I completely agree. Steve. I think I should qualify most times I’ve seen it aren’t in the classroom setting. I’ve had friends admit to doing it to their kids, but as much as I’d love to intervene and stop it, there are certain dynamics here where a non-Black person intervening in how a Black parent parents is subject to a much higher level of scrutiny. And calling the police here after Freddie Gray in 2015 about how a Black parents treats his or her kids comes with significant racist connotations. I’m also aware that if parents are doing it in public, the extent to how bad it is in private is probably much worse.
I can probably give it up to my own cowardice and inaction, but in a predominantly Black space as a teacher, I’ve been told this quite a lot of times: there are things Black teachers can do that I, as an Asian teacher, couldn’t even dream of doing for classroom management. I’ve been told that by both white and Black educators, and I didn’t know what that meant until I went into the classroom myself. I wrote about the issue more here, and this piece was subject to some pretty intense and warranted scrutiny in the comments. Would love to see what you think.
