May 18, 2003
A nasty little bigot.
J. at Silver Rights points out a story about a Seattle high school teacher who repeatedly called one of his students a "nigger." This was in response to that student referring to an assignment as "gay." Can you say "disproportionate response?" Even I, who am not around adolescents at all, know that a teenager calling something "gay" is hardly worth consideration, much less punishment. That this moron thought that using the offensive, racist term "nigger" was an appropriate response just proves beyond any possible doubt that he has no business in a classroom. Any classroom.
Unfortunately, the bigot is probably not going to be fired. It's his "first offense." Probably won't be his last, though. Were I a parent with a child in that school, the idiot would be fired or I would pull my kid from the school.
And the less said about the bloggers who have actually defended this bigot, the better.
Feh.
Update, May 23, 2003: See my entry for today for a correction.
Posted by Frank at May 18, 2003 9:57 PMI do agree that "n*" is an violent and racist term(and the teacher should be punished), but I think its just falling into the status quo to not at least argue the fact that both terms are offensive and violent. In different ways, granted. But why are we so quick to accept phrases like "that's so gay" as teenage (or workplace, or church, or music, or yuppie, etc...) lingo?
I just think that calling something "gay" is worth consideration. Can I at the same time condemn this teacher for his racist remark and praise him for being the rare person who sees the violence in phrases like "that's so gay"? (of course, I don't think the article makes clear whether he was offended by the student's terminology or the student's dislike of homework.) But, I think its safe to say that I could do both. Some gay people just think they can't be racist because they are also oppressed.
Posted by: Yvelle at May 20, 2003 5:45 AM