I never thought I’d have to deal with this, but here we are. It’s not common sense that racism is shameful and bad.
I teach a group of fourteen-year-olds who still think dropping the n-word is funny, but I can deal with those situations and made it pretty clear to them that if I ever hear it (or anything similar) in my classroom, they will have earned a ticket to the principal’s office and I will be talking to their parents.
However, there is a more complex situation that has been occupying my mind lately and I would appreciate your thoughts and advice.
A kid turned up to my class wearing ladder laced boots with white laces. (For those who don’t know, this means the person is a white supremacist, lace colour was/is used to showcase identity and can differ from place to place) It caught my eye when I heard her asking a friend if her laces were visible enough the way she folded the cargo pants she was wearing. I asked her if she was aware of the meaning of white laces and she said yes, but added that according to her skinhead friend, lace code was no longer taken seriously. I told her that while that is true, you can still get in a lot of trouble in certain places and that I do not want to see it on her again.
I also mentioned it to another teacher who immediately went and talked to her about it, but I feel like she is going to keep wearing the laces as a fuck you.
She wants to be cool and edgy, but she has no idea what shaky ground she’s on. She often makes racist remarks, but nothing that could get her into trouble so far.
I will stand my ground and speak to the principal about this if she continues wearing the laces, but very very few people know about their meaning so it’s not taken as seriously as if she wore a swastika or something similar. Still, I told her that if I know (and I’m not in those circles) then someone else will, too.
The bigger question here is sensitization, how I could not just enforce not showcasing racism symbols as a part of her outfit but to get through to her and the others who might think they are cool and edgy.
Thank you for reading!
/s?
You want a late 20’s-40 year old teacher to bully a 14 year old? There is no way this could go wrong.
Yes I do, racist ideology needs to be treated with contempt not with tolerance.
Say things like “wow you’re a real piece of shit”, " if that’s what you believe then I have no respect for you."
If you really hated racism, you’d simply beat up the child instead of coddling them with mere words. In fact, beating up the kid is a half measure that lets them potentially do racism again in the future. Better to behead the child in class to teach the others a lesson about what is and isn’t appropriate social behavior.
Realisticly the kid needs to be removed from the source of fash and reeducated, the parents investigated. Of course in our shitsack world that would harm the child immeasurably and we get the very liberal approach. Which is why we have all these goddamn Nazis running around.
It’s a child. You want an adult; a teacher or any person in a position of authority to bully a child. The kid isn’t some KKK grand wizard, they are an attention seeking dickhead.
If that’s what you want to say then I have no respect for you, and I hope you are either young or do not work with children.
Read the comment below from a teacher as to how to deal with teens who want to be edgy or attract attention. You don’t nip this behavior in the bud by acting like an ass. That’s how you get fired, and escalate the behavior by playing right into their hands.
They are seeking attention, from other fash. By wearing Nazi identifies they’re signaling to other Nazis they’re one of them. The kid knows all this per above. Tolerating it even a little is bad. I wouldn’t allow that kid in my class if in saw them wearing that shit after I discovered they knew exactly what they were doing. The parents allowing that is child abuse. This lib shit is why the us is the fash shithole it is.
