Reddit Teacher's Racial Realizations
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
197.1234
Summary
Reddit post about racism in the classroom and how to deal with it, by a teacher who is having a hard time dealing with racist students, and a post from a woman who is dealing with racism in her own classroom.
Transcript
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Hey folks, it's the Shameless Sperg. Hope you're all doing well. Saw something going around on
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Telegram today. Just wanted to read it. You know, I talk a lot about race and there's so much to
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talk about. But of course, one of the things that's become increasingly a problem has been,
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you know, issues in the classroom. And a lot of teachers are going through an absolute nightmare
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over it. So let's hear from Reddit slash advice from a user routine crew 8651. My students are
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making me have racist thoughts and I am really worried about what that means for me. Uh oh.
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Let me, 26 female, preface this by saying that my parents raised me in an environment where they
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promoted acceptance and inclusivity of all kinds. Hey, me too! Growing up, I was always pro-immigration.
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I had and still have friends who were people of color. I even dedicated a large portion of my career
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to help first-generation university students, international students, and students of
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underrepresented backgrounds from all over the world. It's rewarding. I, myself, was an international
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student and still struggled, although I grew up more privileged than 99% of the international
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students I've known. It has all backfired in the last three to four months, and I'm worried about
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I began a new job some months ago, lecturing at a university preparation program in Europe. The
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students are essentially students from countries where they did not get an equivalent high school
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diploma and have to do this preparation program to qualify for bachelor programs. They are mainly
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from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Egypt, Algeria, and Nigeria. 90% of them are guys, and the ages are
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usually between 17 and 22, so most of them are legal adults. Since I began, there have been so many
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behavioral issues. I'll bet. I've worked previously as a substitute teacher in a European troubled middle
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school, a teacher's assistant in the U.S. for quite a few years, and as a lecturer in some private
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universities and professional development programs around Germany and the Netherlands. This includes a
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similar prep program that I taught in for one intake, which lasted around 10 months. It has
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never, ever been this bad. Not even half as bad. I have not been able to finish a single sentence of
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lecture since I began. Believe it. Believe it. I get talked over by a lot of the students. They will not
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shut up. I've tried raising my voice, yelling, silently staring at them, sitting down and not doing
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anything, removing them from the class, telling them that I won't teach until they are quiet,
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nothing, literally nothing works. Okay. Sorry. It's just, you know, that's just, that's 37 years of
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experience and fatigue. That's, that's laughing right now. Some of the students have also called
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me names, commenting on my dressing, body weight, tattoos, hair, you name it. They've also called me
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broke for my job, which is far from true, but still completely unacceptable. They cheat on their
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attendance and lie about everything. When I've confronted them in the past, I was physically
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intimidated by them and pushed into a corner and screamed at. I have seen countless clips just like
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that. Countless. You know, this story is not particularly an outstanding story. It's increasingly
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very common. See, the, uh, the university intervened, sort of. They scolded me as well and offered training
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workshops to learn about cultural differences. Do you hear that, guys? Cultural differences.
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The cultural differences apparently being that in their culture, it's appropriate to put their
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hands on a woman. F that. I want no part of it. Sure, you want a part of it. You were always down
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for it. You voted for it. You probably called people evil who didn't want it. I know you're a type.
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The cultural differences apparently being that in their culture, did you not look into it ahead of
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time? You know, or when people like me would try to warn you, you would just call us phobic or
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whatever. You weren't listening. And then you're going to act surprised when this shit happens.
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You're going to act surprised. That's incredible to me. And it's just so exhausting. You know,
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I mean, I'm glad she's sort of kind of snapping out of it, but only just barely. And of course,
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you know, in many cultures, it's appropriate to do a whole lot more than put their hands on a woman.
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You know what I mean? And you know, we've tried to point this out, like, look how women are treated
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over there. You're a xenophobe. So she continues, um, they're messy. They drop trash on the floor
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and ask me to pick it up like I'm their servant. Yeah. Some of them have terrible hygiene as if
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they're five-year-olds. You bet. They think everything is up for grabs. Give me that. Give
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me that. They sure do. And have stolen my personal property before. But the university asked me not to
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tell anyone and replaced my belongings because they were worried about their reputation.
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That is how much the establishment copes for you people, for you non-whites. It's how much the
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establishment copes and covers for you. They absolutely do not want you to face any reputation
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damage for your behavior. And that's just one of infinite examples. And that's pretty a minor example
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rather of this issue. It's unreal. You know, I have never seen more excuses given, more passes given.
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I have never seen more shit covered up for people than for, for you folks, for you people of color
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and you immigrants and all that stuff. The level of coping that they do to try to cover it all up
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for your benefit. It's just astounding. And you're still so smug and you still have the nerve to call
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us oppressors. You call us privilege and all this other shit. And just look at that. So she continues,
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being treated like this hurts. I am not respected. That's for sure. I am not taken seriously. People
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tell me every day I'm a bad teacher. And in my previous jobs, I've had great teaching reviews.
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Just not with this one. I don't know. I know you might not know, but I do. The treatment is so poor.
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I'm starting to have really, really nasty thoughts about these people. Maybe you're having accurate
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thoughts about these people. You know, maybe for once you're listening to your instincts and realizing
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that instincts are not evil and these thoughts are normal. Maybe it's a part of your biological
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evolutionary instinctive immunity. You know, it's like an immune reaction to all this nonsense.
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It's, it's your, it's your body, your mind telling you, you need to get the hell away from them. And
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you do need to get the hell away from them. Nothing, nothing about this is natural. I'm thinking that
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this was going to work was the unnatural thing. So she's having these really nasty thoughts about
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these people. Oh no. I am hesitant to sit next to people like these in public transportation.
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Good. And generally avoid them because I worry that they will yell at me. Good.
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Avoid them. Yes. Touch me or just be mean. Yeah, they'll do that. I've looked at my student groups
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for the next semester and catch myself hoping for European or East Asian students instead. Gee,
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I wonder why, you know, it's almost like what we have to say about them is actually how it plays
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out in reality. It's almost like the statistical data that we have actually bears out in reality.
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You can see it in action and your instincts will tell you through observation and experience that
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it's right. That these horrible racist conclusions of ours are completely accurate. So yeah, of course
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she's hoping for European or East Asian students. Wouldn't you? Yeah, you would. Yeah, you would.
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Don't, don't even virtue signal like you wouldn't. And if you do virtue signal, it's because you haven't
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had to deal with them. Like so many of you people, I swear to God, there are so many of you people that
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are the loudest supporters of diversity and you're the loudest people to shame people like me. And you've lived in
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your upper middle class or beyond existence where in your neighborhoods, maybe you had a couple of
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like, well to do well to do ones, you know, some of the some of the good ones, the acceptable ones,
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you know, and that's been that's been the extent of your experience with immigrants and, you know,
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people of color and all that stuff is the cream of the crop, the pick of the litter, the the exceptions,
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the ones for whom the other 90% make look bad. Yeah, those are the ones you have experience with.
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Meanwhile, a lot of us have experience with the other ones. Most of them are not like that. You
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know, most of them are not well to do. Most of them are not well educated, well mannered. Most of them
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did not have, you know, it's just and I still have to hear it from people. Let's see. She continues,
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I have caught myself thinking that an Uber driver of a certain demographic is bad at their job and
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behaves in a nasty way just because he is of this background. You are thinking correctly. That is a
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correct thought. Congratulations. Not just because he maybe had a crappy day. He maybe had a crappy day
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because he is crappy genetics. I don't know. He maybe had a crappy day because he's crappy. You
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know, maybe he just sucks. I am starting to also lack sympathy for international students. Good! Which
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is what I wanted to dedicate my career for. What a waste. Don't dedicate your career for that. I catch
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myself hoping for a load of these two students to be deported. Oh my god, at the very least. And I'm
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hoping for the same. This is not me. Let it become you. Okay, you're gonna, you know, you'll do a lot
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better in life. You'll be a lot safer. You'll make better, more informed decisions. You won't
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keep navigating this life still believing, still drinking the Kool-Aid of egalitarianism,
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inequality, like we're all the same when we're clearly not. Yeah. Whatever these thoughts are,
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it's not me. It's me. It's definitely me. It didn't used to be, but it's definitely me. And I
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suggest that she get, she get on board and realize that it's best to just accept what her instincts are
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telling you and what her experience is telling you. I have no idea what to do. Get away from them.
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As they say, never relax. You know what I mean? Get away from them is what you do.
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So she has no idea what to do and she needs help before these attitudes bleed into her professional
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life. Please tell me what to do. Get away from them. Get away. Rethink your professional life.
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Reimagine how you could use your education and your skills in some way. What else are you gonna do?
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If you're gonna keep, if you're gonna keep doing the same thing, you're gonna keep dealing with the
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same people, it's only gonna get worse. Then you're gonna end up like me, you know?
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On YouTube, trying to navigate how to not get banned when you wanna just lay it all out there.
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Just incredible. Like I said, a lot of teachers are dealing with this stuff. You know, whether
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we're talking like over in the UK with all of their immigrants or in France, or we're talking
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Germany or Sweden, or we're talking every, every inner city in America, increasingly also
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even into the suburbs now. It's not even just the ghetto areas. You know, I, I, I just see a constant
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influx of, of stuff going on with teachers, with white teachers. And now they're getting to the point
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where, you know, instead of trying to mitigate a situation in their classroom, instead of trying
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to break up a fight, you know, they're just kind of walking off and just leaving. And I can't blame
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them. And it's for the best. And, you know, and I'm seeing plenty of situations where a teacher is
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just straight up getting sucker punched. And I'm like, my God, and these, these classrooms are a
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circus. They're a circus. I mean, they're, they're worse than a circus because at least some circus,
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like circus involves some sort of like forethought training or whatever. These people are just pack
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animals and they just, they just act ridiculous. The sheer chaos that they unleash in these classrooms,
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it's unreal. This is not me. Whatever these thoughts are, it's not me. It's not you. It's them. And that's
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why you're having the thoughts. It's them. You didn't do anything. You didn't do anything wrong. You're just
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trying to teach and they're not teachable. That's the point. They're not teachable. We keep trying to like
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apply standards to them, which, which we have historically applied to, you know, various European
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peoples, um, white Americans, things like that. We cannot keep trying to make them fit into a mold. They don't
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fit into. It's actually unfair to both of us. Like it's unfair to set up a standard for them for which
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they're not naturally suited. And it's unfair for us to be subjected to trying to have to do this or
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to even downgrade ourselves to try to help elevate them. It's not good. None of this is good. We just
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need to go our separate way. And you just know for a fact that if she were just dealing with Europeans
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in the classroom, none of this would be happening. Europeans and East Asians, she wants, she
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finds herself wishing for that precisely because she knows as do all of you that it would be better
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off. They're smarter. Europeans and East Asians are smarter. They are quieter. They are more well
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behaved. They are orderly. They are just a cakewalk to deal with compared to literally everyone else.
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Just wanted to share that story with you. I hope you all have a good one.