Black Enough to Teach Black Kids?

[wlotus]

In Charles Barkley’s book “Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man”, Barack Obama recalls a few college professors asking him, “Man, why are you pretending that you’re not smart?” Obama continues, “And coming from black professors, especially, that was important, because I couldn’t throw back at them, ‘Oh, you don’t understand.’”

Looking back at his own educational experience, Obama concludes, “That’s a big part of the reason it is so important to have black teachers, especially black male teachers. I’m not saying exclusively, but in many situations you need someone who can call you on your stuff and say… that it’s not ‘acting white’ to read a book.”

~ From "Understand?", by Will Okun
(http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/understand/)

Will Okun, a white teacher, asked his students to write whether they feel black teachers are more effective with black students. Half of his students said race made no difference in effective teaching. Half of his students vehemently disagreed, claiming white teachers give up on black students faster, don't understand where black students are coming from, etc. Will said while it frustrates him to think his race hinders his efforts to reach some of his students, he sees where there is a racial disconnect when they study certain topics.

I see the points and recognize the validity in all of them. But in my experience, the race of the teacher is unimportant, so long as they do not limit their thinking based on their race. For example, black teachers with a "Black people don't do that!" mentality about certain subjects or activities are just as harmful to a black young person's development as white teachers with that attitude. Since black teachers are human like the other black people with that mentality, I have to believe there are plenty of black teachers with that mentality. They just aren't called "racist" when they express those views to black students, while white teachers are.

All black people do not have the same experience, so putting a black teacher into a classroom does not automatically mean she or he will connect better with their black students. For example, I know nothing about living in poverty and violence, because I did not grow up in a poor family or violent neighborhood. But make no misake: I am black. Check my userpic. :-)

Anyway, having a black teacher who could speak to those issues from experience would not have helped me understand my math- and science-intensive curriculum any differently, would not have encouraged me to shine academically rather than pretending to not be as smart as I am, and would not have made any difference in my above-grade-level English and composition abilities. I suppose it would have been nice to have seen dark skin and curly hair (or dreadlocs) on my engineering school professors, but their whiteness and Asian-ness did not cause me any problems. Cousins from Africa were my advanced math and science teachers in high school, and I don't recall being any more able to relate to them than I was able to relate to the white woman who taught my AP Biology course or the white man who taught me Calculus.

Perhaps for some black youth, having black teachers makes a huge difference. It didn't matter to me, and I don't remember thinking as hard about the race of my teachers as I have thought about it while writing this post! In short, I learned because I wanted to learn, and I worked hard because I had goals in life, which included getting and staying OUT of the inner city environment I went to high school in! :-)

What do you think?

Comments

[verucas-chaos.livejournal.com]

Being an educator with teaching and administrative roots in urban education, this topic is of great interest to me. As a white teacher, I know had positive academic impact in the lives of my students who were predominantly black. The evidence is their ongoing academic success and contact with them as they grew up. The same is true for me as a principal. To the students, I always thought I made a difference. When I got puzzled by my impact was when I was told by not so few folks that, while I might have had an impact on the learning of children, never (yes I was told never) would that impact be meaningful in their lives because of my race. Further I was asked about my own philosophy on how children learn and was accused of being Eurocentric in my thinking. I got angry at first, then I ruminated on it. I asked myself what truth there is in that thought. I asked myself how in the world could I answer the question since I am not black and never will be. I asked the persons involved to define their definition of Eurocentric. While not correct, they said I only understood white, middle class values I found it interesting since I am a child of poverty from another culture in the US that believes otherwise (I was raised in West Virginia).

In the end, I chose to believe I was a good teacher and that I have impacted many children's lives...period, no qualifiers. I also chose to leave the urban setting because the sentiment of the adults was unyielding at the time. I miss the setting and, if I weren't so darn close to retirement, I would go back because I think they are wrong.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

It's a shame there were so many naysayers howling in your ears. Yet some of those same naysayers would probably howl about the lack of passionate, caring teachers in those schools!!!! Such ignorance...I cannot fathom it.

I'm glad you were able to come to terms with things in your own way, even though you ultimately decided to leave. I'm also glad that while you were there, your students had a GOOD teacher. Period.

[verucas-chaos.livejournal.com]

The most interesting part for me is that, at least as socio-economics go, I was more similar to the urban students in the school than the folks hurtling the criticism. Mostly they were brought up in upper-middle class environments. So while they were racially similar to the students, they were very far from their class upbringing. Food for thought.

Thank you for the complement!

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

The words "narrow minded" and "hypocrites" come to mind!