Am I overreacting in finding administrator's remarks racist?

[adigal]

Hi,
I have taught in a rural school for a dozen years. Today was Opening Day, and the Superintendent make remarks, as usual, to the faculty. He tries to make his remarks funny, and personal, as opposed to professional or dealing with the school year. We all understand that.

Quick Demographics at my school:
Faculty 100% white - no Asians, African Americans, Hispanics, or Native Americans
Student Body - Some kids with Native Americans ancestors, two African American kids, two Muslim kids, a few Hispanic kids. The kids are very open minded, for the most part, about race, gender issues, almost every issue, in fact.

Back to the remarks. The Superintendent told us he recently visited a local city about an hour away from us. This city is about 60% white, and 40% African Americans, Hispanic and Latino. So he said he was driving in the city, and it was scary. (There were some shootings there this summer.) He said that the further they got into the city, the scarier it was. He then told us how his wife closed the windows and locked the car doors because they were so scared. Then he showed us a picture of a casket stuffed into the back of a car and said, "The people in City X are sure strange." My 100% faculty laughed and laughed!! I was steaming. I have felt like I was dropped on a different planet since I moved here a dozen years ago, and here it was again.

I asked a few people afterward if they thought this was inappropriate/racist. One or two agreed. Most laughed again, and said he wasn't being racist, it was a dangerous city, he was just being funny. I walked away mumbling about white privilege, and how it's easy to not be offended when you are white and live in a totally white community.

Am I being overly sensitive about these remarks?? I do INTENSELY dislike this person, so I am doing a gut check on myself here. And if I'm not, what do I do about this? I already complained to another administrator, but that administrator is below the superintendent. The Board of Ed wouldn't care. It sticks in my craw to just let this go by unanswered.

BTW, there is NO way I can talk to the Supt about this. He also dislikes me intensely. I called him a buffoon and he found out.

[jeff47]

1. It's a dogwhistle.

One of the "beauties" of dogwhistles is they are coded enough that the speaker may not realize the racism they are displaying. He literally may be thinking "city dangerous" instead of "minorities dangerous".

Or he could be covering his racism in an "acceptable" veneer.

[ryan_cats]

3. Dogwhistles are awesome

Dogwhistles are awesome, they allow anyone, anywhere to claim anything they want and there isn't any defense.

George Orwell would be proud people took the exact opposite out of 1984 than intended, why that's doubleplusgood!

[adigal]

14. I was thinking Dog Whistle, also. Everyone in that room KNEW who he was referring to

The "dangerous black guy."

[arcane1]

26. Exactly. I'm halfway through the excellent "Dog Whistle Politics" and you summarized perfectly

[procon]

2. At the least, it sounds like the entire staff needs some diversity training.

The clearly lack any local opportunities to interact with people who look and act differently than themselves. Mag suggest something like a multiculturalism program or exchange with other schools to expose everyone to a wider view of the big world beyond their local community. Good Luck.

[adigal]

7. Another woman who agreed with me went to a different adminstrator and said this exact thing

The whole damn faculty needs some diversity and sensitivity training.

HAHAHA! How funny!! Poor people putting a casket in a car!!! Crime!! HAHAHA!!

I hate where I live and work.

[adigal]

10. This is a great idea. But most of the faculty would be afraid to go anywhere else - really nt

[procon]

16. But that's the whole point of diversity.

The argument is more in your favor than theirs.

[Bucky]

4. Absolutely prejudiced. Racist? I dunno. It's not ideological, but it's certainly classist.

It's not appropriate to find humor in some communities having high crime & poverty statistics. Educators are in the business of compassion--by it's very nature it should be liberal, in the classic sense of open-minded and growth oriented.

I don't know the guy, obviously, but I kinda intensely dislike him too, now.

[Logical]

5. My friends from rural Nebraska are scared to drive to downtown KC. They think they will hear....

gunfire and people are killed nightly. They are not racists, I have known them my whole life. They are scared of their preconceived notions about big city crime. Local News covers shootings every time ones happens. It makes them think that the city is dangerous.
I would give the guy a break. He was out of his element.

[adigal]

6. But as an educator and an administrator, should he be saying this publicly??

Maybe he isn't racist. I'm sure he thinks he is. But in assuming a mixed or minority area is dangerous -isn't that racist, in and of itself?? And why on earth would he be so ignorant to even tell this story??

[Logical]

9. Well, if he said it only in private I would think he was racist. In public I think he would.....

try to hide it.

[pintobean]

8. I live in the 4th most dangerous city in America.

This city is dangerous, and there are plenty of strange people here. That's not racist, it's the truth. Why wouldn't some people be scared, especially if they don't know the city very well? It's not about race, it's about crime.

http://lawstreetmedia.com/crime-america-2015-top-10-dangerous-cities-200000-2/

[adigal]

11. Maybe because he used this to get a laugh?? The misfortune of others. And I do believe they locked

their doors when they saw a "scary black man," not a "scary white man."

This is a school administrator, remember. And this was a formal, Welcome Back presentation.

[pintobean]

12. Well, we joke about it too

black and white. We also lock our doors. It's a good policy since we often have car-jackings.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

13. I don't even get the joke

A casket in the back of a car?

Country folks always make fun of city folks. People around here tell you "If you want a good Italian restaurant go to Federal Hill in Providence, as long as you don't mind being shot in a mob hit". Is that bigoted? Probably, but a lot of folks here would blow it off and say it's not as bad a slamming a "real minority".

[adigal]

15. I guess it was to show us how strange the city people are?

IDK, I grew up in NYC, and don't get this humor either.

[procon]

18. Some Walmart stores and Costco sell caskets, and you can buy them online,

and lots of places with deep discounts. Once you buy it, you need to get home with the thing as best you can. I live in a rural area, and I wouldn't find it any more strange than seeing someone transporting a horse in the back seat of a convertible.

[Dont call me Shirley]

17. Yes. So is the common core crap they promote.

[femmocrat]

19. Let it go.

You should do nothing. This person out-ranks you and is an insensitive yahoo. You already complained to someone higher up. That is all you can do unless you want to see your job disappear. Doesn't matter what protections you think you have. They can find a way to reassign or furlough you, or worse if they deem that you are a trouble-maker.

[adigal]

20. Haha!! I'm already a troublemaker because I had to file a mandated report on a teacher once

It was swept under the rug. Welcome to rural America.

[femmocrat]

23. I worked in a rural district for 20 years (retired last year).

I have had my "experiences" with administrators who have never been off their block, if you know what I mean. I always amazed me that educated people could be so provincial. But they are.

[TeddyR]

21. Racist?

No. Ignorant, yes.

[adigal]

22. Why do you think that? In my mind, I was thinking that if one thinks that black people in black

neighborhoods are inherently dangerous, in the middle of the day during normal daily life, that is a racist belief. No? Why do you not think so?

[pintobean]

24. In the middle of the day today

during normal daily life, a woman was hit in the face with a stray bullet from a rolling gun battle.

The bullet grazed the a woman’s cheek as she walked down the street with her mother.

http://fox2now.com/2015/09/02/childs-cheek-grazed-by-bullet-in-south-st-louis/

[Matariki]

25. "Then he showed us a picture of a casket stuffed into the back of a car"

My 100% faculty laughed and laughed!!

I don't get that. Not even a little. What was the 'joke'?

[lunamagica]

28. I know. What was funny about that?

I don't get it.

[adigal]

31. I guess the joke was that the people in this city are so strange, they drive around with caskets

I don't know, I didn't see it as funny. My first thought was that maybe someone couldn't afford a funeral home and the hearse, etc. I thought it was insensitive at best.

[randys1]

27. Pure dog whistle racism

[earthside]

29. From what you have relayed ... No.

It sounds more like a rural vs city 'joke'

Country mouse and city mouse.

It strikes me as not in particularly good taste, but from what you have written I don't see it as racist or even classist.

Maybe 'regionalist'?

[still_one]

30. What was his point? There are areas in most every city that have more crime than other others.

Is he a racist? How would we know?

If you saw the movie "Bowling for Columbine", Moore discussed how the media constantly perpetuates an atmosphere of fear.

[adigal]

32. I was thinking it was that Dog Whistle kind of racism

The audience all knew he was saying how scary the minority city was. It was just weird.

And I show my students Bowling for Columbine every year, so at least they get it.

[yeoman6987]

33. Would average person be scared to drive through?

There are areas that are just dangerous and has nothing to do with race but economics.

[adigal]

34. No. I go there alone all of the time, through a poor area, to get clay

And I'm a 50 something white woman. No one has ever given me even a weird look. Why would they?

[yeoman6987]

35. Cool. Then we know it's for sinister reasons

Racism most likely.

[Skwmom]

36. I think what he said was extremely inappropriate. n/t

[cwydro]

37. What an odd story he chose to tell.

How in the world does one get a casket in the back of a car??? Caskets are quite large. How could he SEE the casket in the back of the car?

I saw a casket in a pick up truck in the mountains of NC years ago, but that was for a funeral.

Even if he did see a casket in a car, how is that even remotely funny?

I don't get the story at all, especially why anyone would find telling scary stories to children funny. Sounds like a weirdo to me - racist? I have no idea.