Silly Negros

[Lyion]

And we wonder why there is still an ethnic and cultural divide...

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/27/World ... ons_.shtml

ST. PETERSBURG - The questions may be as old as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin .

Is it ever okay to use the word n----- in a classroom, even when the goal is to condemn it? And, if so, how should it be done?

The Pinellas teachers union is vigorously defending a white social studies teacher who required his eighth-grade students to write the racially charged word on a quiz in February.

The quiz was part of a Black History Month lesson on Rosewood, the predominantly black Florida village wiped out by white mobs in 1923.

The teacher, 60-year-old Dohn F. Bear, is suspended without pay and faces dismissal unless he prevails at an appeal hearing Aug. 10-11.

Superintendent Clayton Wilcox says Bear used poor judgment. Bear, who abhors how students casually say "n-----" in the hallways, says he was teaching them about the word's history and harmful impact.

"You need to use the word to make sure the students know not to use it," Bear said. Teaching that lesson with terms such as "African-American" fails to convey the ignorance and hate behind the word n-----, he said. "It's silly to do it that way."

Wilcox, who is Mexican-American, argues there are many ways to drive home the same point.

"Kids know the words," he said. "You don't have to hold them down and say, "Write it.' ... If you use a racially loaded term and you're in this profession, I think you should know better."

The outcome of this case could be a defining moment for the district, said Mark Herdman, a Palm Harbor lawyer who represents members of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association. He said it affects scores of teachers who are struggling to understand this and other zero-tolerance positions staked out by Wilcox as he dealt with an outbreak of racially tinged incidents this year.

Among the witnesses Herdman is rounding up for the August hearing: social studies teachers from across the district and Randall Kennedy, a Harvard law professor and author of the 2002 book, N-----: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word .

Kennedy, who is black, argues that the use of the word is complex and suggests that people often overreact to it.

Bear's background also will be an issue. A 1963 graduate of Dixie Hollins High School, he says he spent a week registering black Mississippians to vote during Freedom Summer in 1964. The following summer, he says, he joined the famous march from Selma to Montgomery organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"My whole young life was trying to get people to not treat people wrong," said Bear, who has signed up 150 friends and colleagues to testify. One of them is a black warrant officer who served with him in the Army during the Gulf War.

"We can't afford to lose this," Herdman said of the case. Social studies teachers "don't know what they can and can't say and what may violate the sensibilities of the superintendent."

The case is one of five race-related incidents that sprang up during the 2004-05 school year, Wilcox's first with the district. Hillsborough schools, a larger and more diverse district, had one such incident last year.

The emotion has spilled into the summer.

At last week's Pinellas School Board meeting, 17 people - many of them from St. Petersburg's black community - complained about the board's recent decision to soften discipline for Geoffrey Nelson, a white teacher at Tyrone Elementary.

On March 30, as Nelson removed a disruptive black student from his classroom, he said, "you monkey." The teacher immediately apologized to the child and the principal. Wilcox recommended a five-day unpaid suspension, but School Board members voted 6-1 for a reprimand. Several cited Nelson's otherwise clean record and argued it seemed clear his remark was not racial.

Black citizens complained that the term "monkey" historically has been used to demean black people. Lost in the debate, Herdman said, was the fact that Nelson has written an unpublished book about his own children titled, Two Crazy Monkeys Live in My House .

"It's a term of endearment he uses for kids," said Herdman, who is white.

The other incidents: A white football coach told a player to get his "black a--" back in a huddle. A black middle school student complained when a white teacher said he was "taking your cotton-picking sweet time" to get to class. While breaking up a fight, a white Dunedin High School teacher told a student to "get your black a-- over there."

Some of the episodes have been more clear-cut than others. But in each instance, Wilcox has recommended discipline.

In two, including Bear's case, he recommended dismissals. In two others he recommended suspensions. In the Dunedin High School case, he said he wanted to fire the teacher but recommended suspension to be consistent with the School Board's recent decisions.

Herdman, the union lawyer, said the five employees deserved no discipline, or at most a minor reprimand.

"For reasons that I don't understand," he said, "race has become front and center at the school district."

Wilcox countered: "I think I am sensitive to (race), but I don't think I've lost my sense of proportion."

He said he has been surprised by the number and nature of the events. Some of them, he said, are more overt than what he experienced in his previous superintendent's job.

While in Baton Rouge, La., a district that is 75 percent black, "I never had anybody say, "Get your black a-- over here,"' Wilcox said. "I think people were more in tune to what was appropriate to say and not say."

In Pinellas, he said, "people are saying things, then falling on their swords and saying there was no racial intent. But clearly everybody else that I deal with knows that these words have meaning outside of their normal contexts."

Educators, he said, have to know that "when you're dealing with African-American kids, you can't call a black kid a "monkey,' even if it slips out ... You don't just get to say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.' There should be some thought on the front side."

Pinellas' black residents have found a sympathetic ear in Wilcox that goes far beyond matters of teacher remarks. Black leaders have noted how he tells predominantly white audiences that the district could better serve black students.

Yet Wilcox also makes clear that the district can't unilaterally solve its main problem, the achievement gap between black and white students. Part of the problem is poverty among black families and part is "self-inflicted," he said. "If you come to the table and refuse to eat, that's up to you."

Before the first racial remark occurred, Wilcox started working on a program to train district employees in "cultural competency." The district once had a thriving diversity training program, but it has shrunk to almost nothing in recent years.

"Cultural competency" training is different from diversity training, Wilcox said, in that it teaches people how to overcome their differences. Wilcox, the School Board and top administrators will take the training first, followed by thousands of district employees over the next three or four years.

He expects many employees to resist, as they did with diversity training.

"I absolutely know that the great majority of people don't think that they're racist," he said. "This whole effort is not to say that anybody is. What it is to say is, let's understand that there are differences in cultures."

He said his recent decisions regarding racial remarks focused on the teachers' judgment, not what may or may not be in their hearts.

That's why he was not moved to hear about Bear's involvement in the civil rights struggle.

Bear said he likes to teach using movies and quizzes during Black History Month.

He had 150 eighth-graders in five classes, 15 to 20 of whom were black.

He started the month showing the movie Glory, about a black unit that fought for the Union Army in the Civil War. Then he moved to the movie Rosewood about the 1923 massacre.

At a key juncture in Rosewood, a white housewife, Fanny Taylor, claims she was beaten by a black man and yells, "N-----, n-----, n-----!" The word is used many times in the movie, Bear said.

In the quiz that followed, he asked students to write the word that Fanny Taylor said. Several students wrote "black person" or "African-American" instead.

That night, as he graded the tests, Bear did not give credit to students who substituted other words. His rationale was that they were "out of context" for that period of history. White Southerners of the 1920s said "n-----." He wrote the correct word in red on their answer sheets.

He said he rethought his decision later, figuring it might be hard for his students to identify with that time. He revised their scores on his computer, but said it would have been too time-consuming to revisit all 150 papers and make changes. So when he handed out the graded quizzes the next day, he explained what he had done.

A black boy who he says is a good student apparently did not hear his message, Bear said. The boy took the test home and his father called to complain about the word, saying the family never uses it.

Bear said he has no bad feelings for the boy or the father.

He also is being disciplined for the lesser offense of showing the R-rated movie without permission from administrators or parents. He had gotten permission to show the R-rated Glory, but admits he "just wasn't thinking" when he showed Rosewood without permission. The video is from his home collection.

Bear said of Black History Month: "You either teach it or you don't teach it. I'm saying I've been in the trenches with this stuff and you're not going to get through to the students if you just pussyfoot around with it. ... If we want them to understand that things are wrong, then we've got to let them know."

He said he was dumbfounded when the district said it wanted to fire him.

"Hopefully they'll realize that I'm not a bigot, which is basically what I'm being called, which really appalls me," he said. "If Mr. Wilcox called me in and talked to me, I don't think this would have happened."

Wilcox said Bear made "a series of poor instructional decisions."

Using the word on the quiz put students in an uncomfortable position, he said. "The code of professional conduct says you won't do things to disparage or embarrass kids. Well, clearly he crossed that line."

Wilcox said he doesn't relish making such decisions, where it's often impossible to know key details. Did the person really mean it? Is he covering his tracks?

He said he tries to focus on the action itself.

"I don't see all the shades of gray that everybody else does today," he said. "I think people expect me to say it's right or it's wrong. I'll live with that."

[Wrath Child]

This just in, a large group of protesters have shown up outside the Dohn F. Bear residence to protest his teaching tactics:

[Martrae]

Words only have meaning and are harmful to you if you allow them to.

[Malluas]

well.. since he is mexican american why are they going ape shit on him.. he is allowed to use racist terms with impunity

[Ganzo]

well.. since he is mexican american why are they going ape shit on him.. he is allowed to use racist terms with impunity

WTF is Mexican American

[Lyion]

Another word for Illegal Alien.

[mappatazee]

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/06/29/mexico.stamp.ap/index.html" target=blank>LOLOL</a>

[Gaazy]

In May, Fox riled many by saying that Mexican migrants take jobs in the United States that "not even blacks" want.

ROFL

[Narrock]

Vicente Fox is an idiot.

[Eziekial]

Why? Fo speeken da trooth?

[Lyion]

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/06/29/mexico.stamp.ap/index.html" target=blank>LOLOL</a>

Sad, but I laughed my ass off at that one.

[The Kizzy]

I used to work at the police station in Muskegon, Michigan. There was an icident there once, and a black motorist sued the city for being beaten. He was pulled over on a routine traffic stop, and refused to get out of the car. He refused to put his hands out of the car. A couple of other cars were called in. There were 6 police officers there in total. In the end, one of the white officers leaned in to turn the car off, and the suspect drove off dragging the officer through gravel. He was pepper sprayed, and crashed his car into the building, even with the police officer still holding on. He was forcibally taken from the car, and thrown into the gravel, and still put up a fight. He was pepper sprayed again. THe next morning there were pictures of him in all the papers with a swollen face, stating that he was beaten. It was evident that the mace had gotten into his cut skin and irritated it even more, but the press didn't care, they ran with the story. In the end, they suspended a hispanic officer over the incident, even though he was not involved with the cuffing, in hopes that a jury would not believe the "They are racists" angle. 1 white cop, 4 black guys, and a mexican.

[Diabolik]

1 white cop, 4 black guys, and a mexican.

walk into a bar...

[Lyion]

lol I was thinking the same thing... Still waiting for the punchline

[Darcler]

and says "Why the long face?"


HAHAHAHAHAHHA

[Narrock]

A fag walks into a gay bar and is about to sit down. Another fag immediately jumps up and says to the other... "Hi there, mind if I push in your stool?"

[Zanchief]

A fag walks into a gay bar and is about to sit down. Another fag immediately jumps up and says to the other... "Hi there, mind if I push in your stool?"

The punchline is they both go to hell.

[brinstar]

that joke would have been funnier without hatred

[Wrath Child]

That's a very old joke. I first heard it close to 10 years ago when a caller to the Alan Colmes radio show asked him if he'd ever been in a bar and had a man offer to push his stool in for him.

[Narrock]

Yeah, it's a very old joke and still very high on the funney meter.

[Jimmy Durante]

In May, Fox riled many by saying that Mexican migrants take jobs in the United States that "not even blacks" want.

ROFL

I wonder if he has one of these on his lawn.

[Agrajag]

I wonder if he has one of these on his lawn.

I do!

[Captain Insano]

Another word for Illegal Alien.

ZING!

[The Kizzy]

I have a friend who lives in a predominatly black neighboorhood and has one of those in his living room.

[Captain Insano]

I want a black butler some day. It will make me feel like a massa.