Illinois teacher calls Jamaican students ‘n*gger’ after they object to ‘African-American’

[kpete]

Eighth graders Mea Thompson and Zaria Daniel told WMAQ that they were working in a Social Studies group with two other students at Jay Stream Middle School last Wednesday when the substitute teacher referred to them as “African-American.”

“All four of us that were sitting there got offended because none of us are from Africa,” Thompson recalled. I’m Jamaican. So we said, ‘Can you please not call us that?’”


“She continued to call us that and said, ‘It’s the politically correct term.’ Then she said, ‘Well, back then you guys would be considered the N-word.”

Thompson and Daniel said they were almost moved to tears by the teacher’s words.

“We were so shocked and we were like, ‘What? Excuse me?’” Thompson replied. “She was like, ‘Well, back then that’s what African-Americans were called.’”




http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/illinois-teacher-calls-jamaican-students-ngger-after-they-object-to-african-american/

[LWolf]

1. Substitute teacher.

Not teacher. Substitute. Kind of like babysitters.

I can't speak for Illinois, but in the states I've taught in, substitutes are not teachers. They don't have teaching licenses nor the education and training required to get one, unless they are retired teachers supplementing retirement income, and then their licenses aren't current. In a former state, a substitute had to have 2 years of college and pass the CBEST, which is a test of basic skills at about 8th grade level. In my current state, a BA is required, which is better, but they still aren't teachers.

A teacher who did that, in any state, district or school I've taught in, wouldn't be there long. And neither, thankfully, will this substitute.

I'm fortunate to have connected with a retired teacher; when I get pulled out of the classroom for some meeting or training that my district didn't hold over the summer because then they would have had to pay me, she comes in and I know my kids are in experienced hands who will take care of them well.

[3catwoman3]

5. Being a substitute...

...matters not one bit. This person is a racist idiot. Inexcusable.

[LWolf]

6. Yes.

The substitute is a racist, what she said was inexcusable, and she won't be returning.

What also matters, though, is accuracy in reporting.

Inaccuracy is also inexcusable.

[etherealtruth]

10. Without doubt ... tinker, tailor .... or substitute teacher

... they are a racist idiot! There are no excuses, no explanations!

[Louisiana1976]

30. Exactly. The so-called teacher is an imbecile. Who hopefully won't last long.

[Oktober]

2. I can't tell if the story self censored or if the teacher said "n-word"...

[ZombieHorde]

33. I can't either.

The headline might be lie, but the story is still sad, in my opinion.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Congrats to the Illinois School District.

They just got themselves another lawsuit.

[Sunlei]

4. Is the USA the only country that labels -some- school students by race?

[LWolf]

7. We don't

label them by race in our classrooms. At least, we shouldn't. Every public school, though, DOES have to track race, because racial sub-groups are part of high-stakes testing results. Still, that's nothing that a substitute "teacher" would have anything at all to do with.

[logosoco]

9. I was thinking that myself. What would be the circumstances for this even to be a thing?

When would a teacher refer to that anyway? Outside of it being on the students record for statistical reasons (and even then I think that should be fading out), what would the purpose be?
At any rate, it's good to hear the school won't be using this sub anymore.

[snooper2]

11. how come when a teacher does something stupid or even criminal they never release the name?

[melm00se]

12. Personnel matters are many times

confidential.

Depending upon which state you are in, that may be defined by state law.

[gollygee]

13. I wish we knew how this came up in conversation

because that seems strange.

Also, the normal way of responding would be, "thank you for letting me know." Arguing over what term someone wants used for themselves smacks of major entitlement.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. What an idiotic and racist thing for that teacher to say

But I'd like to know why the students would be offended being called "African American"? When has that term become offensive? Yes, I know a lot of blacks prefer "American" or "Black" but that doesn't mean african american is offensive.

[Nye Bevan]

15. Ummm... perhaps because they don't have African ancestry?

Similar to calling an Irish guy Swedish or Polish.

[GummyBearz]

16. Subtle difference

Calling an Irish guy "european american" would be a better comparison. And I wouldn't care too much as someone of Irish descent. Just saying this since consistency is important to me

[dilby]

17. Technically they are African Jamaicans

They do have African Ancestry just not American Ancestry. Similar to the Irish guy, Swedish guy and Polish guy are all Europeans.

[Catherine Vincent]

18. Could have fooled me

[REP]

19. Because they're Jamaican

While they're distant ancestry may be African (and really, if you back far enough, that's true of all humans), their recent ancestry and history is Jamaican. While many Blacks in America are can trace their ancestry through the revolting slave trade, not every Black person's history and national identity is from an African country.

While I cannot speak to the racial implications of a Black person being misidentified (aside from the obvious racism of using any form of a racial slur and the rudeness of not using the preferred identifier), I understand the annoyance of being assumed to be from a group you're not. I'm Welsh, look Welsh and have a Welsh name yet get assumed to be Irish. Of all the wrongs that were done to these students, that's the least bad - being called an ugly slur in even an euphemized form is unforgivable for an authority figure to do to students.

[Xithras]

21. The correct term would be Jamaican, or more generally Afro-Caribbean

If they're from the Spanish speaking parts of the Caribbean or Latin American, Afro-Hispanic and Afro-Latino work as well.

It's offensive to call an Afro-Caribbean an African American because the label is simply incorrect. It's like calling a person from Vietnam a "Chinese-American", and brushing off the offense because they all have the same Asian origins.

You'll find, though, that many from those regions don't use the qualifiers at all. In many of the islands and regions of the Caribbean and South America, the races are either so blended, or people of African descent are such an overwhelming majority, that there is no practical reason to differentiate between the two. Calling someone an Afro-Dominican, for example, makes about as much sense as calling someone an Afro-Kenyan. People of African ancestry make up 96% of the population in Dominica, so the people simply refer to themselves as Dominican. If you called a black Dominican an "Afro-Dominican", they'd probably laugh at you.

Jamaica, where around 92% of the population is of African origin, is largely the same way. While they're all technically Afro-Caribbeans, Jamaicans simply want to be called Jamaicans. "Afro-Jamaican" isn't a term than any Jamaican would ever use.

[Spider Jerusalem]

23. The clue is in the story: "Jamaican"

Shocking but amazingly true fact: there are black people in other countries besides the USA. Most of them aren't "African-American".

[NOLALady]

29. They said they were offended because they are not from Africa.

They are not from America.

They are from Jamaica, and they are about 13. Some teenagers are easily offended.

I am an American. I would not be offended if called a Jamaican, but I would correct the person.

[Initech]

20. Seriously is this 2014 or 1954? I really wonder sometimes.

[Nye Bevan]

22. Why would a teacher ever need to refer to students by their ethnicity?

I have never seen or heard of this happening before.

[etherealtruth]

27. That was my first thought

... why the eff would you refer to kids by race?

[Quackers]

24. I found a video of the local news interviewing the girls.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/10/28/substitute-teacher-uses-n-word-during-racial-discussion-with-students/

[ChazII]

25. Good for that mom

on taking being her daughter's advocate.

Several years ago my school had a special day in conjunction with Read Across America. We had parent volunteers come and read to the children in their child's classroom. The story that the parent read to my students were two of the Anasazi spider stories.

One of my boys told the mother that she was not pronouncing the spider's name correctly. She told him that she was from Jamaica and this was how they said the name in her country. My student (third grade) then told her that she was African-American because she was black and if you have black skin than you are an
African-American.

The mother stood up and in a beautiful voice rich with the Jamaican accent said, " I am a Jamaican not an African-American." She then dropped the Jamaican accent and told my student to not assume that just because a person may have dark colored skin that they are from Africa.

Like their mother, her children were very proud of their heritage and culture. They would also object if they were called African-Americans.

[unblock]

26. how did the subject of their ethnicity come up in the first place?

clearly they didn't volunteer an ethnicity or else the teacher wouldn't have gotten it wrong.

was it actually relevant to the lesson, and was there a real need to call out their ethnicity? maybe possibly, but rather unlikely.

dollars to donuts it would have been bigoted to lump these people together and refer to them by their ethnicity even if the precise term was not an issue.

[Louisiana1976]

31. I agree--I think calling out their ethnicity was unnecessary unless it had relevance to the

lesson being taught.

[JI7]

32. the shit in the OP and other shit that goes shows the need for affirmative action

[ZombieHorde]

34. Sad. nt