Black Teachers, White Parents

[Anonymous]

Was at a back-to-school night recently. Two of DS's teachers are AA, the rest are white. One of his AA teachers made the greatest impression - she was full of enthusiasm, she'd prepared a slide deck with a lot of pop-ups that conveyed lots of information in the limited time allotted, and she had the parents laughing with her spot-on observations about teenagers.

On the way out, we stopped to briefly introduce ourselves and thank her for some after-school help she'd been providing DS. As we did so, we overheard another white parents telling the teacher that her presentation had been "very professional." I kind of froze in my tracks when I heard that. It sounded incredibly patronizing to me. I was just waiting for the teacher to respond with something like "well, yeah, I'm a professional, so that's what I do," but of course she just said thanks.

So my question to black teachers is do you still get this all the time from white parents, and does it bother you, or do you just move on and try not to think worse of the kids because some of their parents sound like characters out of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"?

[Anonymous]

You need to NOT GO THERE.

It was a compliment.

Every single word out of ever white person's mouth to a black person does not need to be analyses.

[Anonymous]

DO NOT GO THERE.

It was a compliment.

Do not dissect every word exchanged between a white person and a black person. You are part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

I'm a white teacher. I'd be flattered if someone described my work as "professional". It's a compliment. Nothing more.

I have no clue why you think that is a race issue. I'm more worried about the fact that you were noting the color of everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to NOT GO THERE.

It was a compliment.

Every single word out of ever white person's mouth to a black person does not need to be analyses.

Maybe so. I asked because I really liked the teacher and hated the idea that she'd come away from the evening thinking ill of the parents because some were condescending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white teacher. I'd be flattered if someone described my work as "professional". It's a compliment. Nothing more.

I have no clue why you think that is a race issue. I'm more worried about the fact that you were noting the color of everyone.

Part of it was the tone in which the comment was made, which I can't replicate here.

But the responses to date suggest it's over-analysis on my part. I'm happy to hear that. I want the teacher to feel welcome in the community.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a well deserved compliment. So many of my interactions with teachers have NOT been of professional quality. (They are often great teachers, and terrible communicators.)

Why are you reading so much into it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a well deserved compliment. So many of my interactions with teachers have NOT been of professional quality. (They are often great teachers, and terrible communicators.)

Why are you reading so much into it?

OK, fine, guess you had to be there.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

I understand what you are saying OP. It's like when people hear an African American professional athlete give an interview and say "wow, he is so well-spoken."

[Anonymous]

OP, you're actually the one being insensitive.

[Anonymous]

Are you comparing this to Harry's comments on Obama: "clean and no Negro dialect?" Here's a clue. It's not comparable. It was a compliment.

[Anonymous]

I see where you're going -- it's awfully close to saying, "you're so articulate." In context, it doesn't sound like it was really that bad, though. Maybe you had to be there ...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand what you are saying OP. It's like when people hear an African American professional athlete give an interview and say "wow, he is so well-spoken."

I understand what you're saying, too, OP. And you were there, and we weren't. Maybe it was a compliment unrelated to the race of the teacher. Maybe it wasn't.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP. It was patronizing. It was exactly like a "you're so articulate" compliment. Why wouldn't she be?!?! She's a professional. Why wouldn't it be a professional presentation? If she were white, I doubt it would've been the same compliment. It's hard to be a minority because there are countless little insensitivities like this happening all the time, and the moment someone calls it out, everyone is telling you not to start something and saying you're too sensitive.