It’s been a week. The news that Darren Wilson escaped indictment for the murder of Mike Brown – given a head start by a complicit prosecutor – filled me with anguish the night of the announcement. That feeling still reverberates, with a force and intensity that can overwhelm.
With the grand jury decision imminent, my mind went immediately to the studentswho would be walking into classrooms on Tuesday morning. Teachers have a professional responsibility to address situations like Mike Brown and Ferguson in their classrooms. There are necessary and critical lessons to be taught on the interrelated topics of race, bias, privilege, stereotyping, criminal justice and social justice. Thankfully, there are teachers ready to teach this way – prepared to let their classrooms be a repository for their students’ fear and pain, hope and hopelessness.
Yet you can find plenty of teachers and administrators – from the seemingly good-hearted to the horribly misguided – refusing to hold these frank discussions. Whether running from discomfort or rejecting a Black teen’s humanity, these educators refuse to see the harm they are doing to students. Our children deserve teachers willing to create learning experiences that empower and equip young people to disrupt the order of things outside the classroom. That’s the kind of critical-thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills our students need. It’s the kind of lessons I have to believe were missing in Darren Wilson’s classrooms.
How does a 28-year-old man – only about 10 years out of high school – develop such a disconnection from and disregard for Blackness? In what can only be described as a macabre case of the absurd, Wilson now wants to teach “the use of force” to other people. A killer cop wants to teach other people to fear Blackness – to see Black people as “demon” and “it” – something other than human, justified to destroy. Some lessons are better left unlearned. It makes me wonder though what lessons Darren Wilson received growing up.
How many teachers aided and abetted Darren Wilson as he passed through the public education system believing it’s acceptable to “other” – dehumanize – Blackness? And how many teachers who right now reject teaching race and racial injustice are cultivating, nurturing and fostering growth of the next Darren Wilson?
If you’re a teacher and that thought gives you chills, there are a potpourri of resources for addressing Ferguson and racial violence in the classroom. If you’re a teacher and that thought doesn’t give you chills, find new employment.
With the grand jury decision imminent, my mind went immediately to the studentswho would be walking into classrooms on Tuesday morning. Teachers have a professional responsibility to address situations like Mike Brown and Ferguson in their classrooms. There are necessary and critical lessons to be taught on the interrelated topics of race, bias, privilege, stereotyping, criminal justice and social justice. Thankfully, there are teachers ready to teach this way – prepared to let their classrooms be a repository for their students’ fear and pain, hope and hopelessness.
Yet you can find plenty of teachers and administrators – from the seemingly good-hearted to the horribly misguided – refusing to hold these frank discussions. Whether running from discomfort or rejecting a Black teen’s humanity, these educators refuse to see the harm they are doing to students. Our children deserve teachers willing to create learning experiences that empower and equip young people to disrupt the order of things outside the classroom. That’s the kind of critical-thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills our students need. It’s the kind of lessons I have to believe were missing in Darren Wilson’s classrooms.
How does a 28-year-old man – only about 10 years out of high school – develop such a disconnection from and disregard for Blackness? In what can only be described as a macabre case of the absurd, Wilson now wants to teach “the use of force” to other people. A killer cop wants to teach other people to fear Blackness – to see Black people as “demon” and “it” – something other than human, justified to destroy. Some lessons are better left unlearned. It makes me wonder though what lessons Darren Wilson received growing up.
How many teachers aided and abetted Darren Wilson as he passed through the public education system believing it’s acceptable to “other” – dehumanize – Blackness? And how many teachers who right now reject teaching race and racial injustice are cultivating, nurturing and fostering growth of the next Darren Wilson?
If you’re a teacher and that thought gives you chills, there are a potpourri of resources for addressing Ferguson and racial violence in the classroom. If you’re a teacher and that thought doesn’t give you chills, find new employment.
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