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‘To be white is to be racist, period,’ a high school teacher told his class

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D

Dalek

Member
‘To be white is to be racist, period,’ a high school teacher told his class

imrs.php
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The lecture at the Norman, Okla., high school was intended to heal the racial divides, a student said.

The discussion’s premise: White people are racist. All of them.

Following that discussion, an Oklahoma teacher is under fire and a high school is mired in the debate about how teachers should inject themselves into controversial conversations about race in the United States.
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Norman NBC-affiliate KFOR reported on the controversy last week after receiving a recording from an offended student at Norman North High School.

In the recording, the teacher shows a YouTube clip about imperialism. A man in the video uses white-out on a globe to illustrate how European influence spread across the world.

The discussion follows.

In the recording, the teacher asks: “Am I racist? And I say yeah. I don’t want to be. It’s not like I choose to be racist, but do I do things because of the way I was raised.”

“To be white is to be racist, period,” the teacher says.

The offended student told KFOR in an interview that she felt picked on because she is white. The station didn’t name the student or the teacher.

“Half of my family is Hispanic, so I just felt like, you know, him calling me racist just because I’m white. … I mean, where’s your proof in that,” she said. “I felt like he was encouraging people to kind of pick on people for being white.”

“You start telling someone something over and over again that’s an opinion, and they start taking it as fact,” she said.
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The school district has not said whether the teacher is facing disciplinary action. In a statement, Superintendent Joe Siano said the conversation, while important, could have been handled better.

“Racism is an important topic that we discuss in our schools,” Siano said in the statement emailed to The Washington Post. “While discussing a variety of philosophical perspectives on culture, race and ethics, a teacher was attempting to convey to students in an elective philosophy course a perspective that had been shared at a university lecture he had attended.

“We regret that the discussion was poorly handled. When the district was notified of this concern it was immediately addressed. We are committed to ensuring inclusiveness in our schools.”
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Audio of the class here: http://kfor.com/2016/10/14/to-be-white-is-to-be-racist-norman-student-offended-by-teachers-lecture/
 
Tal Shiar Agent

Tal Shiar Agent

Member
All white people have privilege, but there isn't a direct correlation between privilege and racism. Racism requires an extra step, even a very small one.


At least that is how I see it.
 
S

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
I can understand that perspective. I doubt the self-awareness of basically anybody who claims to be so pure that they are completely above racism though, regardless of race.
 
M

metalslimer

Member
I think it's important to point out how much white privilege and supremacy play a role in a society but this is just a stupid way to point it out especially to young people
 
ThisGuy

ThisGuy

Member
Some people believe everyone is to some to degree. Might be easier to hear coming from the inside, to address what you believe are your communities issues.
 
R

RedHill

Banned
It's important to differentiate between inherent privilege and racism. Calling privilege racism gives your typical trump camp racists the "everything is racist!" card
 
G

guek

Banned
How about everyone has racist predispositions

Yes even you

You too

Oh, especially you

You though, you're alright
 
F

FUME5

Member
"To be white is to be racist, period"

"To be black is to be______, period"

"To be latino is to be ______, period"

"To be asian is to be_______, period"

"To be middle eastern is to be______, period"
 
ZiZ

ZiZ

Member
I guess it would depend on your definition of racisim. But you could argue that "To be human is to be racist".
 
L

lightskintwin

Banned
What he should've stated is that we live in a White supremacist society and taught a White supremacist Eurocentric education that affects ALL OF US, regardless of your race and it influences your subconscious and implicit biases.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
ZiZ said:
I guess it would depend on your definition of racisim. But you could argue that "To be human is to be racist".
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I think that's essentially what was being said. He was doing a variation of the "everyone's a little bit racist" line of thought.
 
E

Enzom21

Member
FUME5 said:
"To be white is to be racist, period"

"To be black is to be______, period"

"To be latino is to be ______, period"

"To be asian is to be_______, period"

"To be middle eastern is to be______, period"
Click to expand...

You should fill in the blanks for us.
 
B

Beartruck

Member
Should rephrase that as "To be human is to be racist, period." Everyone has some prejudice baked into them, even if they especially don't like that they feel that way.
 
I

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
lightskintwin said:
What he should've stated is that we live in a White supremacist society and taught a White supremacist Eurocentric education that affects ALL OF US, regardless of your race that influences your subconscious and implicit biases.
Click to expand...

The problem with this is that I feel whenever we continue to paint racism and prejudice as something everyone is capable of, the less people in a position of privilege feel they need to practice introspection.

While prejudice is certainly present in all races, only with white America does it cause damage to others. That's why it's necessary to stop generalizing and focusing on the real problem.
 
H

HP_Wuvcraft

Banned
SG-17 said:
All white people have privilege, but there isn't a direct correlation between privilege and racism. Racism requires an extra step, even a very small one.
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I always roll my eyes when one of my co-workers told me that it's okay to make racist jokes because all white people are racist.
 
finowns

finowns

Member
Assigning a trait to a race is itself racist but I think context is necessary he could just be talking about inherent bias.
 
K

Khaz

Member
lightskintwin said:
What he should've stated is that we live in a White supremacist society and taught a White supremacist Eurocentric education that affects ALL OF US, regardless of your race and it influences your subconscious and implicit biases.
Click to expand...

This is privilege, not racism.
 
F

FUME5

Member
Enzom21 said:
You should fill in the blanks for us.
Click to expand...

Personally I'm not into making blanket statements about an entire ethnicity.

I would even take umbrage at a statement such as "To be the predominant ethnicity in a particular society is to be racist, period".

ishibear said:
The problem with this is that I feel whenever we continue to paint racism and prejudice as something everyone is capable of, the less people in a position of privilege feel they need to practice introspection.

While prejudice is certainly present in all races, only with white America does it cause damage to others. That's why it's necessary to stop generalizing and focusing on the real problem.
Click to expand...

This is a ludicrous statement.
 
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