RACIALLY INSECURE


The HBO series “Insecure” has cultivated many discussions. More recently, the subject of discrimination has been highlighted in a most creative way. We see the standard example of workplace discrimination in a black female lawyer who earns substantially less than her white male counterparts with as much or less experience and time on the job. I am interested to see where the writers of the show go with this storyline. On a similar note, they’ve included an additional example of discrimination that is not talked about too often in contrast to its lack of subtlety: racial discrimination in our schools.

Since this is a delicate topic, I want to preface this by saying that the example that I provide is my own personal experience and does not represent educators as a monolith.

Let me begin by providing the context for which I based this post. On the show “Insecure” the main character, Issa, works for a non-profit organization that goes out to the schools to provide various resources for the students. The character and her coworker, Frieda, were assigned a particularly challenging school in that it was overcrowded and teachers were not teaching in their certified content areas in order to make ends meet. Due to the lack of participation of students attending the program, Issa reached out to the vice principal for assistance. He is a black man. He asked the name of the teacher that she was working with, Ms. Alvarez, and said that he would get on it while also commenting on the overcrowded school and joked about building a wall to control the population. Strike one. Now let me inform you that Issa is a black woman and Frieda is a white woman and the VP said this in front of both of them. Frieda was visibly upset and wanted to report him while Issa just shrugged it off. They were then given a black faculty advisor and the number of student participants willing to work with the program increased significantly.  On another occasion when walking through halls after school, the two women heard the VP tell students at their lockers that they are not to speak Spanish while in school and to save it for the bus. Strike two. Finally, on another day Issa approached the VP afterschool to thank him for helping out with the program and he said that they have to stick together especially now that the school was filled with taco meat. Strike three. I’m interested to see where the writers take this storyline as well because they spent so much time on it.

Unfortunately, this happens all too often and I have dealt with it myself less than a month ago with a good friend of mine. I don’t recall what prompted the comment, but she said that she told a student of hers who was speaking Arabic in class to another classmate that she is to only speak English in class and that she won’t get very far in the country if she doesn’t. This comment burned my biscuits. I immediately told her that she couldn’t say that, she was wrong, and that it was discriminatory. She’s a realist and believed that she was preparing the student for the harsh realities of the real world, but it didn’t come off that way. My friend is a non-white non-black minority and I wonder if that is the reason that she got away with it. I wonder had she been white or black if the student would have reported her. Either way, in my honest opinion, it was an abuse of authority and she had no right to say that to her. I asked her if she was teaching at the time the student was talking or if the student was being disruptive and she said no. So I asked her what the problem was? These students could have been reviewing the lesson in their native tongue to make better sense of it. She gave the impression that she didn’t like not knowing what was being said. That’s not fair. Even telling the student that they won’t get far in the country without speaking English is damaging.

What is my point in saying all of this? We have to be mindful of what we say to our students. We must keep our personal biases personal and not bring them to the school because we have such a significant influence on these young people and we are shaping them and influencing their choices for tomorrow. I was intentional in not saying that these individuals are racist because discrimination and racism are not the same and I see that the television show is highlighting that as well. Always remember that the way that we treat our students today is how they will treat us tomorrow. - Tweet this!


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