Child 1: "I've had all Black ladies for teachers, until this year."
Child 2: "Me too."
Child 1: "This is my first White lady teacher."
Child 2: (Gasp) "Oooooo!" (with the increasing, hitch pitch tone that indicated someone's in trouble)
Child 1: "What? Mrs. Culp is a White lady!"
Child 2: "Hey! I'm telling!!"
Child 2: (to me) "Mrs. Culp! Jamontae called you a White lady!!"
Class: "Ah!" "What!" "Hey!" more "Oooo's" Some students were mad and rushed to my defense: "You can't call her that!"
I waited a moment for the kids to calm down. "Students . . ." A hush fell over the class. The kids were on the edge of their seats. Whispers were passed from student to student, everyone looked shocked at the accusation that had been flung at me!
"It's okay. I am White. I'm a White lady."
The kids were just silent . . . and most looked confused. "It's okay to see the differences in people, we just want to respect the differences in people, also." The class seemed pleased enough with that. Everyone went back to work on their state research projects.
Crisis averted: Mrs. Culp is officially White.
However, the whole this got me thinking. I had seen this before - students sometimes do not race their teachers. Well, at least they don't always see me as a race. I mean, obviously some of them were outraged at the prospect that I was white - I mean, they've seen me before. It's pretty clear I'm a White gal. There is nothing racially ambiguous about my blue eyes, freckles, and pale skin. But, not only do my students not put me in an automatic "White lady" category, but why don't they? That's the questions. Why was it offensive, in some of my students' eyes, to call me White?
I think that my kids think of White teachers (specifically teachers in this instance) as teachers who do not have themselves together, do not have good classroom management, perhaps are jerks or "the man", and who don't have a good relationship with the class. This may come from different limited experiences with White people, media, family, police, many different things. So since the students see that "she don't play" when they come to my class, some of my kids figured: "she must not be White" (on some level). Our school is 100% Black, and so is the community and neighborhood, so their exposure to a variety of races and cultures is very limited.
Now let me say we have about 6 White teachers at our school, and 4 of them are excellent teachers, with great relationships with their students and wonderful classroom management. The other two teachers don't really seem to have it together, but that can happen with any teacher. It's not like all the Black teachers are automatically great at working with urban student populations, either. Which again, (I know this is getting long - but just stay with me here) got me thinking.
I have said this before, but the behavior and lack of understanding of the school system and the sometimes lack of value for getting an education is not a race thing. Just because a student population is Black or Latino or whatever doesn't mean anything in terms of behavior and a focus on education. It is the culture of poverty that often conflicts with school culture and the social norms associated with education and propriety. It is the cycle of poverty that needs to be broken in this community, not a specific ethnicity or cultural heritage.
We should be able to talk about race without getting weird and "hush-hush" about it. It's okay to acknowledge someone is Black, someone is White, someone is Native American, etc. If we are afraid of these differences, what does that say about our thoughts and opinions of other cultures? Some of my students were afraid to call me white, because in their eyes, that is negative; these 5th graders are children who still have growing and learning and maturing to do. I have seen the same from adults, which is disheartening, and frankly, sad. "Well, he is a (voice lowered) Black man." We need to be able to have conversations about race and culture. We should be able to see differences, and then respect them, and even cherish them.
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