One microaggression that I experienced this week was in relationship to racial microaggressions. I am a third grade teacher at an elementary school in Arizona. The school that I teach in is not very diverse. The makeup of the school I teach at is about 50% Hispanic, 40% African American and the last 10% other. When I was reviewing their morning work this morning, I had almost every student raising their hand. I called on one student and one of the other students yelled out, "your racist". This was very upsetting for me because I am far from that. I felt very judged when the student told me that. Even though it was a young student, it was still very upsetting. Every other student in my class disagreed with her and continued to say that I have never acted that way at all. It was nice to have the rest of my class back me up, but it still was very hard to hear one of my students say this. I had a talk with that student one-on-one about why she made that comment. She said that she feels that she never gets called on and that is why she said it.
My observations this week allowed me to step back and really focus on the positive and the negatives in the different situations. I did not realize that there were as many stereotypes on individual people as there are. The stereotypes are also not all visible, there are several that are "hidden messages".
Wow Chelsea, That might have been really hard for you even though you were able to find why that child was feeling that way. On the other hand, stereotypes are every where and some times people just don't realize what they are doing or saying until something happens. It is so important for us to become knowledgeable and keep an open mind about the concept
ReplyDeleteWhen you talked with the child did you get a sense that they understood the meaning of the word racist or were they repeating something they had learned somewhere else? Not only is this an example of microaggression but also how stereotypes and bias are developed at young age.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Betsy
Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteChildren can be very blunt. The child probably believes you are a racist because of your race, not your teaching style. In the African American community, many parents teach their children that white people or other people are racist against African Americans. This stems from past behavior, beliefs, and conflicts. As a result, you have to address racism in the classroom. Furthermore, I understand how you perceived the comment as a microagression.
Chelsea, I am so sorry you are experiencing this. I have heard a lot of Middle school students say that a teacher is racist because they give good grades to white students and not blacks or something ridiculous like that. A lot of what they are saying is stereotypes that they have heard at home. I hope that you and the students can move past this. Great example.
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea, I am sorry that you had to actually go through this. It really sucks that people can be so cruel. Every student earns there grade. So, the person who yelled that out I believe had to be jealous of the other student. I love the example you gave and I hope that you never have to go through anything like this ever again.
ReplyDeleteWow, I think that its amazing how students automatically assumed you were racist because you called on one student. I can understand how that would make you feel because I had to deal with someone calling me racist before and it was very upsetting to me as well. I am glad that your observations from this week help you focus on the positive and negative things this week. I enjoyed reading your post.
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