assumptions, I try hard to keep in mind that they are assumptions, little more than generalizations and probabilities. That way more information can get in. (More information would be valuable here.)

[bluestateguy]

16. We need to get the facts and the context of this case

but based on what has become public, it does not look like this teacher behaved appropriately.

[SunDrop23]

17. There should be picket lines outside the school and this scumbag's house 24x7 (nt)

[slampoet]

18. Don't worry. It's a Red State. A School Shooter will get him soon enough.

[la la]

19. I'm a retired teacher

taught over 20 years in a middle school near LAX--i was also very active in my association/union and if a teacher in my district said anything close to that in the classroom, he/she would have been 'escorted' off with security or local police---no matter if they were new to the classroom or an old timer/union member.

it was one of the few good things that i can say about the HR department in our district---any racist comments or actions and that teacher was gone- not to return to a campus in our district --or probably anywhere else in CA.