Every now and then I hear a story, and I feel compelled to speak on behalf of some of the people mentioned. This case of a Flint, MI area teacher, who has been “disciplined” for an article published in the student paper, is one of those stories. Here is a little background:
Griffin was suspended Monday while the inquiry continued, then disciplined on Tuesday after another meeting with administrators, Stein said. A union representative was present, he said.
The article in the May issue of the Blazer included anonymous comments from students questioning the intelligence of blacks and expressing disapproval of interracial dating.
Some of the anonymous quotes accompanied an editorial by a student staff member who called those attitudes appalling.
In a retraction written for the June issue of the Blazer, the staff said it had good intentions and regrets the anxiety caused by the article and editorial. Direct quotes were included to ensure accuracy, they said.
“Our motive was to expose the hidden racism we saw in the comments students sometimes make to be funny,” the staff said in the retraction, released by the school district today.
“We felt direct quotes lended power to our arguments, and in raising awareness, we hoped to inspire more sensitivity. We understand now that we have been guilty of a similar offense.
I think the students, and by proxy the teacher, were right. Unfortunately, I don’t have the exact quotes in front of me, but it sounds very clear to me that the school administrators are punishing the messenger and blaming them for the fact that some students in the school are racist.
For the record, I do not know exactly what the quotes were, but if I were the school administrators, I would be worried that I had students saying and believing racist things. I’d be less concerned about the students reporting this. That doesn’t mean all news is fit to print. I get many comments that I feel are not worthy of letting through. However, someone could have the students discuss what comments are newsworthy, and they could also paraphrase statements minus graphic racist language. I don’t think they need to be punished. Also, paraphrasing has its down side it could santize the message and take away the power of the students’ arguments. Opposition to interracial relationships is still a prominent feature of contemporary American racial ideology, and punishing the messenger gives the appearance that the school board is trying to put the lid on racism rather than trying to address it head on.
It is difficult from the article to tell if the administrators were more concerned about how black students would feel after reading the bigoted comments or if they were more concerned about how it would make their school look. But if school administrators think that these types of comments are not made on a regular basis, they need to get real. Racial abuse is not uncommon in schools; bigoted remarks are also common. They may be said only amongst racial peers or close friends, but they are there nonetheless.
I can relate to these students and their advisor because these are the reactions that people get when they talk about race. I think people who don’t deal with race related issues on a regular basis don’t appreciate the vitrol that anti-racist writers have to sift through. People who have been around this blog for a while know that this site routinely gets hate mail, and some of those comments get through before I get to delete them. It is hard for me as a 32 year old professor who has a PhD in sociology and a specialization in the area of race to filter and approve comments. I’m sure that it is even harder for high school students and their teacher to tell the true story of racism without sanitizing it. Without denying it.
Should these students and their advisor be punished for exposing racism? Should we shoot the messenger or attack the message? I think we should attack the message without white washing it, and punishing the messenger only puts a lid ont he problem.
PS–What a weak union. I hope they did more than the article reveals.
If I had to make a guess, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the school administrators were concerned about sending a message that the school, as a whole, is racist.
I’m never going to forget how my high school newspaper was essentially shut down when our principal refused to allow an article that began with “[Our school] is perceived as being one of the most violent in [our town] BUT…” – because despite the fact that the article was meant to refute the perception, the principal was afraid that the mere mention would be enough to reinforce it.
I had similar thoughts when I read the story.
I don’t think it’s just in education. And punishing the teacher and the students in the publication does nothing to address racism and racist behavior in the school. I think they’re actually perpetuating it further, in part because their own feelings about how people perceive their school matter more than the students who have to live with racism in their school every single day. If these students’ feelings counted, then the school would be addressing the real problem. If there’s no reality or perception as they call it, then would there be any need to be concerned about “perpetuating” it?
But this is common behavior outside of education.
In law enforcement, for example, officers Black, Latino or White for example who report racism get punished either by other officers and/or management. Almost always, the internal affairs division will open or reopen investigations into misconduct as retaliation. I think in part, they figure that by doing so, they can discredit and thus “kill” the messenger. It’s not long before these officers are either forced to resign or retire for “stress”.
There was a Black officer visiting our office from the closest major city which has a law enforcement agency recently involved in a major controversy who said not to believe what his department said that things had changed, it was still racist to the core. And it treats its “messengers” the same way.
“We understand now that we have been guilty of a similar offense.”
WTF?
Being a person of color isn’t a choice. Being bigoted is.