It鈥檚 8 a.m. I reach for my cell phone to turn off the alarm, and I notice an email from an unfamiliar name. Turns out, it鈥檚 a middle-aged white science teacher and self-described motivational speaker from New York City.
He just wanted me to know that I鈥檓 a 鈥渞acist.鈥�
As an African-American woman who has lived and taught in the most blighted and dangerous areas of the South Side of Chicago, I鈥檝e never been called a racist before鈥攃ertainly not by a white male doctor.
(As a professional courtesy, I鈥檓 withholding the Good Doctor鈥檚 name. He has a right to his own opinion, and a measure of privacy.)
He had read my recent op-ed in Education Week, entitled , and he joined the small chorus of white teachers upset at me for asserting that, to varying degrees, some teachers believe the racial lie that whites are inherently superior to blacks.
鈥淚n 15 years I have never worked with a teacher鈥攂lack or white鈥攖o make a racist comment mdash;toward any ethnicity,鈥� he wrote.
Apparently, the Good Doctor believes that only people who make 鈥渞acist comments鈥� at work can hold beliefs of racial superiority (or inferiority) toward others.
In the shadow of the recent church killings of nine blacks at the hands of a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina, Education Week invited me鈥攁long with the Dean of Harvard鈥檚 Graduate School of Education, a UCLA professor, and two other distinguished 糖心动漫vlog鈥攖o write an op-ed answering this question: Are there steps the K-12 community can take to change the current narrative around race?
My thesis was simple: The first step teachers can take to rid America of racial injustice is to self-assess to what extent, if any, they believe the racial lie. For example, if you would teach black children, but no-way-in-hell live next door to them, you probably believe the lie.
You see, I have this radical view that teachers are just as human as anybody else, and that we sometimes give ourselves a pass because, after all, we鈥檙e overworking, self-sacrificing teachers. I founded the nonprofit because I鈥檝e discovered that even the most well-meaning 糖心动漫vlog sometimes fall subject to universal human failings, including . Teachers need healing too!
Little did I know that my op-ed would set off a firestorm of controversy. While the majority of the feedback I got was supportive, a few 糖心动漫vlog wrote comments like this:
... the leading cause of the huge disparity in social statistics for Blacks: a ballooning out-of-wedlock rate resulting from irresponsible/promiscuous sexual behavior."
Recalling 'white flight' of 20 (more like 30), years ago really has no relevance today. The only thing that this type of rhetoric does is to reinforce the negative and mistaken opinions that some Blacks have about society today."
If you are going to throw that kind of visceral indictment [that some teachers have low expectations for black students], you better have some empirical evidence, and [Marilyn] doesn't have any..."
Forgive me, but, for the purposes of a short opinion piece, my life as a black student and now teacher in a poor, racially isolated inner-city community was the 鈥渆vidence.鈥�
I鈥檓 sure the Good Doctor is a great, charismatic guy, but he left me speechless when he informed me of my 鈥渧ictim mentality.鈥�
鈥淢s. Rhames, what the mind believes, the mind achieves,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淚 am waiting for one of my black colleagues to write an article pointing out how they do not see a need for racial definitions...鈥�
His words are the perfect illustration of 鈥攔ace doesn鈥檛 matter; race is neutral and has no historical context.
Good Doctor, racial injustice is not merely a figment of black people鈥檚 collective imagination. It was the chains of our enslaved ancestors, and the handcuffs that disproportionately incarcerate African-American men today. It caused the whites to flee when blacks moved into the neighborhood, and it has no interest investing in the ghetto. It caused the bloodiest war in American history, and it keeps scores of Americans clinging to their beloved Confederate flags.
My sincerest apologies if my op-ed assigned blame to my white colleagues. Guilt will never lead to racial unity, and shaming was not my intention. In fact I wrote, 鈥淪adly, some [blacks] have internalized the lie and have surrendered any will to defy it.鈥� I challenged ALL 糖心动漫vlog鈥攂lack, white, and in between鈥攖o look within themselves to squash the racial lie before for expecting others to do it.
To combat racism we first have to acknowledge it, not minimize it as a negative frame of thinking. Only then can we see just how much the insidious lie of white supremacy/black inferiority has permeated society鈥擧ollywood, the news media, Wall Street, the judicial system, and, sadly, in the unjust systems of education. Once we see the injustice, we can find strategies to end it.
So the question remains: To what extent, if any, have you鈥攄ear teacher鈥攂elieved the racial lie? He who is mad at the question is just afraid to answer.
*This commentary was originally published in Education Post.