Black Teachers, White Parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Why do you assume this was racial? Why do you assume these people had lower expectations bc the teacher was black? OP, it seems to me that YOU are the one making it about race. YOU are the problem, OP. YOU are the one who needs to change your way of thinking. You obviously considered the teachers race when analyzing the other parents compliment. And here you are thinking you're better and more "enlightened". Disgusting.

The OP was there and personally experienced the situation. You didn't. Why do you think you understand the situation better than the OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why do you assume this was racial? Why do you assume these people had lower expectations bc the teacher was black? OP, it seems to me that YOU are the one making it about race. YOU are the problem, OP. YOU are the one who needs to change your way of thinking. You obviously considered the teachers race when analyzing the other parents compliment. And here you are thinking you're better and more "enlightened". Disgusting.

The OP was there and personally experienced the situation. You didn't. Why do you think you understand the situation better than the OP?

First of all, you don't know if I was there or not. Second of all, I didn't claim to understand the situation better than the OP. I was simply stating my opinion after reading what the OP wrote. It isn't my instinct to assume everything in life is about race. It annoys me when others do assume this about people. OP's tone in her first post was dripping with disdain for these people that she assumes complimented a teacher not for what she produced, but the color of her skin. I am just offering a different perspective: perhaps OP is the one who was focused on the teachers race and capabilities more so than the other parents were. Just because I don't agree with OP doesn't mean I can't state my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Why do you assume this was racial? Why do you assume these people had lower expectations bc the teacher was black? OP, it seems to me that YOU are the one making it about race. YOU are the problem, OP. YOU are the one who needs to change your way of thinking. You obviously considered the teachers race when analyzing the other parents compliment. And here you are thinking you're better and more "enlightened". Disgusting.


The OP was there and personally experienced the situation. You didn't. Why do you think you understand the situation better than the OP?

First of all, you don't know if I was there or not. Second of all, I didn't claim to understand the situation better than the OP. I was simply stating my opinion after reading what the OP wrote. It isn't my instinct to assume everything in life is about race. It annoys me when others do assume this about people. OP's tone in her first post was dripping with disdain for these people that she assumes complimented a teacher not for what she produced, but the color of her skin. I am just offering a different perspective: perhaps OP is the one who was focused on the teachers race and capabilities more so than the other parents were. Just because I don't agree with OP doesn't mean I can't state my opinion.

Maybe it is just me, but I assume that when someone puts a post on this board that they expect comments.........

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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"?

I'm so sick of this shit.

overly sensitive whites who have nothing better to do than to pick apart people using terms from psychology 101

[Anonymous]

I think it was a compliment; most parents don't expect we'll executed powerpoints at work, let alone back to school night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it was a compliment; most parents don't expect we'll executed powerpoints at work, let alone back to school night.

For real. Our back to school consisted of four white teachers taking turns reading aloud a series of powerpoint slides. If anyone, regardless of race or anything else, had done anything that even resembled an actual presentation, I would have been so surprised I'd probably have said something like, wow, that was actually good! And then some idiot on DCUM would report how someone had the nerve to tell the AA teacher she was "actually" good.....

I think it's teachers in general the parent was denigrating - not African Americans. And teachers, by god, deserve it.

[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."

articulate.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

I appreciate the comments from posters who understood what I was saying. And I appreciate the comments from those who urged me to reconsider why I was perceiving the situation as I did.

What I didn't see here was a large volume of posts from black teachers reporting that they had encountered similar situations and found them either offensive or demoralizing, and that's good to know.

I'm not planning to check the responses to this thread again, but thanks for weighing in.

[Anonymous]

OMG this white guilt is out of control. You know who are often thought of as unprofessional? TEACHERS. Not at all race related - if anything, patronizing towards the teaching profession as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Welcome in whose community exactly? The teacher is part of the school community already. As is your child. Do you worry about the white teachers the same way? You may be crossing over from being open to overly-sensitive and race-focused yourself. The teacher is a professional, someone complimented her on that, whatever the speaker's tone. What is notable is the classy manner in which the teacher handled it.

The teacher is young, and new to our school; hence the reference to wanting her to feel welcome in a school community that consists of administrators, other teachers, students and parents with a common mission of supporting each other and our students. By definition, she's now part of that community, but there can be a difference between being part of a community and feeling welcome in it.

is the community mostly white? is that what you are saying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

White people are always rude and patronizing to blacks. Then when you point it out, they want to cry, make themselves the victim, and claim you are too sensitive about their micro aggressions and passive aggressive comments.

Most (not all) black people learn to deal with this by the age of 30. But then it starts to wear on your nerves so you never know if you are going to get a smile back, or if the person is going to respond with snark.

If you respond with snark...here comes another rude comment about the "angry black syndrome". If you say nothing, you are saying it is okay and the cycle will continue with another clueless dingbat going off in the world to annoy others. It's a tough spot to be in. But at least you noticed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

[Anonymous]

What's wrong with OP's post? I don't see anything wrong with it.

[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.

Yep. Good grief. I won't be reading the rest of this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with OP's post? I don't see anything wrong with it.

People who benefit from white supremacist ideologies are more offended at being seen as racist than they are of actually being racist.

Therefore, it is more productive to stick nails through your eyes than to have these sorts of discussions.