Last week a very good friend of mine posted on
her Facebook page the following message, “....my baby got called a n*gger today at
school....I hurt because I can't take away his hurt :-( Some people's kids...”
Karla Hall, 2012). She received 92 comments about her post.
The comments were very interesting and insightful for me to
understand the ramifications that word has on the African American communities.
I felt so bad for my friend Karla and her little man. Karla stated, in one of
her comments, that she remembers the day she was called that, as a child, down
to what she was wearing. As a White
middle-class citizen, there is nothing in my life that can ever compare to sentiment
expressed on Karla’s status. The teacher’s
reaction was to tell the other child not to say that. I believe that was a very minimal
reaction. The teacher needs to do some
educating in cultural respect and tolerance. I felt do helpless as I cannot relate to the
situation or give her guidance or suggestion to help her through the pain. I did tell her she should contact the school
to see if they are going to implement any special curriculum to help the
children learns how words can hurt, and any other relevant topics which could help
prevent such behavior in the future. Parents
and the teachers need to take action to ensure the children are educated and enlighten,
on the topic of cultural respect.
3 comments:
That is just terrible, and the sad part about it these children catch on so quickly to inapproapriate music and or conversations they hear other people say. do you think she should have a conference with that family?
Wow! That is so sad. I teach many African-Americans and I hear them call each other 'Nigga' on a daily basis. It makes me cringe because just changing the 'er' to 'a' doesn't make the word any nicer. Fortunately, I have never heard a student of another race use that word towards an African-American.
Whenever I hear them using the word I try to talk to them about why it's wrong. Many don't understand and really don't want to listen to an old white lady. I wish that word and all variations of it would become obsolete.
The world need to teach children to love, despite difference, because we are teaching them to hate, through actions. That N word is specific to African American culture, because it became a label, and we further disgrace ourselves by calling each other that, knowing that children pick up on it. It not right either way, when it is used as a hate symbol, and it is not right when it is used as a greeting amongst individuals. Kids are suffering because of ignorance that is embedded into their culture.
I do not allow my children to say that word at all and if I ever caught them using it, I would wash their mouth out with soap, and it makes the African American culture look ignorant when we use it as a greeting.
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