A Portrait of the Teacher as a Good Young Racist
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 Clay Burell 
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Georgia:
“One good thing about Jennifer Hudson’s family tragedy – two less Obama voters.”
A 57-year old grandmother is killed in her home, as is her 29-year-old son. A seven-year-old child is missing and there is every reason to fear for his survival as well.
And [a reader who commented as] “Dagny and John’s Love Child” expresses pleasure that two Obama voters are now gone.
–Jay Bookman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
North Carolina:
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The Cape Fear BBQ and Chicken Restaurant. Some powerful and at times ugly interaction today.
12:33 p.m. Sen. Barack Obama entered the barbecue joint where an older and majority white clientele of dozens was eating lunch after church services. At the other end of the restaurant, Diane Fanning, 54, who works at a discount club, began yelling: “Socialist, socialist, socialist -– get out of here!”
….Later, Obama came to the long table where Fanning and other members of a local First Presbyterian church were gathered. He held out his hand to her to shake it and asked, “How are you, ma’am?” but she declined to shake.
–LA Times
Tennessee:
Korea:
It’s after midnight and my wife thinks I’m brushing my teeth and coming to bed. Instead, I’m holed away here in my writing corner, needing to get something off my chest at what, you’ve surely noticed, may be a world-historical moment, whether you’re an American or not. I’ve tried to get it right and don’t feel I’ve succeeded. But I want to put it out anyway, in time to meet that moment.
~ ~ ~
Last Things First
I’m a 46-year-old man, a white minority in an interracial marriage in Korea.
Many people in my adopted country look down on my wife for marrying me. They look down on me too. They stare. They occasionally try to menace. They say things in their language that they think I don’t understand. I catch enough words to get the gist.
Other people here, though – my in-laws above all – accept me, value me, and show me through their actions things that feel like love. They help me when I don’t even ask.
You need to know that before you read on.
A Portrait of the Teacher as a Young Racist
The Winner’s Ticket
I spent my first eighteen years in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a scenic little rhinestone studding the Bible Belt in the American South.
When I was about eight years old, around 1970, I was the bat-boy for my older brother’s baseball team. I wore the team uniform with pride, indifferent to the laughs it drew for being several sizes too big.
One night, the team played a city championship game of some sort in the city’s semi-pro Lookout Stadium, in downtown Chattanooga. It was a big affair for us little boys.
Two things were interesting about that night.
The first is trivial, though I want to read meaning into it, and it’s simply this: out of two thousand or so tickets drawn from in a raffle before the game, my ticket was a winner. I remember the laughter as I went onto the field in that oversized uniform to claim my Louisville Slugger baseball bat, emblazoned with Hank Aaron’s signature. The 34-inch bat was as oversized for my eight-year-old frame as was the uniform, but I was proud of that Hank Aaron. Aaron was a Southerner on a Southern team – Go, Atlanta – and even though he was black, he’d set the world on fire by breaking Babe Ruth’s record for most career home runs.
I’m convinced my ticket was drawn because, having no idea what a raffle was and thinking that ticket was just an admission ticket, I had wadded it up as trash and thrown it under my seat as soon as I sat down. When someone came to our section to collect the tickets, a teammate of my brother’s – his name was June, and he was African-American – helped me find it, and tossed it in the box for me.
To this day I still maintain there was a lesson there: The hand that drew my ticket felt something different when it hit that wadded thing among all the flat, straight ones. My ticket won because it was different. I’ve wadded my tickets in every raffle from that day to this. And since then – though usually not by accident – I’ve also wadded up and discarded much of what I was taught was right in my childhood.
The Loser’s Joke
The second thing that happened that night occurred as we rode home after the game.
There must have been more than one vehicle taking the team back to the school, because I was surrounded on that ride home by only white players. June and the other black players were not in the back of that truck with us.
We sat in the open bed of that truck riding under a very fine night through the very worst slums of the city. My brother’s team must have won, because spirits were high all around. These bigger boys hooted, they hollered, they filled the night with their voices. Some of those voices, as we drove through this poor neighborhood, cried off-color things.
I must have wanted to impress them, and so gave it a shot – with the earliest instance of rhetorical sophistication in my entire life. At the appropriate lull in the noise, I filled the silence in that sad neighborhood’s night by yelling, at the top of my eight-year-old lungs:
“Welcome to Nig*ertown, USA! Population: Too many!“
“Population: Too many!” – What a great line. Almost as good as “Two less Obama voters.”
Citadel Yearbook 1977
It was a hit for many of the older boys. They slapped me on the back, congratulated my brother for having a little brother with such wit, and for that brief moment, I was on top of the world. With that one joke, I seemed to have suddenly grown into that uniform.
But that world was the wrong one, and there are hopeful signs it’s dying now. And that uniform? It’s wrong too, and too small for us all.
I’m a 46-year-old man, a white minority in an interracial marriage in Korea. Many people in my adopted country look down on my wife for marrying me. They look down on me too.
Thinking back on that childhood moment, I wonder if any darker-skinned boy or girl, sitting on one of those anxious porches or stoops in that fine night, heard that happy line. I suspect several did. And I wonder if they still remember it, like I do, almost forty years later. Again, I suspect they do.
It’s too late to say I’m sorry to them. But it’s not too late for a different amends.
Baptised in Bigotry
Monday School in Dixie
Though my family didn’t go to church beyond the occasional Christmas or Easter service, my childhood was nonetheless suffused with the Southern Baptist brand of Christianity. I’ll only point at the regular visits to my elementary school of a sweet little lady we called “Mrs. Methuselah.” Her real name I’ve forgotten, but not her blue hair and palsied voice, which croaked out Bible stories as her bony, blue-veined hands manipulated felt Bible characters on an easel – all at taxpayer expense. Because of her visits, I remember to this day the names “Shadrach, Meschach and Abednigo,” though I’ve long since forgotten their story.
I also remember this verse:
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the glory of God lasts forever.”
I wrote that verse in crayon in a little state-sponsored, constitution-violating scrapbook she assigned us to keep. I Scotch-taped some grass from the school lawn underneath it that obligingly turned brown after a few days. Beside the grass, for good measure, I taped a dead flower, and drew above them both – framed with a jagged border I hoped suggested lightning – a stern, bearded God. I was a very good student in those days, doing whatever teacher told me to do. Being a Good Boy was for some strange reason extra-important to me. It still is today, with the difference that now I want to be a Good Man.
Anyway, this was 1968, probably. My first year of school. First grade.
At that time, of course, I had no idea my country was dropping napalm on peasant farmers and their families in thatched huts on the other side of the world – surely at the very moments this good woman was giving us these lessons. John McCain probably had no idea he’d soon fall from those skies himself, alongside his payload, while I was still learning my ABC’s, Matthew Mark Luke and Johns, and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigos in a public school.
Scott’s House
Scott was my best friend in those years. I spent as many days at his home as I did in my own. Scott’s mother and father were second parents to me, and good people. The bookcase and side-tables in their living room were full of books by an author whose name I, the good first-grader, was proud to be able to read: the Reverend Billy Graham.
Scott had a couple of sisters, though, who were already in high school when we were in first grade. Scott and I would often go into their bedroom when they weren’t around, and I can still remember other names I first became aware of in that household, names attached with images on the sisters’ many vinyl LP records: Joan Baez. Bob Dylan. Joni Mitchell. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Jimi Hendrix.
I remember being struck with how different these names felt in comparison to Reverend Graham.
Desegregation is "communist" work of "anti-Christ": Some things don't change. Little Rock, Ark., protest, 1959.
Stefon, Cedric, General, and Scott’s Father
Elbert Long Elementary and Junior High School must have been desegregated a few years before I entered first grade there. At eight years old, I was as clueless about that milestone in American history as I was about those Asian farmers in thatched huts who were daily aflame, literally, via the same tax dollars that paid the good old lady to teach me about fading flowers, withering grass, and glory of God.
All I knew was that I was a six-year-old with classmates who were about 50% dark-skinned and 50% light-skinned. My otherwise decent grandparents called the dark-skinned ones “niggras.”
~
I'm front row, center. Stefon and General are in the third row.
Besides Scott and some other whites, I had friends whose names were as different as their skin-tone: Stefon Talbot, whose spondeed first name was as distinctive as the long-lashed white eyes shining like pearls from his smooth, jet-black face; Cedric Winston, so much bigger than the rest of us we called him “Big Boo,” whose preacher-father equipped him with some hymns that made us laugh to tears when he performed them; and most memorable of all, General Lee Webster. General was not a nickname like Boo – it was birth-certificate official. General had a tougher life than Stefon and Boo – not as handsome as Stefon, not as gently parented as Boo, and infinitely more beetle-browed and bug-eyed than both of them, with a forehead twice as high as normal – and it showed in his hair-trigger temper. Thinking back on him now, General was a black Mercutio to my Romeo, and I loved him.
We all lived near school, and we all walked to and from it. Often, after school, we’d walk together to each others’ homes, to the mall, to all the places we roved in those days.
One day at Scott’s house, his Southern Baptist, Billy Graham-revering father pulled me aside and, with great concern and gravity, asked me, “Clay, why did I see you walking with that black boy on E. Brainerd Road?”
“That black boy” was General.
Coach Moser Teaches History
I’ve changed all the other last names in this story, but I’m not changing Doug Moser’s. Mr. Moser was my junior high art teacher and, more importantly, baseball and wrestling coach. He was new at our school when, now age 12, General, Scott, Stefon, Boo, and I entered seventh grade in 1974.
Coach Moser, seated left. Scott behind him, left. Me standing, right.
I don’t know much about Doug Moser’s background, beyond that his accent marked him as an outsider to the South. Thinking about him now, I’m struck by the fact that he coached several sports but didn’t, like most coaches, teach health or physical education – he taught art. And that suggests he had something in him refined, something cultured. I know that now because I’m a teacher, and know that teachers teach subjects, typically, that they liked in college.
Doug Moser was also, I suspect, fairly new at teaching. He looked to be in his twenties, so he couldn’t have been that far out of college, and while he was married, he and his wife had no children. But the biggest clue to his newness was his classic “new teacher” attempt to create true, caring, authentic relationships with his students.
He invited General, Scott, and me to come with him and his wife to a college wrestling tournament one weekend. He paid for the tickets, he paid for the cokes and hot dogs – and he paid with the disillusionment. My friends and I were too young and immature to appreciate his gesture; instead, we slurped the cokes and wolfed the franks while obsessing – for a ridiculous thirty minutes at least, as we sat in the bleachers two rows behind him and his wife – on some stupid chant we’d created around his name. “Middi-mo, middi-mo, middi-mo.” We chanted it over and over, laughing hysterically at this unfunny play on the name “Mr. Moser,” while he sat awkwardly with his wife, pretending it wasn’t happening. We never had a decent conversation with him that whole day.
He never invited us to a second outing. A teacher now myself, I understand why: I tried similar things, and got similar results. I’ve experienced that sad gap, as Joni Mitchell would sing, “from both sides now.”
But I liked Mr. Moser. In his art class thirty years ago, I was drawing a still life of an ear of corn. He eased up behind me, and very quietly said – I think this is verbatim – “Nice. You’ve got a good eye.” And that felt calming, affirming, good to hear – so good, I remember the corn and the man and his words now, at 46. I remember very little else from those years so clearly.
In short, Doug Moser seems to have been an athlete, an artist, an outsider, and an idealistic young man. And while my bone-headed friends and I disappointed his idealism at that wrestling match, we later, he told us, redeemed it.
Baseball and Race, Take Two
It happened at another baseball game. I was about the age of my brother that night I disgraced myself in the back of that truck by shouting my harmless little genocidal joke.
We had lost the game. We were in the locker room, sullen and self-important over this bit of stick-and-ball-centered trivia, when a few boys walked in who weren’t on the team.
They were all African-American.
One of them spouted some trash about our loss that rubbed me the wrong way, and I told him to shut up. A cliche stand-off followed and we finally came to blows. As usual, I probably took more punches than I threw, but who cares. All my fights back then (and I hope it’s so for kids today) were always broken up before they got dangerous, and this one was no different – with one exception: My friends separated us by pulling me back by my arms. This rendered me defenseless, and my enemy took full advantage of this by landing a free punch or three to my face. The punches didn’t hurt, and it wasn’t serious. Soon that whole gang was persuaded to leave the locker room.
We went back to showering and changing clothes, until somebody came into the locker room with some news: There was a gang of black boys waiting to jump me outside the building.
Again, though I didn’t understand it then, this was 1974 – exactly a decade after the Civil Rights Act ended Jim Crow and racial segregation. My friends and I were guinea pigs in the progressive “social engineering” decried by so many conservatives and reactionaries.
My teammates – not only Scott, but also Stefon, “Boo”, and General – surely didn’t understand this either. They just did what was natural to them: they protected their friend by walking out with him, and stood by him when that gang appeared – and they faced that gang down. I got home safely because of them.
The next school day, there was the schooly disciplinary thing, with the predictable slapped wrists and all of that. But afterwards, at baseball practice, Coach Moser gathered us up for a talk. And in that talk, he interpreted what was just a schoolyard fight to us as the slice of progressive American history it was. He told us that he was not proud of the fact that there was a fight, but that he was proud that in that fight, watching the white boy’s back against the black boys, were other “black boys”: Stefon, Cedric, and General. They had taken sides based not on skin color, but on something deeper. And he was proud of them.
Years earlier, in a little harmless American genocidal humor, I had joked that the black population should be decreased.
Coach Moser interpreted that moment in my young life in a way that taught me something important.
First Things Last
I’ve left my Southern roots and, like that raffle ticket, become something different. Many other Southerners have too, thank goodness, as the polls show. They’re voting for the more intelligent and respectful candidate – who happens to be darker-skinned – instead of the reactionary ticket indulging in smears cloaked in unAmerican Stars and Stripes and unChristian Crosses.
So goodness bless Ms. Betty Waylett, the fellow churchgoer of Ms. Fanning, the lady who refused to shake Obama’s hand in that North Carolina diner, and bless the church’s Pastor Bremer, too, who’s voting McCain for reasons other than race, for their remarks in that LA Times article:
[Obama] spoke at length with many of the other parishioners at the long banquet table, however, and got a much friendlier reception as he spoke about healthcare, taxes and Social Security. Fanning told the pool reporter, “Some of them are just nicer than I am. I know how some of them think.”
But several of her fellow churchgoers said their support was genuine. Betty Waylett, 76, told him, “You’re doing a great job.” She told the pool reporter she is a Republican but will vote for Obama because she likes the way he speaks and his manner.
Waylett, who is white, said Obama’s race was not a factor. “I never thought about it one way or the other.”
Pastor Randal Bremer, also at the table, said Obama told him, “Whether you vote for me or not I’ll need your prayers.” Bremer told the pool reporter, “I’m very impressed by his ability to meet people on a down-to-earth level” and that he would pray from him but that he planned to vote for John McCain, mostly because he prefers smaller government and McCain’s position on the Iraq war.
Scott’s father was a good man, but – Reverend Billy Graham and all – a weak one. He couldn’t apply the Golden Rule of his faith unto all others. “That black boy” – “that one” named General Lee Webster – was closer to any god than the good Southern Baptist father of my white friend.
A different ticket, a welcome change.
Stefon, Cedric, and General sided with me against their skin color because they knew I was on the right side. I was on the wrong side when I poisoned that childhood night in a poor neighborhood with that shameful “Rebel Yell.” And I’m siding with Barack Hussein Obama because I believe he’s on the right side as well.
Doug Moser saw history when the desegregation experiment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 redeemed itself in our schoolyard ten years later. That was the beginning. I didn’t think I’d live to see the culmination of that experiment in the election of an African-American president of the United States in my lifetime.
I’m awed to discover I may be wrong. I want to see more history on November 4. I want to see an America – and my American South, in particular – that has learned that race, while nothing we should vote for, is also nothing we should vote against.
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Hank Aaron by Jaboobie
Citadel Yearbook
Little Rock Brown v. Board of Education protest: Lib. of Congress
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Tags: autobiography, election 08, obama, racism Print This Post
No. 1 — October 28th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Thanks for your story. We’re the same age, Clay, but I grew up in a rural area in the north so my racism was different: I never saw any black people at all. They were a distant “other” who lived in the cities or the south. It was only when I went to college that I began to see them as real people. My college was in the south, though, so besides my fellow students, the other black faces I saw were the people who did the service jobs such as cooking, cleaning, and serving food in the cafeteria. I’m back at that college now after 25 years and things haven’t changed too much. I think there are more black faces in the student body but they are still very much in evidence doing the service jobs. But I am also excited and inspired by the possibility of a black man as president in my lifetime.
BTW, I’ve been in England for the past two weeks and they are convinced that Obama is going to win.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Karen, a belated thanks for the interesting comment. It’s after the election now, and we can hope more than ever that the new millennium will break with the old ones concerning race. It’s amazing.
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No. 2 — October 28th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
A brave and inspiring post, Clay. Brave because many people would find it easier to not reveal their inner self in this way and just shout for what they believe in. We’ve all said, done or thought things that might trouble us later. We’ve all kept quiet at times when we should have spoken up. And as I write I realise that these statements should say ‘I’ and that I shouldn’t be diluting my own guilt by claiming ‘we’.
Racism is one of the worst evils in the world and it is alive and kicking. After the white / non-white divide in the UK finally started to dissipate, in recent years we saw the divides move to being white vs asian; black vs asian; and now white UK vs white eastern european.
As a kid, if you had listened to Scott’s dad you might be a different person from now. Change will only come from the kids and we must do what we can to enable it.
Nigel Robertsons last blog post..CCK08 Map
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Nigel, thanks for the comment. I didn’t find it hard to write about this because it’s distant childhood, though your “we” v. “I” note is worth reflection.
I’d like to hear more on racism in the UK. If you write about it, please drop a link here. Fascinating.
Here’s to what I hope truly is “a righteous wind” at our backs.
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No. 3 — October 29th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Clay,
Thanks for sharing your story. It gives me hope!
Like Karen, I too am your age and grew up in the north. The racism I saw was directed more toward Native Americans.
As for the campaign, I think the politics of fear are boiling up on both sides. John Oliver’s piece on last night’s Daily Show illustrates that the fear goes both ways.
My hope is that if Obama is elected, we will be able to come together, because I think he would be intentional about addressing the issues.
McCain/Palin would only allow them to fester….
Mike Walkers last blog post..Reading at Edina High School
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Hi Mike,
Another comment showing the fine wrinkles of this old hatred. Interesting.
I watched the video you linked to, and wonder if you agree that the “fears” of Left were more issues- and policy-based, while those of the Right were more racial and religious. I mean, it’s one thing to fear a president for his hawkish tendencies, and another to fear one for the sound of his name or color of his skin. Did you see that breakdown in the video too?
Thanks again for dropping in.
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No. 4 — October 29th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Thanks for sharing this story. It, as does Obama’s candidacy, shows that we’ve come a long way as a nation but we have so much further left to go.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Thank you too, Felicia. We seem to have changed gears in the journey.
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No. 5 — October 29th, 2008 at 8:34 am
What a great story! Growing up in the north as the only Chinese girl in my school caused me to see racism first hand. It was pretty hard but it made me tough. I came across parents who wouldn’t let their kids play with me and I had teachers who wrote me off because I was different. Luckily, I too had friends who were loyal and stuck by my side. Since my mother was not full blooded Chinese and my father was full blooded Chinese, my father’s family did not accept me and my mother’s family didn’t accept me. My parents basically ignored all signs of this from their families and from others. It was very hard for my parents though when I did not marry a Chinese man and fell in love with a Caucasian here in the south. As an adult I still face discrimination during our travels (some passively and some pretty blatantly). I can only hope that eventually Americans will look past race and look at what values and opinions people have.
Pat Hensleys last blog post..Don’t Miss the K12 Online Conference!
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Thanks, Pat, for adding to the stories in this thread. I’m learning about so many manifestations of this thing, and I’m glad you have the strength to handle it. (It doesn’t bother me much here in Korea. Intelligent strength cuts through ignorant BS like a hot knife through butter.)
I can’t wait to watch the future of all of this unfold.
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No. 6 — October 29th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Powerful and painful. You continue to impress as a writer and as a human being.
Tims last blog post..KOCROS Follow Up part 2
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Thanks, Tim. It doesn’t feel painful at all, now, on a personal level. But reading or seeing it in others is a different story. Thank goodness it’s had a happy ending, this election.
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No. 7 — October 29th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Beautifully written post.
We have so many divisions imposed on our psyches- racial, religious, gender, geographical – all of which serve to keep us in our ‘proper places’.
If only we could all come together – how powerful we would truly be.
Perhaps that is why we are kept separate.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Thanks, AV. That “if only” of yours seems to have found “Yes we can” as a possible answer. Keep up the good stuff on your site. I truly enjoy your stuff.
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No. 8 — October 29th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
A wonderful, introspective glimpse of the continually evolving state of America, Clay. Thanks for sharing it.
Like the reverend you mentioned, I won’t be voting for Obama, but it’s based on issues we don’t see eye to eye on. Regardless, I have been impressed by his calm demeanor, his intelligence, his passion, and his eloquence. He strikes me as a very good person, and I respect him more for that than any political positions or accomplishments.
It disheartens me, I must admit, to read the opinions of so many on Internet discussion boards that appear so irrationally afraid of an Obama presidency. While some are overtly racial in tone, others seem to be subtly laced with such feelings, thinly disguised under the ruse of disagreements with his positions. Even when faced with so many critical issues today, too many citizens cannot see beyond the color of a man’s skin to the inner soul that will drive his decision making.
I was blessed to grow up in a home that taught me to view the man/woman for what he was and what his actions reflected, never for the genetics he/she inherited. I remember when, in the white, Texas suburb in which I grew up, the first black family moved in. The youngest son, Rodney, was my age, and he lived just a block away. We became close friends quickly. I witnessed a lot of racially-motivated hatred directed at Rodney, and I also saw the conflict it created. My parents deeply cared about him, and embraced him as if he were my brother. Their love for Rodney helped me to be a better boy and man, and, I believe, did the same for him.
The neighborhood is much more integrated now, with black, white, Hispanic, and Asian families filling homes that were completely segregated less than 3 decades ago. I would like to think it is a better neighborhood for it, but I still see signs of lingering division when I work in the schools where I grew up. While I am not a supporter, he’ll have my prayers if he wins. If electing a president whose policies I may not agree with can unify these kids and the country in the end, I can easily live with my candidate’s defeat.
Randy Rodgerss last blog post..Twitter? Are You Serious?
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Great comment, Randy. It’s been a pleasure to see so many constructive and supportive comments from McCain supporters as a counterpoint to the less impressive ones.
And I hear you on the divisions. Racism isn’t just a majority sin.
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No. 9 — October 29th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Clay thankyou for writing such a personal and rivetting piece. I live in Australia and though our new PM has said sorry to the stolen generation, the issues of difference, fear and misunderstanding are deep within our culture.I hope that we at some stage will have a woman as PM and that the prospect of a party being led by a non-caucasian is not a dim prospect. However in my heart I know we are nowhere near that as a nation and so it is with hope and trepidation for the darker fears that Obama says he will need our prayers to help him that I hope chnge comes and that it is not too early for it to be accepted. Thanks for your honesty and heart- you are a good man.
Sue Tapps last blog post..Unnamed 10/28/2008
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Sue, thanks for adding to the global snapshots in this thread. I can’t but wonder if the Obama election might hasten similar electoral breakthroughs in other countries.
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No. 10 — October 29th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Clay, Thanks for your bringing a personalized focus to this issue of institutionalized discrimination and ignorance. Furthermore, I see things far beyond race alone. Perhaps, I am a little more sensitive to a range of “isms” as I used to facilitate diversity awareness workshops in the USA before moving to Mexico. But, one thing that I am dead sure about is that there will always be racism as long as we give permission to and participate in the other “isms”… as they feed off of each other and give us the “safety” to turn a blind eye from the comfort of our armchairs.
There is a saying in diversity circles that goes something like this:
“When a black woman looks into the mirror, she sees a black woman looking back at her. When a white woman looks into the mirror, she sees a woman looking back at her. When a white man looks into the mirror, he sees a person looking back at him.”
I really dislike this little overused “recorded ditty.” Because the truth is things are far more complex and connected than this phrase suggests. The white man suffers a great deal of institutionalized pain and separation, too (war, homophobia, wage-earner, parental rights, etc.)… as does the white woman … as does the black woman … as does a woman … as does the child (adultism is probably the most underdiscussed and vile “ism” out there) .. as does the homosexual or bisexual .. and does the Jew ,,,, as do men as a group … as do the differently abled .. as do age groups, and on and on. Ignoring one (yes just 1) gives tacit approval to others to ignore the “ones” that they choose. This is what we must combat, individually, as groups, and as a society. All differences can live and coexist in harmony without hurting each other. There is no justification for one group dominating the other.
So, the bottom line is that if we really want to tackle the race issue, it starts far deeper than skin color or ethnicity alone. Perhaps November 4th will give us an opportunity to stand in front of our own mirrors and see ourselves as we really are, and finally start to deal with our personal truths, we each have them … but as a society and individual alike, we have a responsibility to minimize our own blindspots that connect discrimination and give it life from our armchairs.
Franks last blog post..21CT: MEXTESOL 2008 Live Blogging Sessions
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Frank,
First, nice to hear from you. I’ll never forget your kindness on my wedding day.
Second, your comment says it all so well I can’t find much to add but “exactly.” Well, that and something I read by the Dalai Lama:
Thanks again, Frank.
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No. 11 — October 29th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Racism and discrimination are not American phenomena… they are human phenomena that are thriving all over the world. But if America is to be a living model of democracy for the world, it must continue on the path to equality for all. Great story, Clay. It reminds me of my days growing up in the Canadian province of Québec where race was not the issue, but rather language (French/English). I attended a “Polyvalente” – a school of about 5,000, French on one side, English on the other. Race was not really part of my experience, as virtually everyone I knew or saw was caucasian. However, language and cultural differences served just fine for reasons to hate and fear. It came from the adults around us to some extent, but there is a part in all of just waiting to be shaped and formed when we are young. I have hope that new generations of children in this country are beginning to be shaped and formed by “reformed” or informed/enlightened adults. Thanks again for sharing your story.
Steve Ransoms last blog post..How Do You Define Web 2.0?
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Steve, great comment. “Language-ism” – egad.
I don’t know if you caught the video I linked to in the post a couple days after this one, about the “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” lesson Jane Elliott taught the day after MLK was murdered, but it really struck me as proof almost-positive of both the possibility and the effectiveness of that “forming of children by enlightened adults” you mention.
Thanks as usual, Steve.
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No. 12 — October 29th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Here’s a nice video along the lines of my comment:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5bdea860322e28ac6dcb
Steve Ransoms last blog post..How Do You Define Web 2.0?
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Frank' Reply:
October 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Steve .. thanks for that video reference. Reminds me of the time that I was swimming in a public pool in Tennessee and a little girl about 5 years old floated by in an inner tube; and as she did, she flipped me the bird. I calmly asked her where she learned that … and she said with all the pride that she could muster, “from my Daddy.”
Children are born whole and pure and zestful, free of hurts and damage… they indeed do learn it from their environment (aka as you pointed out adults that transfer their unattended to hurts and pains that then occlude children’s zestfulness and intelligence).
That is why each of us need to stand in front of that self-reflecting mirror. I think there is a lot of truth in the saying that “when we point 1 finger at someone else, there are 3 fingers pointing back at ourselves.”
It is provocative to look at pictures of the KKK and such. But, the truth is that the discrimination that fuels the KKK and other “isms” isn’t so centralized at all. It is decentralized in all of us .. and we give permission via overt actions and inactions right from our armchairs.
Frank’s last blog post..21CT: MEXTESOL 2008 Live Blogging Sessions
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Great video, Steve. Thanks for the link.
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Steve Ransom Reply:
November 11th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I have watched the video a few times now, and every time I do it becomes clearer and clearer the power we as adults hold over the shaping our own children. I take it as a daily challenge to evaluate my own behavior and attitudes because I know my own children are watching… and learning.
Steve Ransoms last blog post..Creativity is So Much Phun!
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No. 13 — October 29th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
[...] A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Racist Society & Culture (tags: children, humans, society, culture, americans, activists, education ) Avoice – 23 hours ago – beyond-school.org An educator reflects on his experiences growing up in the segregated south. add a comment | visit site | problem? addthis_url = location.href; addthis_title = document.title;
No. 14 — October 30th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Thanks for the post. I am convinced that teachers are amoung the most courageous souls in the world, for many reasons.
Jan Seiters last blog post..You can’t always get what U want…
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No. 15 — October 30th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Clay,
My father was a GE engineer who traveled extensively. If trips were scheduled during school vacations, our entire family of five piled into the family car and tagged along. I’ve been to Mentor, OH, King of Prussia, PA, and Chattanooga, TN, among other exotic locales.
On our journey south, Dad stopped in various cities to confer with business associates. Before we left home, he cautioned us that three topics were off limits: politics, religion, and race. My sister and I were in high school and quite outspoken in our beliefs, but we respected our parents and followed the “rules.”
Dad was Italian, Mom is of Irish descent, both Catholic, so we probably were viewed as northern oddities by the WASP businessmen who welcomed us so graciously into their homes and invited us to join them in their private clubs.
It was an interesting trip – and we got to watch one of those minor league baseball games in Chattanooga! – but we saw little of the turmoil beneath the surface in the South of the mid-60s.
I will vote for Senator Obama because I feel he is the best person for the job: not because he is black, not despite his being black. I hope that, when he is elected, the country will rally around our new leader and give him the trust and respect he deserves. Anything less would betray all that we are supposed to stand for as a nation.
dianes last blog post..Success
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 11th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Diane, I always say the South is a gracious place for anybody who appears white, straight, and Christian. It’s scary for the rest. But it is getting better, I notice every time I return. Generational change is a good thing.
Hey, did you see a raffle when you saw that ball game?
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No. 16 — October 30th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Clay: Thanks for the powerful, superbly-written post. Just a few minutes ago I finished watching PBS Frontline’s “A Class Divided” with a class of 8th graders. We’re doing a project on race, bias and how it affects our world. (As a “tech facilitator”, I always team teach.) Each kid has also taken the Implicit Associations Test and discovered their hidden biases. This stuff, like your post, is tremendously engaging and leads to the kind of thinking that’s plastered all over mission statements.
It’s interesting to see teachers’ reactions to what happens when the sanitized textbook is put away for a couple weeks and students are encouraged to come in contact with “controversial media” and “controversial topics”. The group ADD vanishes, class discussion flourishes, and time flies.
Thanks again.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 11th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Bill, you won’t believe this, but I was behind on reading comments when I posted on my “discovery” of the Jane Elliott Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes documentary on Frontline a few days after this post. I’d read about it in James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me.
So imagine my surprise – or lack of it, considering that it concerns a comment from you – when I read your recommendation of the same film in this comment.
Your great mind thinks faster than my not-so-great one
Happy 2008-2013, by the way. Now let’s hope he has the audacity to lead progressively.
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No. 17 — October 31st, 2008 at 6:08 am
Clay, thanks so much for your love of learning, the idea that we can grow through our own experiences touches the core of what I believe. I grew up in the time you discuss, but my community was, by and large, supportive of religious and civil liberties. I was a young Kindergarten teacher when I moved to the South and I first experienced problems of race.
I taught in a school where there was even a distinction for “high yellow” or mixed heritage. I was so naive. I had no idea that there were so many socio-economic and race barriers that the community did not want to eliminate.
I will never forget the sick feeling I had when one of the first grade teachers told me that I should not hug my African American students. She told me, “I don’t know how you can even touch them!”. Then she walked away before I could respond. I think she had to have seen my eyes get wide and my jaw drop.
I was so shocked, dismayed and humiliated for being in the same race as she. I hugged my little student even harder, so we would both feel better. I still get teary when I think about it.
None of us are perfect, but I hope I continue to work to avoid stereotypes that cause terrible strife in the world. Just living should give people enough trouble without inviting more by making artificial trouble.
Sheryl A. McCoys last blog post..Links for 2008-10-29 [del.icio.us]
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 11th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Sheryl, your story is so shocking words fail. But your comment softens the blow with its humanity. I think the tide is turning on this one. Let’s hope.
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No. 18 — November 1st, 2008 at 3:32 am
Mahalo (thanks) for your post. As a mixed race native Hawaiian I didn’t see this kind of overt racism in Hawaii, however, that doesn’t mean that Hawaii is free of racism. As a colonized people, our racism is a racism between minorities and between those who tried to oppress us. It’s not always blatant, but it is taught at home and is a result of our feelings of helplessness and hopelessness on this “rock.” As an educator at a school for native Hawaiians, my job is to instill pride in our cultural identity, and nurture aloha and tolerance.
Cathy Ikedas last blog post..The family that reads together. . .laughs together
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Cathy,
I took a workshop a few summers ago in Honolulu and noticed the tensions. Was surprised to see an independence protest at UH, and not unsympathetic.
Your students seem luck to have you. Good luck
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No. 19 — November 1st, 2008 at 9:27 am
[...] slow blogging, of long deep thoughts by people like Barbara Ganley, Chris Lott, Clay Burell (whose A Portrait of the Teacher as a Young Racist is on eof the most moving multipage blog posts I have ever read). This IS happening, and just [...]
No. 20 — November 2nd, 2008 at 4:54 am
That’s a beautiful piece of writing.
Thank you.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Thank you, too, P. It’s nice to hear.
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No. 21 — November 2nd, 2008 at 6:21 am
Hi Clay,
Great post. I too have many conflicts from my youth. I made friends with several blacks while growing up and my own father had an uncomfortable time welcoming them into our house. Even though he became more tolerant as he grew older, that tolerance was mainly on the outside, and not so much on the inside. If he were still alive today, I have no doubt that he would vote for McCain. My father was a staunch Democrat but also a proud veteran. He would have used McCain’s war record as the easy way to justify that he was voting for a Republican when his views were more closely aligned with Obama. That would allow him to dodge the reason of race, even though that would have been the internal reason for crossing party lines. I loved my father, and I miss him, but I sure hope that there aren’t too many more like him that are going to vote on Tuesday. This will be historic, no matter what the outcome. My vote has already been cast, and I have no doubt that I have voted for the best candidate to lead our country into the next 8 years.
Barry Dahls last blog post..Second Life Presenters – Get a Clue
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Hi Barry,
Sounds like we have similar childhoods and family dynamics. Perceptive comment.
Now let’s hope (and work for) the best
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No. 22 — November 4th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Growing up on the high plains I too saw the racism that was directed at the native population. They were the brown faces we saw – until the refugees began arriving in the early seventies from Vietnam, Cambodia, & Laos. Thank you for having the courage to write about your own experiences on both sides of being “the other.”
My thank you note to you and three others (as well as my look at the reciprocal nature of blogging/commenting) you can find through Commentluv below- Thanks again.
Kate Tabors last blog post..Thank you notes
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Hi Kate,
Another testimony with an interesting wrinkle.
(And thanks for the thanks, as I’ve already said on your post.)
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No. 23 — November 4th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
[...] was surprised that my story of anti-black racism in the American South drew strong reactions in the comment thread from readers in New Zealand, Australia, England, and [...]
No. 24 — November 10th, 2008 at 10:38 am
[...] Well done. I tried my own hand on a post, “A Portrait of the Teacher as a Good Young Racist,” here. (And if Typepad doesn’t allow html, here’s the link: [...]
No. 25 — November 10th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Clay, I have seen and made sure I fully understand your CC license and I do but I also want to let you know that your post “A portrait of a teacher as a good young racist” I am giving to all of my students in the next 2 days to read. I think it is that important.
Thank you sir.
Paul
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Paul, a quick “thank you” back. I’d be interested to hear if such a reading seemed to make any difference to anyone.
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No. 26 — November 11th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Clay,
-Don’t recall a raffle but loved the homey feel of minor league baseball
-Do remember Rock City and Chattanooga ChooChoo
-Wonder how many of the Southerners we met felt quite “liberal” for welcoming Northern Catholics of Italian descent into their home (my father spoke with me occasionally about the prejudice he encountered as the child of Italian immigrants. He was angered his whole life by bigots of whatever stripe.)
-On the recommendation of Doug Noon, I read “Deer Hunting with Jesus.” It’s an interesting look at rural poverty in the U.S.
There was a troubling AP story in our local paper this morning re. increased gun sales in parts of the country. Allegedly, some people are worried that President-elect Obama might limit the availability of assault weapons thus limiting the “right to bear arms” guaranteed by our Bill of Rights. At least, that’s the reason they are willing to admit to in public. Hidden agendas might be much more complicated.
dianes last blog post..Election Day
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No. 27 — November 13th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Clay it is people like you who are clear headed and real with people. I heard of this blog in my adult christian relationships class at my highschool in dallas texas. I have grown up in the south for all my life. I am 17 and understand the urgency to begin a new discussion on discrimination now that Barack Obama is our President-Elect. I can say as an African American I am extremeley proud. It is hsocking to me though how people can still be so discriminatory towards him. It is time for this country to get past its prejudices because we pride ourselves on our diversity yet we cannot rally behind an African American as presidennt 100% . I have no doubt though with people like you out there that we will one day overcome and truly be a United States of America. Once again thanks for your bravery and courage to talk about such a touchy subjects.
Shanes last blog post..Relationships and Technology
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Thanks, Shane.
Let’s hope that before too long, other targets of discrimination – homosexuals, non-Christians – can also gain tolerance, acceptance, and maybe even Golden Rule love from Americans too.
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Shane Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Clay you are absolutly correct, it is time are homosexual brothers and sitsters along with our non-christian brothers and sisters are given the same equalities as every other person in this country. Thank you for the response and your kind words keep up the good work.
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Steve Ransom Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
“From Americans”? I think you cut your slice a little too finely there, Clay. And, as most things seem to go, the pendulum is swinging the other way where those of Christian faith are now being looked down upon and ridiculed across this country by those embracing a more liberal agenda and very people who themselves are fighting for equality. I am not speaking of the breed of Christian faith that often makes its way on television, or gets sensationalized in the news media. I am not speaking of those folks who spew hate or speak evil of other humans. People of all creeds, faiths, language, and color do that. Your post and comments here attest to that.
It goes both ways here. Don’t target carte blanche a group of people, in this case, those of Christian faith, for not always practicing the “Golden Rule”. Find me any group of people who always do. Let’s just continue positive dialogue about these issues and steer clear of stereotyping and pidgeon-holing groups into “camps”. That only breeds more animosity.
Steve Ransoms last blog post..Creativity is So Much Phun!
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Steve, I can’t say I get what you’re saying – or at least how it relates to my reply to Shane.
The implicit background I expect most people picked up was the passage of Proposition 8 and other such discriminatory ballots around the nation.
That, and polls that show a huge majority still discriminates (in the US) against secularists who have rejected religion, but of course can still be fine, ethical people who (like the Deist founding fathers) are clearly capable of visionary leadership.
Both gays and the non-religious now face stiffer discrimination than just about any other historically oppressed class, wouldn’t you agree?
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No. 28 — November 13th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
My point was that you cannot simply state “Americans”. We are all Americans here and we do not ALL support or reject Proposition 8, racism, or any other divisive issue that is going on in society. Non-Christians are not the target of discrimination in this country… at least I have never heard of any such discrimination. Most folks that I work with and talk with are non-Christian, or at least, nominal Christians who like to hold on to the title without any practical evidence of their faith. They are all highly successful people who do not feel discriminated against in the least.
Steve Ransoms last blog post..Creativity is So Much Phun!
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I think you’re reading me a bit legalistically for a comment thread. The elections were in America, but I certainly didn’t intend (or expect to be interpreted to mean) “all Americans.”
Here’s a Gallup Poll showing US voter willingness to vote for several categories of people. Gays are second to the botton, with 43% saying they would not vote for them. At the bottom is atheists, whom a majority (53%) of Americans polled said they would not vote for.
Google will show you many more results like that.
The good news? Catholics, Blacks, Jews, Women, Hispanics, Mormons, thrice-married divorcees, 72-year-old seniors, and homosexuals all got a majority “yes” response for president. Only atheists did not.
Makes me curious about how a Muslim candidate would fare. Too bad Gallup left that off.
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Steve Ransom Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Thanks for the clarification. I haven’t had my coffee yet
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
And I’ll stay away from the “real Christian” versus “unreal Christian” subject. Can’t see how anybody can be the authority on deciding that one.
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Steve Ransom Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Absolutely true that we are not the ones who should be the judges on that front.
Steve Ransoms last blog post..Creativity is So Much Phun!
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Barbara Saunders Reply:
January 1st, 2009 at 9:36 am
I grew up in a very Christian household. This line of discussion always intrigues me. I cringe when my liberal, secular friend demonize “Christians”, a position that I believe is often tainted with bigotry against Latinos and blacks. However, the subset of Christians I usually hear labeling this bigotry as “persecution of Christians” are socially conservative Christians.
Ironically, I hear these same socially conservative Christians attacking the socially liberal Christians as “not really Christian.”
The discourse around supporting or opposing Prop 8 is a great illustrative example. Many conservative Christians implicitly or explicitly claim the authority to strip Christian same-sex marriage law supporters of their stripes. Many secularists don’t bother with the precision in language that would prevent them from condemning “Christians” as “homophobes” or demanding that Christians be ashamed of their own faith, regardless of their social beliefs.
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No. 29 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:03 am
I’m in highschool and so I’ve never really experienced racism of the magintude that you’ve described. I’ve been told plenty of times that racism was a big part of the south, and there is minor racism in school. But the overt racism of the fifties and sixties was something that I had no experience with. It was just something I read about in my history book. Your personal story makes that different. Now I have something more to go off of that isn’t just the statement that the south was racist. Thank you for sharing. This article has helped me to understand the depth of segregation in a way that a textbook couldn’t.
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Clare Reply:
November 14th, 2008 at 3:11 am
My bad. That should be magnitude in the first line.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Thanks for that, Clare. Seems it’s bubbling up all over the place now, but hopefully among an ever-smaller minority.
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No. 30 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:08 am
In my prespective I think that, everybody has a little racist in them. For example: I know this black guy he is always making fun of white people how they eat bologne and a white boy who makes fun of black beacuse they eat too much chicken. Some may take it to personal and others don’t.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:01 am
E, don’t you think jokes among friends is a different thing than wanting to discriminate against (or do violence against) other races?
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No. 31 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:09 am
I thought the growth and change which you went through was inspiring. It shows how a person’s opinion can change from a personal experience. Many racists I think have never experienced what it’s like to be a minority, to be shunned from society, to be truly different. If they did they might not be so quick to judge others. You give me hope that perhaps the aspect of some of the south can transform into a society based off of character and not skin color. Thank you for writing this blog.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Laura, thanks for the excellent response. The election shows, we hope, that each generation really can lose the hateful habits of its parents’ generation.
When you reach your forties, like I have, I hope you have some “living history” to reflect on too
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No. 32 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Hey Clay. I am an 11th grader who attends Bishop Dunne High School in Dallas, Texas. I just wanted to say that we read you blog in class and I thought that it was very interesting and informing as well. I enjoyed it very much and I look forward to reading your work again, in the future.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Bobby, thanks for that. Hope to see you around in comments. Students are people too
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No. 33 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:14 am
I am currently a student who has read your story and I am touched by it. I myself have never experiencd being around racism so I can only imagine how hard it must have been. I just can not believe that people once used to think like and most of all, that there are still people who think the same way today. Thank you for opening up your personal life to us.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Thank you too, Beth.
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No. 34 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:17 am
Whats up Mr. Clay your article is very informative and gives alot of insight and really gives the reader alot to think about. It makes the reader really look at them selves and make sure that there thinking is right. And if it is right are you doing the right thing. It also teaches me how it is wrong to judge others and that next time I look at someone that is a diffrent race then me dont look at there skin but there personality.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:06 am
David, I hope you can one day live as a white person in a non-white country that, um, isn’t too crazy about white people (that’s my situation). It gives a whole new angle on things.
That doesn’t mean I had to move here to outgrow my racism. I did that while still in the South
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No. 35 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Your article was inspiring to read. It makes people think about what all they have done in their lives. It makes you regret dicriminating against somebody. Its wrong to judge someone by something so little. We all should think twice when we are about to judge someone. Obama is probably in the most danger of his life right now then he has ever been but I admire him for continuing on to become great. He is an inspiration to African Americans especially men all over the place.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Jordan, let’s all hope Obama escapes that danger. There’s a rise in internet sites calling for violence against him. The irony is that these anti-democratic poor losers think they’re being patriotic by calling for violence against the man voters elected. That’s not patriotic, and it’s not democratic: it’s criminal.
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No. 36 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:23 am
In Christian relationship class we read this blog. I thought it was very interesting because it showed how other people still judge and discriminate the people of color or other races. I think this blog can make others realize that something needs to be changed. Change is what we need.-Obama!
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Cristina, thanks. Not only this blog, but everybody can make others realize that racism and other forms of discrimination are wrong. I just read a study about how people don’t stand up against bullies because of peer pressure (and how bullies actually stop bullying when people do). That’s how we all can help things change: by standing up.
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No. 37 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Hi Clay, I thought your story was inspiring. It shows that your attitude about certain things can change when you have a personal encounter with it. Im glad to se someone have an open mind about racism. It brings hope. Thanks
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:14 am
Lauren: “Become the change you want to see.” –Gandhi.
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No. 38 — November 14th, 2008 at 3:38 am
I am a high school student at Bishop Dunne and I would like to thank you for sharing your life story with us Clay. I found your blog very heartfelt and interesting. I hope that your life experiences can help people realize the way that are treating people around them. The way that racism is today may not be as obvious as it was then, but it’s still in society and your story can help many people. I hope more people can read your blog and feel as inspired to live their life better. So once again thank you Clay.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Mary, like I’ve said to others in your class, change starts in the mirror. But I’m sure you know that
Thanks for the kind words.
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No. 39 — November 15th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Clay, thanks for sharing your experiences which is something that i lack. Simply put, i don’t know how it feels to be discriminated against, and the thing is i’m a minority! I’m a Hispanic, Mormon young woman who thought that for most of her life racism was a dead problem. Now because of the Election of 2008 racism has risen as if it was hiding under a blanket waiting for it’s chance to redeem itself. Sure having a black president gives me hope that Mitt Romney might hold that position, but it also makes me fear for my life that i too will be a target. So yes it is shocking that there is this sudden rise in racsim (and gun sales). It sickens me that people use racism as an excuse for hatred. All the “ism”s in the world are logical fallicies within themselves planted into the human mind psychologically. that is why i think racist people lack an education and should see the video you suggested (Jane Elliot is a genius!) So Clay thank you for sharing your experiences, for it spread that word that we should stop this nonsense. Many thanks Clay.
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Clay Burell Reply:
November 18th, 2008 at 5:16 am
Hi Carol,
I’m glad you haven’t experienced any discrimination yourself, but surprised too.
The thing about this election is that it seems it was decided on the ability to communicate ideas. If Romney can do that if he ever runs for president again, I hope people listen.
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No. 40 — November 20th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Ok, so I’m not quite as old as you are. I’m 42, but my husband is 45. I am a typical American girl: my mother is some fraction of Native American, Irish, Welsh, English, and other white stuff; and my father was Dutch, Germain, and Scots Irish. I live in Oklahoma (three years). I am astounded at the amount of racism that is prevelent here. I don’t want to get started. Anyway, when President-Elect Obama won his bid for the White House, many of the children (15-17 year olds) freaked out. Many because their parents told them that he wouldn’t even make it to the White House. Some received text messeges regarding the election ranging from tasteless jokes to actual threats on the newly elected president to be. I spent every class period the day after the election calming these kids. Many had been told that Obama is the Anti-Christ. We did quite a bit of fact checking that day. I am glad that I had technology in my classroom that allowed for my students to see what I was looking at (I have a SmartBoard).
We have been studying non-fiction books. I generally choose Elie Weisel’s Night and Art Spiegelman’s Maus I (both about the Holocaust). This topic gives me a lead in to discussions about racism and genocides. This year the presidential elections demonstrated the need for discussions of real topics in school.
Thank you for your post.
Patricia
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No. 41 — November 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I was there for the moments at Elbert Long School. I’m in second row far right of first picture, seated next to Coach Moser in second. Like Clay, I learned the same lessons about skin color from the same 3 teammates he mentioned and a coach that he didn’t name. It could be why a locker room can be such a sanctuary for so many. A sanctuary but way more religious than church because half the people in the locker room aren,t faking it.
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No. 42 — December 8th, 2008 at 11:12 am
[...] Blogging (a la Barbara Ganley) when Alan Levine at CogDogBlog wrote a post identifying my “Portrait of the Teacher as a Good Young Racist” post as an example. (What’s the old joke about the person who learns the definition of [...]
No. 43 — December 10th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
[...] sides of the aisle.Daughter of slave votes for ObamaAmazing. tags: politics, inspiration, raceA Portrait of the Teacher as a Young Racist | Beyond SchoolVery thoughtful, honest article about evolving attitudes about race, from a personal perspective yet [...]