W
hat would you do if your child came home and told you that?
I only ask because Evan's English class is studying "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. I just googled it and the word "Nigger" is said 48 times in the book.Whatever.
The point is the teacher says "Nigger" or "N-Word". (I'm really not clear on which she says because Evan always says "N-Word" and I got tired of trying to understand that particular technicality of the story.) Then everyone in the class turns to look at Evan because he's the only black kid in the class.
Now, my personal opinion is that it's literature. If she's saying "N-word" when she means "Nigger" and every single person in the class school is reading (or has read) TKAM and the word nigger then WTF? It's stupid. Not to mention that this IS the south and "Nigger" is still used by some white people whether they are trying to offend or just referring to a black person and some black people use it as a term of endearment towards each other - a subject for another post when I'm PMSing or something...
Anyway, the point is that all these 15/16 year olds here have heard "Nigger" before. Or "Nigga", because they ALL listen to rap music. I hear it when they're blasting their radio in the Wal-Mart parking lot.Have I mentioned that I can't stand Political Correctness BULLSHIT? If you mean "Nigger", say it. See what happens. ;-p
Anyway, if the teacher is saying "Nigger" when discussing the book, it still doesn't bother me because she's talking about the book.
I asked Evan what he thought.
He basically said he didn't care if she said "N-word" or "Nigger" because she's talking about the book. He just wishes everyone would stop turning to look at him when she says it.
Evan - It's like they expect me to get up and start cussing the teacher out or something.
Me - Do you want me to go to the school & talk to the principal or the teacher about it? Or do you want to switch English classes?
Evan - No. I don't think I'd like the other teacher, and they're reading the same book and I'd still be the only black kid in there.
So...
If the only thing bothering him is everyone else's reaction to hearing "Nigger" or "N-word" then he'll just have to deal, right?
I was usually the only black kid in all of my classes until 7th grade when I started being bussed from my neighborhood to "the black neighborhood". I honestly never paid attention to it until I was 15 & moved here (to the south) and realized that racism was still alive and flourishing. I found this out when the first white boy I liked down here told me (basically) "I don't like you in that way, but my black best friend does." I thought "Oh, so it's not OK for me to like a white boy here?"
*sigh*
I don't know what I should do.
If anything.
Some shit you just have to learn to deal with.
If, on the other hand, it bothered Evan, I'd be there in a hot second to get the teacher fired for being racially insensitive or whatever the fuck. I might even get some money if I sued.
I could end up on Larry King!
OMG.
I should totally sue.
;-p
What do you think?
Just to be clear, I'm NOT asking if you think I should sue. I'm asking what, if anything, you would do were you in my situation.
I think I know the rough story of TKAM but I've not read it. I think raise the concern with the school if Evan is upset about it, but on the other hand I am the white English girl so I'm not exactly the person to be asking.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say, "SUE!" but then you cut me off at the knees.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I'm a white chick -- you probably haven't noticed -- so I'm struggling to come up with a word that would apply to me that would be extremely offensive. The only one I can think of is cunt. Is it okay to write that out? You'll edit it out if you want to.
Okay, so I'm going to substitute c for n. It would make me cringe every time I heard it. And if I were the only chick in a class full of guys who kept looking at me every time the teacher said it, I would want to drop the class.
I wouldn't drop it because I'd probably need it to graduate but I would dread going to class. I also would NOT want my mom to say anything to the teacher or the principal.
Han - That's what I think. He's not upset about the word, he's just irritated that everyone keeps staring at him.
ReplyDeleteCG - Great analogy!!!!!!! If I gave awards for comment of the day, you'd get it. :-)
Honestly, compared to the past few years when EVERY.SINGLE.DAY was a battle of "Can I stay home today?" this is fanfreakingtastic. I think as soon as they're done with the book he won't have anything to complain about AND he really seems to be enjoying school for the first time since 4th grade.
As long as no one says "I'm going to hang you n!gger" There will most likely be no problem. If it is used offensively against my friends or me, there will be trouble.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tricky one, because the word has taken on such heavy emotive values.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the teacher should not be censured for using it, because it is relevant to the book and the period of time in which the book was written.
It's a word that has many attached meanings, which vary as to who says it and in what context.
America can't just pretend that slavery and its associated ongoing injustices never happened. Burying the word won't make things right. The common vernacular usage, "nigga, niggaz" isn't going away, why, I wonder, is it okay when used by a black teenager, but not a white one? I think the word needs to be openly discussed, and robbed of its special status.
Cardiogirl's comment is a very good, strong talking point, I can see how opressive that would be.
I'm a white male, I can't think of an equivalent that would hold that power over me.
Evan - OMG. Just stay off "The Mountain" and you shouldn't hear that... ☺
ReplyDeleteSoubriquet - I agree that it should be discussed openly.
I find it interesting how many of my white friends get offended by the word when it doesn't have the same history for them as it does for black people.
It doesn't even have the same history for me as it does for my mother. She can't even stand anyone calling a black child "Boy" because it brings up all of that shit from the Jim Crow Law days.
I really never considered that there's no equally offensive slur for white men as there are for minorities & women. That would be an interesting discussion!
I was a skinny kid, asthmatic, not good at sports, and a target for bullies.
ReplyDeleteWords could hurt, if I let them. as time went on, I became good at using words to belittle and ridicule those who picked on me. Yes, they could beat me, leave me in a bruised and bloody heap, but I'd constantly set them up to be laughed at by others.
I survived it all.
Whereas there are no collective terms equivalent to "nigger" for white males, there are individual hurtful epithets, ones that can leave you bleeding inside, if you let them.
And that's the key. You can choose how you respond to words. You can give them power, bow your head to old insults, and whips that struck other backs, not yours.
If you do so, you give power to those who use the words as weapons.
Treat the word as a fearful thing, and you give it power, take hold of it, turn it in your hands and see it for what it is, just a word.
Your son is the kid in class who has darker skin. And the kids look at him to see how he reacts to that word.
I can't advise him, I've never been there. But he has no reason to feel any shame at Harper Lee's use of a word to depict dark skinned people who are not him.
What I can say, is that I sat next to the only dark-skinned boy in my school in England, and he was singled out for taunts, based solely on his skin colour.
Now he is a successful business man, and a city councillor.
And he employs some of those who once taunted him, and their children too.
What should you do? Well, the first thing you should do is go to the library and check out the book so you can know first hand what is being taught to your son. Until you do that, anything you think is speculation.
ReplyDeleteBut I know you won't do that, so...
To Kill a Mockingbird is a book written by a now dead but then young lady about your age by the name of Harper Lee. It is set in the Great Depression of the 1930s in Alabama. Someone who kills a mockingbird is a person who is a bully and kills that which doesn't harm them but only brings them pleasure through song.
The book only says that word when the white trash are speaking of the defendant in the trial. Otherwise, the black people in the story are referred to as "Negroes". The book doesn't say what the black people called the white people. I have a couple of guesses, though. Anyhow, that isn't the point of the book and the "N-word" as Even refers to it was incidental dialog which was the language used at the time by low class whites in Alabama. So don't worry. The book has been studied as literature for decades and generations of teenaged students have survived it.
For the record, the teacher had no reason to speak that word in class. It has no relevance to the story except for incidental background. The book is not meant to speculate on race relations, other than to present how they were in the 1930s matter of factly. If Evan's teacher thinks it is, then he has missed the point of the book. It is the story of 3 young children and how they spent one summer of their lives learning more about life than children perhaps should learn. The father of two of them happens to be a country lawyer who is assigned to defend a disabled black man against a rape charge by a poor white trash teenaged girl. Though he is blameless - indeed a complete innocent in all respects -the all-white jury convicts him anyway and instead of waiting for his appeal he panics and escapes jail. They shoot him dead in the attempt. To kill a mocking bird. Get it? Anyway, I doubt is Evan could care less about the book, as you say.
I'm sorry his classmates looked at him. I am more sorry the teacher used the word when it wasn't necessary and he or she was obviously trying to shock the class or teach a lesson the book wasn't written to teach.
You amaze me. In a respectful way.:)
PS - PLEASE don't cop out by getting the movie version. Read the book.
Max - I had to read TKAM when I was in High School. In fact, I still have the copy I got back then, 20 years ago. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe word nigger doesn't shock me or instantly make me want to fight the way it does with some people.
I was raised with the whole don't fight about something someone says, only fight in defense of yourself and only if they throw the first punch.
Honestly, having not been in the classroom when the teacher said "nigger" or "n-word", I really don't know the exact situation. I would have had to be there.
I am just glad my son didn't/doesn't freak out when someone else says things. Anything. I've tried to raise him not to fight about words. I think I've even told him not to fight if someone talks about me, like "Your mother is a whore!"
I really just don't want to make any trips to the school, LOL.
I'm lazy. :-)
Soubriquet - "I became good at using words to belittle and ridicule those who picked on me."
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I had to learn to do when I was in school.
We were a military family so I was the "new kid" every few years. I learned pretty early that if I had a quick comeback, people wouldn't know what to say. They also didn't want to be on the receiving end of my anger, LOL.
I am now known as someone who will "say anything". Not true, IMO. I'm just not one of those fake people who say anything to keep the peace.
1. Then why were you pretending you don't know what it is about? Arg!
ReplyDelete2. That's mostly because you are just a baby. Not old enough to have lived through those terrible times, and through the hot tears of humiliation and hopelessness. Thank God.
3. @Evan - If ANYONE ever says your mother is a whore, kick ass. Immediately. But I know I don't have to tell you that.
4. I remember you blogging a couple years ago about liking the white boy in school and not thinking anything was wrong with that. He was wrong. His loss. You were too good for him anyway. Maybe I said that already when you first posted the story. Doesn't matter. Bears repeating.
Max - I wasn't pretending not to know what the book was about. It just been at least 20 years since I read it.
ReplyDeleteI remember more of scenes from the movie. Like Gregory Peck taking off his glasses & shooting the rabid dog or Dill sneaking up to Boo Radley's house rather than scenes from the book itself.
To me this blog story that I told was about what happened in Evan's class. It could have been Tom Sawyer or some other book where the word "Nigger" was used, you know?
Evan - Don't fight about what any of the idiots you go to school with say about me!
I don't give a flying fart about what some teenager (or their parents/friends/shrinks) think about me. No need to get in trouble over an idjit.
Regarding the boy I had that crush on in HS. I've seen his picture on Facebook. He's gotten fat & bald. I feel much better about the whole situation now, LOL.
Angelika can I ask a question (waving my hand waiting to be recognized)
ReplyDeletewhat does evans' version of the book call the white folks? which if I remember reading an early version from the 60's it left all name references to the whitefolks out. thats certainly not fair in this point in time so lets modernize it with the help of YouTube.
so if the teacher looks at Evan and the rest of the class when she says Nigger, can he do a Richard Pryor and say Honkey, and if she says Nigger again; can he then say Redneck; and if she says it a third time, can he say Cracker ?
yeah I loved that Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase because it took alot of balls in the 70's to put that on tele.
maybe you should put it on cd for him to take to show his class so that when the teacher says Nigger he can hit play. that may give the rest of the class some new words to learn.
sorry but it's the redneck in me .. now deny that girlfriend.
Re - You & Max are going to make me have to read the damned book again! I don't remember how the book refers to white people.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the teacher looking at him when the word comes up, it's all the kids in class. I'm almost positive she DOESN'T look directly @ Evan when she says it because he has the "Don't fuck with me" expression down pat, LOL.
I remember that skit with Pryor & Chase. I still find it amusing. But I'd rather not have Evan take a CD of it to school & then get called up there to deal with the true rednecks, LOL.