Is this a thing in Texas or something? Am I missing something?
Are there regional racist slurs that go on?
Not regional but common enough in The south (including Texas) that you don't live in this region and not know that that word is racist and inappropriate. There is no way you as an adult of her age and not have heard it used by some racist in a context that makes it VERY clear that it is a slur.
Why would you automatically go there? What about this teacher makes you think she deserves the benefit of the doubt?
White people are ALWAYS GETTING THE BENFEFIT OF THE DOUBT and that's why we are incapable of having useful conversations about race in this country. After the Sands posts and the MMM idiocy yesterday, I have exactly zero fucking patience for this benefit of the doubt bullshit. DO BETTER, PEOPLE.
I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I don't reserve that only for my white friends.
Some people don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Not a teacher who decided to use this word for her classroom nickname and required her students to recite it every day. Regardless of what that nickname is, the teacher better know what it means. Ignorance is not an excuse.
And, this isn't about how you as an individual give everyone the benefit of the doubt. It's how our society gives white people the benefit of the doubt, time after time after time on issues like this. Either the teacher is a racist pig or she has chosen not to educate herself on the history that affects 60% of her students. Neither is acceptable.
I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I don't reserve that only for my white friends.
No.
Check your privilege on this.
If this was a male teacher who called a group of female students "the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Skanks," and then tried to pretend he thought skanks was another word for skunks, how would you react? Would you give him the benefit of the doubt? Or would you be rightfully outraged?
I would react the same way. Although I do think this is a bit apples and orangish.
I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I don't reserve that only for my white friends.
Some people don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Not a teacher who decided to use this word for her classroom nickname and required her students to recite it every day. Regardless of what that nickname is, the teacher better know what it means. Ignorance is not an excuse.
And, this isn't about how you as an individual give everyone the benefit of the doubt. It's how our society gives white people the benefit of the doubt, time after time after time on issues like this. Either the teacher is a racist pig or she has chosen not to educate herself on the history that affects 60% of her students. Neither is acceptable.
To be fair on the recitation thing, some districts make you do dumbshit like that, there might even be a script. Even if it was Mrs. ____'s Dream Team, reciting stuff like that is creepy, IMO. I have giant idiotic posters I have to keep in my room, thankfully, no recitations.
I lived in Texas for 10 years as an adult, and I have never once encountered this word IRL. I knew what it meant, but only because I learned after that idiot news anchor used it on air to describe Lady Gaga's music a while back. I had no idea it was commonly used, in Texas or elsewhere.
But, of course, if you have never heard a word before, then you don't use it. Which means this lady had heard that word. And it seems like it would have been apparent from the context she heard it in that it is not a nice word, even if she was not 100% sure of the meaning. So either she knew or should have known.
I come from a different place. I am a minority female. Kudos to all of you who thought I was white. I was in the military for almost 13 years and I had a white girl accuse me of cheating off her on requirements we needed to do to test for E4. We told our stories and my chief told me he believed in me and even though that bitch was a good liar, he gave me the benefit. ME. She caught herself up in it and got in trouble. The whole situation was wrong, I thought for sure I was done. I wasn't. I think bc someone gave me that benefit, I am reluctant to take it away from someone else if I don't know the whole story.
Post by bugandbibs on Sept 1, 2016 15:41:33 GMT -5
I have never heard this slur before.
So, I wouldn't choose it as a class name. If someone suggested it, I'd Google like I do everything else. No passes from me. Would this teacher accept "I didn't know" from a student about missing assignments, etc? I'd be all over the school board.
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I come from a different place. I am a minority female. Kudos to all of you who thought I was white. I was in the military for almost 13 years and I had a white girl accuse me of cheating off her on requirements we needed to do to test for E4. We told our stories and my chief told me he believed in me and even though that bitch was a good liar, he gave me the benefit. ME. She caught herself up in it and got in trouble. The whole situation was wrong, I thought for sure I was done. I wasn't. I think bc someone gave me that benefit, I am reluctant to take it away from someone else if I don't know the whole story.
You are making this about you.
This teacher is a racist who used a racist word. Period. There is no benefit of the doubt to be had here.
I come from a different place. I am a minority female. Kudos to all of you who thought I was white. I was in the military for almost 13 years and I had a white girl accuse me of cheating off her on requirements we needed to do to test for E4. We told our stories and my chief told me he believed in me and even though that bitch was a good liar, he gave me the benefit. ME. She caught herself up in it and got in trouble. The whole situation was wrong, I thought for sure I was done. I wasn't. I think bc someone gave me that benefit, I am reluctant to take it away from someone else if I don't know the whole story.
I don't see how this is analogous. That was an accusation. It is not like an unverified source accused this teacher of saying that word, and she is claiming it's an outright lie. We know for a fact that she used a horrible racial slur. You don't do that accidentally.
I honestly think this woman is just extremely stupid. Considering the stupidity that is displayed all across GBCN every day, this shouldn't require much suspension of disbelief. She would be right in line with the other "I'm here and listening and learning" crew.
Post by RoxMonster on Sept 1, 2016 15:54:04 GMT -5
Yeah there is no benefit of the doubt here. Either: 1) She came up with the name and if so, she gosh damn knew exactly what it meant and is a horrible, racist person. Or 2) She let the kids come up with/vote for a name, had no idea what it meant but just went along with it which is STUPID AS HELL for a teacher to do.
I used to let my students pick team names for random review games we'd play, and after one too many inappropriate suggestions like "Master Debaters" (never anything racist, just usually sexual innuendos), I just started naming them things very plain and boring. Too bad, so sad, kiddos.
So no. Either way you look at this is awful, and I have a really damn good feeling what happened was #1 above and not #2.
Post by irishbride2 on Sept 1, 2016 15:58:49 GMT -5
Obviously the teacher is a racist idiot.
But where the hell were her supervisors? Someone else saw this name and didn't think to do anything, Team lead? Principal? COME ON! There are more racist morons here.
Post by sporklemotion on Sept 1, 2016 16:10:15 GMT -5
I have never heard the word used EXCEPT in a racist context. I could maybe see giving her the benefit of the doubt if she had chosen a term that is a common word but also could be a slur, but this word, as far as I know, has no other meaning.
Not really the point, but I'd argue that juggalo would've been inappropriate for entirely different reasons. so yeah, Google should always be consulted first.
I don't understand why someone, even a racist, would choose something like this, but that's a separate issue. Aren't team names usually aspirational and corny, like Dream Team, or locally inspired (our Middle School does things like local sports team names)? What positive message could this possibly have?
Post by junieolive on Sept 1, 2016 17:03:44 GMT -5
This is nonsense. Even if she didn't know, which I don't believe, how do you not look up the meaning of the word? I teach high school and I constantly Google slang terms that I don't know because i refuse to not know and allow students to use them in my presence without knowing what they mean, and lecturing them about racist, misogynistic or inappropriate terms until they understand why I won't allow them to use them, and why they should be ashamed that they used them in the first place.(sorry about the run-on sentence.) As an elementary school teacher you should be as careful, if not more so. This is unacceptable and she should be fired. There should also be a shit ton of professional development on racism etc at this school, because even if she didn't know, someone in that school knew and let it go on.
I come from a different place. I am a minority female. Kudos to all of you who thought I was white. I was in the military for almost 13 years and I had a white girl accuse me of cheating off her on requirements we needed to do to test for E4. We told our stories and my chief told me he believed in me and even though that bitch was a good liar, he gave me the benefit. ME. She caught herself up in it and got in trouble. The whole situation was wrong, I thought for sure I was done. I wasn't. I think bc someone gave me that benefit, I am reluctant to take it away from someone else if I don't know the whole story.
You are making this about you.
This teacher is a racist who used a racist word. Period. There is no benefit of the doubt to be had here.
This teacher is a racist who used a racist word. Period. There is no benefit of the doubt to be had here.
[br Yes you are right, I did make it about me and my experiences. I do not typically do that but honest to God I simply thought the word was about clowns and thought if I could make that mistake, anyone could. Oversimplified that was not justified.
Is she racist? Maybe not, but she's at least an idiot, and I have a hard time believing she's really that big of an idiot.
There are three possibilities of where she got that name. 1. Her class voted for it, and she approved it not knowing what it meant. No pass, because you NEVER allow students to use a word you yourself don't know. or 2. She created the name, having heard it, but not really knowing what it meant. Again, no pass because even if she somehow just thought it was a name for goofing off or some other crap, it's not an uplifting name for a class. This is also the least likely scenario.
Or 3, she knew what it meant and hoped no one else would.
I don't really care, honestly. What she did was racist. Whatever her intent, it was still racist.
Is the word just a Texas/southern word? I'm from Massachusetts now living in Ohio and I've at least read the word, although I've never heard someone say it.
Post by cookiemdough on Sept 1, 2016 17:44:38 GMT -5
It is one thing to hear a word and not be clear of the meaning. It is something else completely to actively select it for a particular purpose. Of all the words where you DO know the meaning, why choose something where you don't? How does that happen? Oh man, I am tired of being the Olympians!! I know, I know lets be the jigaboos. I have no idea what it means but it sounds supercalifraglisticespialidocious!!
I did not know what the word meant either. I honestly always thought it was like a group of fun and sporty like clowns. I don't think I am ignorant or stupid, sometimes your mind doesn't always go to bad places. Words can mean one thing to a person for their entire lives and be entirely harmless and mean a truly offensive thing to another person. I am sure she will never think of using that word again. Unless she is a racist pig, then all bets are off. If she was unaware and thought it meant something else, time to teach, teach. The school should be vetting.
I had to google the word. I have never used it.
In this case Google is your friend. There is no way a TEACHER would use a word that she did not at least have an inkling of the meaning or intent behind it. NO...WAY... Or she shouldn't be a teacher. No wide-eyed ingenuousness can explain away the use of THIS word. She had to have heard it, and in deciding it was something she wanted to use in class, she should KNOW the meaning. And GOOGLE is not hard.
Hell, I was looking up words in PAPER dictionaries when I was in sixth grade. I read the dictionary my senior year of high school as test-prep. We didn't have Google to make shit like this easy. And yet I knew, by high school I'm sure so without even a college education behind me, the word and the context in which it has been used. It has ALWAYS been a racially charged word. I don't even like "juggalos" because (to me at least) the two can be confused or conflated.
Basically, best case scenario she let a group of 6th graders suggest a name, didn't know what it meant and chose it anyway. Which means she's an idiot who shouldn't teach 6th graders because that's like the first thing I would expect 6th graders to do and I've never taught a day in my life. Pick a name that's inappropriate in some way and see if the teacher knows it, then laugh at how dumb she is behind her back.
Either she's a racist or a moron who has no business teaching or both. None of these things are worth giving her the benefit of the doubt for. She should be fired.
So when 13 year olds are sent to me for using inappropriate language and they tell me that they used it but didn't know what it meant/didn't mean it that way, I don't believe them (to be fair, it is usually in the context of calling someone an inappropriate word/name).
I expect the adults educating those 13 year olds to know better than that.
That's just awful. Racists and terminally stupid people (or, I should say, terminally stupid racists) are everywhere, and even though I'm not surprised, I'm sad they're in the classroom too.