question for African-American DUers

[ulysses]

As some of you may know, I'm teaching in a "high-needs" urban school with a 100% African-American student body.

During the first week of school, one of the older teachers who's been in this school for a long time (and who is black), pulled me aside and said, "Mr. Uly, I understand that your kids have been behaving themselves pretty well. No offense, but you know why that is, right?"

"Ummm," I said.

She said, "It's because you're white. It's the blue-eyed devil thing. They're scared of you."

She continued. "You play that up, you'll have a pretty good year."

Picture me striving for comprehension. "Now Ms B," I said, "I'm not going to use my race to scare my kids into behaving themselves."

She just shook her head and repeated herself. "You play that up, you'll have a pretty good year." She patted me on the shoulder and walked away.

***

Fast forward two weeks. I've since talked to a lot of my fellow teachers and other friends who are black about this experience and, almost without exception, they've told me that Ms B is right.

So, I guess, more than one question. Is this true? The kids are certainly very curious about me, but they don't seem like they're *afraid* of me because I'm white. If it is true in any sense, is it an inner-city thing? I've taught black kids before and there was never any sense of racial fear, but those were middle-class kids in mixed environments. And, if it's true in any sense, why and what can we do about it? I can work on the behavior without resorting to racial fear.

[Ghetto_Boy]

1. Say it loud "I"M BLACK & BUSH SUCKS"

[ulysses]

4. yeah, I could carry that off.

Check the gallery. :D

[Vickers]

2. Maybe you're just exotic to them

How's that for turning the tables, eh?

:)

[ulysses]

10. now see,

that's where my head is going to get me into trouble - I'm imagining discussing colonization with me being the "noble savage".

Or maybe not...:)

[cmf]

3. Don't know

I've never seen that happen, but I've always been in a mixed environment.

[chimpymustgo]

5. Maybe you are showing them some rarely offered respect, and they are

responding accordingly.

I think the "white devil" card is bullshit excuse making. Keep up the good work, and keep getting results. Sounds like you're a great teacher, and your kids appreciate you.

[Bok_Tukalo]

6. Remember

“From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce a new product in August,”

[ulysses]

8. I've been told that too.

I certainly hope to get results. My evaluation at the end of the year is tied to their standardized test scores. :scared:

[cally]

13. Hey Uly, you'll do fine

I'm convinced that school success is mostly expectations. If you think they will succeed, they will. (I'm being simplistic, I know. Still...)

[ulysses]

16. I'm not so much worried about how I'm going to do

as I am about the idea that there are a lot of kids running around in "at-risk" or "high-needs" black neighborhoods COMPLETELY ignorant of the accomplishments of the civil rights movement, to say nothing of their ignorance of the idea that they can do something with their lives besides hang out up on Simpson Avenue. That's where we're starting, and our kids are 13-14 years old.

[theboss]

7. My friend is a psychologist in an inner-city school

One of her rewards for the younger girls behaving themselves was to let them do her hair, because none of them had ever seen "white" hair before. They also added an "isha" to her name (since she uses her first name).

My dad started his teaching career in a majority black school and was really successful because he was positive and - like my friend - acknowledged the difference. (It was also the 70s and he could get away with stuff like convincing his 7th Grade track team to wear sunglasses during races in order to intimidate opponents). Basically the message is, "We aren't the same, but we both have a wealth to learn from each other. Let's embrace it.

I think you need to acknowledge the difference with them but somehow make it a positive as opposed to a fear thing. Get it across that you are there by choice to help, not to enforce any class system. But I think the key is acknowledging the difference.

[ulysses]

9. I've been trying to do that

but it's hard. One thing I'll be thankful to Denise Majette for is her being the first African-American (not to mention the first female) Senate nominee from Georgia, which gave us a lot to discuss the first week.

I think being positive helps, definitely. I have learning disabled kids who are with me almost all day, and these are the kind of kids who tend to be warehoused and not challenged. My para and I have worked their little asses off from day one, and they've responded very well.

But I don't think I could pull off being "Johnisha", even if I used my first name in class. :)

[theboss]

12. Try the sunglass thing then

I laugh because I will be with my dad from time to time and he will have former students approach him, some of whom are probably in their 40s by now and will still talk about the things he let them do. I met someone who told me about winning the talent show as "Black Elvis" because my dad let him do his impression in class and everyone liked it.

I really think the key is - as I said - knowing that there is a gulf between you that will probably never be completely bridged but trying to learn (as well as have fun with) the differences.

[seventhson]

11. I don't consider myself "white" - I consider "white" & "black" as states

of mind. Neither is accurate except as an imperialist and fascist colonial classification.

I consider us ALL of African origin/descent (if anthropologists and archaeologists and geneticists are correct) There ARE NO distinct races. Even the term "racist" is a misnomer. There is only one race, the human race - and we are all related - all cousins - all of one race.

I am, however, of European descent. And so some people might call me white (andf I would protest this).

I work in the inner city with predominantly African-American and Hispanic kids and families.

The REASON these kids respect you is NOT fear. It is that you show them resdpect. This is omething they may not ever have SEEN from a "white" person - and so they are in awe of that. They also do not generally get it from many African American inner city teachers who very often are very bourgeois middle class and uptight (kinda like Bill Cosby with his blame the victim mentality). FEAR is their main operating principal (and this is a generalization, there are MANY exceptions to this)- fear of "whitey", fear of the "man" fear of the "blue-eyed devil" is a survival strategy to be instilled in them so that they will not die in the mean streets.

BUT it is in many ways a destructive and suicidal method of control.

Because many of these middle class teachers have "made it" by submitting to oppression and an unjust sytem they are teaching this as the means to "make it" for the kids: submit, grovel, be afraid, work hard, watch out for "the man", kiss ass, and you will "get over" - you will survive and get your SUV and your big screen tv and maybe even a mortgage one day on the fringes of the ghettoes.

I think this is horseshit. But she is being genuine. She believes it and wants you to believe in it. SCARE the kids, white man, so they will live.

I think that honesty and rebellion work better.

TEACH them. Respect them. Be HONEST with them. LOVE them.

And they will thrive.

The fear thing is bullshit (except with some of the real thugs, maybe, who might threaten you - they need to know you are serious about HELPING them, but NOT afraid of them cause you are a badass too or you would not be there)

I see social workers all day long who project this fucked up attitude towards their "wards": They are like fundamentalists.

HONESTY is the only thing that works to gain their respect. NOT fear.

I am NOT white. White is a state of mind and I do NOT have that state of mind.

I am a human being of the human race.

[ulysses]

14. thank you.

TEACH them. Respect them. Be HONEST with them. LOVE them.

And they will thrive.

I thoroughly believe this to be true of all children. At the same time, I've also had the following exchange with a child in my class:

Me: "Sit down in that chair."

Him: "What you gonna do if I don't?"

Me: "I'm going to put you in it."

Him:

It's a balancing act. I'm lucky in that my para and I naturally make a great good cop/bad cop team, but the kids do know that he and I both respect them and give a damn about them. Will it be enough to give them the knowledge and strength? I don't know.

re: race being a state of mind - yeah, I see what you're saying, but. In that hallway, Monday morning at 8:40 am, I am a very white man in a very black crowd of children. The intensely uncomfortable sense of being a white guy lording it over black folks - telling them to tuck in their shirts and pull up their pants, etc. - is fading, but the *cultural* fact of race is still there, whatever *my* mindset may be.

[seventhson]

17. "Race" is not a state of mind. The terms "white" and "black" are

"Race" is a fraudulent term which has NO scientific meaning.

The terms "white" and "black" also are arbitrary subjective terms which have little or no meaning in reality.

You are NOT white (MILK is white) and the children are NOT Black (Coal is black).

These are terms made up by colonialist mentalities to subjugate and divide people.

YOU may be the "lightest" person in the hallway - but you are NO different from them as a human being. You MAY be different from some of them "culturally" but so aren't we ALL different "culturally".

My point is that we perpetuate hate and "otherness" when we use the terms "black" and "white".

But, hell, I argue this point with practically everyone of many ethnicities. I just think that for the hatred to end we need to be Accurate IN OUR Use of language AND NOT JUST ADOPT PREVAILING ETHNOPHOBIC AND ETHNOCENTRIC NORMS.

If you consider yourself "white" then you ARE white, I guess.

I prefer NOT to be white, however and so I choose not to identify myself as white.

You are only "white" if you think you are. But what does being "white" mean? Nothing, really, except a whole lot of hate.

[ulysses]

19. I really do understand what you're saying,

and you're right, but my middle-schoolers aren't interested in colonialist mentalities. Black/White is still what we deal with. To apply theory in this environment is folly.

Using "lightness" is a very sharp, double-edged sword as well, as the kids insult *each other* based on skin tone, facial features, etc.

[seventhson]

21. If YOU don't teach them, Who will? If not now, when?

We have to teach them to think and to teach themselves.

They also need to learn the things they need to survive and to pass the stupid military tests (the federal placment tests were designed by the military and the neo-cons at the American Council for Education).

But I agree that "light" and "dark" ate still loaded concepts.

But getting them to READ about their history (our history) etc. will help them to understand colonialism.

I recommend the following books:

"Black Indians"

"They came Before Columbus"

"The Souls of Black Folk"

"Autobiography of Malcolm X"

"Manchild in the Promised Land"

"Invisible Man"

"The Spook Who Sat by the Door"

and ANYTHING by August Wilson and Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin and ESPECIALLY Langston Hughes

Malcolm X's speeches on CD are also brilliant teaching tools in concert with seeing the film by Spike Lee.

Talk about White Devils, huh?

Also, for you I recommend Paulo Freire's "Pedogogy of the Oppressed" and "Education for a Critical Consciousness" and Frans Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth" and "Black Skin, White Masks".
Fundamental for teaching oppressed people to understand their "situation" and how to change it.

[Connie_Corleone]

15. Showing your students respect,

and letting them know you're interested in them and wanting to help them succeed brings respect back to you. You being white has nothing to do with it.

Those older black teachers don't know what they're talking about. Black kids aren't afraid of "blue-eyed devils". (black kids don't even use that term in this day and age. At least, I've never heard them use it and me and my friends never used it growing up in the 70's and 80's. )

I think the other teachers have a low opinion of the black students in the first place and that's why they think that way.

Do the other teachers treat their students with respect and seem helpful to the kids?

[Catherine Vincent]

18. What the heck is wrong with those teachers?

I have never heard such rubbish!

[stavka]

20. I think Michael Moore said it best "Fear Whitey"

Everybody who has screwed him over in life has been a white male.

whites are the physical embodiment of the enemy of poor blacks - period.

If you are a stranger, that is the legacy you bare.

[Logansquare]

22. I think there's some projection going on there

Maybe *she* thinks your're a white devil and is afraid of you. Kids can sometimes be more open-minded than adults when it comes to race.