This lady is a teacher, and such terms should not "slip out". If she said this "unknowingly" in a seminar, what other types of things is she saying in the classroom to impressionable?
Happyout, I "hear" where you're coming from....even if she's elderly somewhat, in a publicly responsible position of authority where she is mentoring schoolage children, she should certainly have examined the content of her discourse and edited in a more thoughtfully considerate way....on that I definitely agree. Perhaps her ability to do so was "out to lunch" if she is somewhat elderly, and the school authorities took that into consideration when applying discipline in this case....
To be perfectly honest with you....and I rarely speak of these things for fear of giving unintentional offense and I'm probably going "out on a limb" by posting this....my family had a black woman who worked for us when I was small.....and to me, as a small child, since she was called "N..... Mary" by the rest of the fam....that's what her NAME was to me, without any consideration in my mind or heart as to her race or color.....
And when I was in the first grade, my older sis took me downtown to the library on the city busline....segregation was still in effect, ergo, black people were supposed to sit in the back of the bus.....while I was somewhat aware of this as a fact of life, I didn't understand the "why" of it....consequently, when we got on a crowded bus heading for downtown and the only seat left after my big sis rushed to get the last available seat in the front of the bus, I took the only seat available to me in the bus....right behind the back door...next to a huge black man, who began to sweat profusely when I sat down next to him....my older sis began glaring and hissing at me to move, but I just looked at her like "DUHH!" and kept asking her "WHYYYYY?" She wouldn't answer me, so I didn't move....I really couldn't see any reason why such silliness existed anyway, so chose to ignore it......
Had I been aware of the civil rights movement when it came, I would have probably been right in the middle of the "We Shall Overcome" demonstrations.....but I was too busy being a self-centered, irresponsible young teenager.....
I do remember the books and movies, "Little Black Sambo" and "Song of the South" and others, as well, which have since been banned as disrespectful of black Americans.....I've never understood that.....to me, they were rich in fantasy and folklore.....stories to be treasured, for even at a young age, I was an avid reader....and I never viewed them as a slur against the black race....I loved Uncle Remus and his tales....and I loved Little Black Sambo's adventures.....I miss them, though I hated to see the way Uncle Remus was treated.....and I find it confusing that the book Little Black Sambo was banned for depicting his name as "black", yet in America today, black Americans (and I have yet to understand why the insistence on defining the color of an American when red, yellow, pink, beige, white, brown or black...Indian/Native, Asian, Irish, French, British, Italian, Polish, German, Norse, Hispanic or African of descent, we're ALL AMERICANS) insist on being called black- or Afro-Americans. If everyone in America followed this example, we would have Red, Yellow, Pink, Beige, White, Brown AND Black Americans, History, Beauty contests, etc. ad infinitum.......at the same time, I *know* there are those die-hard racists all OVER the place, of ALL different colors, races and backgrounds, and yet, I do understand the need to show special respect in some people's cases....and the need to verbally "slap down" others for their hard-line racist attitudes......just wish it wasn't necessary, either way.....
Frannie B (of the run and duck for cover class)
