Hot-mic moment captures how some educators really feel

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dear teacher who refers to students as "Hispanic," let me explain to you why you should refer to us as Latino/a. I'm about to do some emotional labor here, which I'm 99% sure you're going to ignore because you think your familiarity with us gives you some kind of authority.

Hispanic and Latino are often conflated. They are not the same. Hispanic refers to the language and Latino refers to the culture. If you have indigenous students in your classes (and if you have any from central America, you almost certainly do), these are Latinos, not Hispanics. Some of them may even speak Spanish, as is common in Guatemala, but that's the language of the colonizers. Brazilians are Latinos, not Hispanics. I can go on. This is just like how we don't call all Alaska Natives "Inuit" anymore.

Aside from mislabeling people with a moniker that refers to a particular language, "Hispanic" also refers to the colonizing culture. Many Latinos find it offensive for this reason.

I'm not going to get into Latinx. I don't understand it.

I get you. I use the word “Latino” but my Latino students never do. They refer to themselves as Hispanic. You would need to give them this lecture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you tell us some of the deets? I haven’t got a subscription.

The first paragraph:

Thinking they were in a private forum where they could safely vent, a group of San Francisco Bay area school board members unleashed months of pent-up frustration with parents, dismissing them as marijuana users desperate for free babysitting almost a year into the pandemic.

It's not free. Trust me on this.

[Anonymous]

In a meeting at our school district largest in our state, 130k students, we had a community Q&A with the school board with input from teachers and parents. At first the teachers said the same thing very dismissively about not being babysitters when parents expressed concerns about going back to work. Until it was brought up that the management expected the teachers to do their live teaching from their actual classroom at the school; DL without the students present. All of a sudden there was a teacher outcry where they were literally saying “what are we supposed to do about childcare?” Uh, guess they needed the school system to be their kids’ babysitters after all. The whole thing was ridiculous. In the end the district caved, teachers didn’t go in and students are still home. Meanwhile the neighboring district has been going with half the students M/W, the other half T/Th since September with no major issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear teacher who refers to students as "Hispanic," let me explain to you why you should refer to us as Latino/a. I'm about to do some emotional labor here, which I'm 99% sure you're going to ignore because you think your familiarity with us gives you some kind of authority.

Hispanic and Latino are often conflated. They are not the same. Hispanic refers to the language and Latino refers to the culture. If you have indigenous students in your classes (and if you have any from central America, you almost certainly do), these are Latinos, not Hispanics. Some of them may even speak Spanish, as is common in Guatemala, but that's the language of the colonizers. Brazilians are Latinos, not Hispanics. I can go on. This is just like how we don't call all Alaska Natives "Inuit" anymore.

Aside from mislabeling people with a moniker that refers to a particular language, "Hispanic" also refers to the colonizing culture. Many Latinos find it offensive for this reason.

I'm not going to get into Latinx. I don't understand it.

I get you. I use the word “Latino” but my Latino students never do. They refer to themselves as Hispanic. You would need to give them this lecture.

PP: do you have any indigenous or mestizo students in your class? Do you know? Why. Why are you so dug in to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you okay with low-income Latinos?

The derision that white teachers have for their Black and Latino students is awful, especially when they are also exploiting those families in their efforts to continue to block the families' access to education. It is horrific.

+1

These are the same teachers who are arguing that they shouldn’t go back into school because POC prefer in-person (but not all!) I notice they erase the ones who DO want to be in person. Treating them with disrespect, outright racism and some paternalism seems to be what these teachers are doing. They can’t even be bothered to use culturally competent language.

That is so easy to do. So easy. Just say Latino. And yet here, even this one thing is a step too far. It’s clear these people are the ones using POC families to get what they want.

I feel so bad for the kids they teach.

Sorry, what are you even talking about? What are you referring to? The school board’s comments about parents? Or do you have some additional verifiable source where there are teachers talking about Latino students? Because that isn’t what happened here.

The teachers in this thread talking about their Latino students. Also, the white teacher who was on the board talking about the mostly Latino families.

Do you think we can't see that teachers unions are overwhelmingly white women? Do you think we are blind?

And do you think we can't see that the rabid "OPEN SCHOOLS NOW" moms are almost exclusively white women? Do you think we are blind? Trying to use minorities and students with disabilities as props for your "open schools" agenda does not make you a social justice crusader.

I work in an urban Title 1 school and an incredibly low number of our students of color opted in to "in person" learning, but sure, you speak for them.

You don't even try to deny what's in this thread from teachers and what the board members said about Latino families, probably because you agree with it.

I'm not going to go through the thread and read/respond to every petty post. Many people initially responded that they were angry about what happened in the meeting without actually listening to it or reading about it, so I'm not sure why I should wade pages of this back and forth. I'm not going to defend myself against claims that I am a terrible racist teacher...based exclusively on your hatred for teachers. Nice deflection, though.
Please, tell us all the ways you go out of your way to be antiracist, all the causes you donate to, and how you volunteer your time to help end racism.

You’re attempting to deflect from your blatant racism here by asking everyone to show you their credentials. The “I’m rubber, you’re glue” defense doesn’t work unless you’re over 8.

What is my blatant racism exactly? Being alive? Working in a title 1 school composed almost entirely of POC, 100% of whom are students with disabilities? Donating my time, money, and emotional energy to the community I both live and work in? Got it.

Are you the teacher who refuses to stop using the word Hispanic or are you defending the hot mic incident by saying that it’s a bunch of white women who want to go to school? You called yourself out.

I am neither, there are actually more than two teachers in the world. Hard to believe, I know. Which one of the two moms in the world are you?

So then why do you think you were one of the ones called out in this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear teacher who refers to students as "Hispanic," let me explain to you why you should refer to us as Latino/a. I'm about to do some emotional labor here, which I'm 99% sure you're going to ignore because you think your familiarity with us gives you some kind of authority.

Hispanic and Latino are often conflated. They are not the same. Hispanic refers to the language and Latino refers to the culture. If you have indigenous students in your classes (and if you have any from central America, you almost certainly do), these are Latinos, not Hispanics. Some of them may even speak Spanish, as is common in Guatemala, but that's the language of the colonizers. Brazilians are Latinos, not Hispanics. I can go on. This is just like how we don't call all Alaska Natives "Inuit" anymore.

Aside from mislabeling people with a moniker that refers to a particular language, "Hispanic" also refers to the colonizing culture. Many Latinos find it offensive for this reason.

I'm not going to get into Latinx. I don't understand it.

I get you. I use the word “Latino” but my Latino students never do. They refer to themselves as Hispanic. You would need to give them this lecture.

PP: do you have any indigenous or mestizo students in your class? Do you know? Why. Why are you so dug in to this?

I guess I'm curious about this. I can see not referring to Brazilians as Hispanic, otoh Portuguese is very similar to Spanish. And the root of latino/a/x is, um, "latin", so isn't that just as colonial? And people from Central or South America who speak indigenous languages are hardly using a Romance (there is is again. . . ) language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear teacher who refers to students as "Hispanic," let me explain to you why you should refer to us as Latino/a. I'm about to do some emotional labor here, which I'm 99% sure you're going to ignore because you think your familiarity with us gives you some kind of authority.

Hispanic and Latino are often conflated. They are not the same. Hispanic refers to the language and Latino refers to the culture. If you have indigenous students in your classes (and if you have any from central America, you almost certainly do), these are Latinos, not Hispanics. Some of them may even speak Spanish, as is common in Guatemala, but that's the language of the colonizers. Brazilians are Latinos, not Hispanics. I can go on. This is just like how we don't call all Alaska Natives "Inuit" anymore.

Aside from mislabeling people with a moniker that refers to a particular language, "Hispanic" also refers to the colonizing culture. Many Latinos find it offensive for this reason.

I'm not going to get into Latinx. I don't understand it.

I get you. I use the word “Latino” but my Latino students never do. They refer to themselves as Hispanic. You would need to give them this lecture.

PP: do you have any indigenous or mestizo students in your class? Do you know? Why. Why are you so dug in to this?

I guess I'm curious about this. I can see not referring to Brazilians as Hispanic, otoh Portuguese is very similar to Spanish. And the root of latino/a/x is, um, "latin", so isn't that just as colonial? And people from Central or South America who speak indigenous languages are hardly using a Romance (there is is again. . . ) language.

NP. This article doesn't agree with the explanation from PP regarding the difference in names: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-difference-between-hispanic-vs-latino-5082005#:~:text=While%20Hispanic%20usually%20refers%20to,when%20to%20use%20each%20one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear teacher who refers to students as "Hispanic," let me explain to you why you should refer to us as Latino/a. I'm about to do some emotional labor here, which I'm 99% sure you're going to ignore because you think your familiarity with us gives you some kind of authority.

Hispanic and Latino are often conflated. They are not the same. Hispanic refers to the language and Latino refers to the culture. If you have indigenous students in your classes (and if you have any from central America, you almost certainly do), these are Latinos, not Hispanics. Some of them may even speak Spanish, as is common in Guatemala, but that's the language of the colonizers. Brazilians are Latinos, not Hispanics. I can go on. This is just like how we don't call all Alaska Natives "Inuit" anymore.

Aside from mislabeling people with a moniker that refers to a particular language, "Hispanic" also refers to the colonizing culture. Many Latinos find it offensive for this reason.

I'm not going to get into Latinx. I don't understand it.

I get you. I use the word “Latino” but my Latino students never do. They refer to themselves as Hispanic. You would need to give them this lecture.

As does my sil from Mexico City. She laughed at me when I used the word Latina.

[Anonymous]

I've heard Black and Latino families talk about how they want to continue DL so their kids have less exposure to racist teachers. It makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have to say, parents totally deserve it this year, and plenty of other years for many reasons. Fully empathize.

Sorry- not sorry.

X1000

Same.

Ya’ll were all ‘parenting is amazing’ and ‘the childless are missing pieces of their soul’ when you literally didn’t have to deal with your own kids for 70% of the week’s waking hours.

Now you’ve been drowning for a year - you see the light.

[Anonymous]

I swear I saw someone on DCUM wish they had a weekend nanny. They were completely serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have to say, parents totally deserve it this year, and plenty of other years for many reasons. Fully empathize.

Sorry- not sorry.

X1000

Same.

Ya’ll were all ‘parenting is amazing’ and ‘the childless are missing pieces of their soul’ when you literally didn’t have to deal with your own kids for 70% of the week’s waking hours.

Now you’ve been drowning for a year - you see the light.

The mask is really off with you people. You hate women, particularly mothers, and you’re not trying to hide it anymore.

No one believes for a second that any mom ever said that nonsense to your enlightened child-free self, btw, so stop embarrassing yourself. Just come out and say you hate mothers so we can have an honest conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have to say, parents totally deserve it this year, and plenty of other years for many reasons. Fully empathize.

Sorry- not sorry.

X1000

Same.

Ya’ll were all ‘parenting is amazing’ and ‘the childless are missing pieces of their soul’ when you literally didn’t have to deal with your own kids for 70% of the week’s waking hours.

Now you’ve been drowning for a year - you see the light.

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have to say, parents totally deserve it this year, and plenty of other years for many reasons. Fully empathize.

Sorry- not sorry.

X1000

Same.

Ya’ll were all ‘parenting is amazing’ and ‘the childless are missing pieces of their soul’ when you literally didn’t have to deal with your own kids for 70% of the week’s waking hours.

Now you’ve been drowning for a year - you see the light.

This!

I truly do not understand this argument. The teachers were teaching and supervising as their one job. Now parents are required to teach/supervise AND do their regular job. (If child is SN, you may have had to quit your job because this scenario is literally impossible.) You are comparing a teacher doing one job to a parent doing two, and then saying "see, told you it was hard!". Very strange argument.

[Anonymous]

^^me again. It's not like the teachers (pre-pandemic) were watching their own children AND teaching a class.