Mother says school work sheet is racist

The Intelligencer ^ | October 27, 2009 | CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC

[SolidWood]

When she was helping her son with his homework Saturday night, a Central Bucks mother noticed something that surprised and shocked her.

"I couldn't understand what I was looking at," said the woman, whose identity the newspaper has agreed not to disclose.

It was a work sheet called "Solving Equations using Multiplication and Division!" and it featured a photo of a black man wearing a straw hat, shirt and suspenders, with his mostly toothless mouth wide open. As if to underscore the man's stupidity, at the bottom of the picture was written, "No wai!!!"

The mother learned that her son, the only black student in his eighth-grade pre-algebra class at Lenape Middle School, was teased by another student when the assignment was distributed.

"One of the kids in the classroom turned around and said, 'Is that your father?' " she said.

"We are highly insulted and offended. We sent him to school to learn pre-algebra. He should be protected from this stuff, not have it thrown in his face...He gets enough (racial slurs) and negativity from the kids. To have the teacher encourage it?"

[...]

The boy's mother said she spent much of the weekend angry and in tears.

"It's very stressful to be an African-American in the community and you want to fit in and you want to embrace all of the things Central Bucks offers you," she said. "Who's protecting us here?"

Monday night, after meeting with the boy's family, NAACP Bucks County President John Jordan issued a written statement denouncing the events.

[...]

She plans to keep her son home from school until she feels as though it's safe to send him again.

[RexBeach]

That’s OK. We still love you!!!

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I would be angry too. And I’d want the teacher fired. But the NEA won’t allow even teachers like this to be fired.

The problem is that it is the TAXPAYER that pays these lawsuits eventually, just as it is other consumers that pay any reward that is given in trial-lawyer scams.

Everything is paid by the consumer eventually.

Offensive? Yes.

Worth a huge monetary payout? No.

[DemforBush]

You’re reading wayyyy too much into my post.

[aruanan]

The boy's mother said she spent much of the weekend angry and in tears.

Poor, misery pimp-deluded woman. The emphasis in the picture is on the mouf and the surprise, not the blackness of the mouf.

[aruanan]

Why would an image like that be on an Algebra sheet???? Highly insensitive and racist.

How in the world do you get anything racist out of that photo? Or insensitive, for that matter?

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I’m only reading what you wrote. In your own words, you are backing the mother on this one.

[paulycy]

What about this picture (stolen from another thread.)

Encouraging?
Condescending?
Funny?
Boring?
Politically Correct?
Neutral?

Why do you think that? Do you have to inject race into your decision making to figure out what you are going to say?

That's looking at the world through Politically Correct, Race-Colored Glasses.

All images are neutral unless they have words on them. You MUST bring your own experiences to an image.

What about the black guy with bad teeth? What if that is a treasured family photo of a beloved father who un-self-consciously makes jokes about his clearly misaligned teeth in good humor and would, himself, laugh at the math homework page? Would you allow yourself to see it as simply a funny picture if you were given *permission* by the person pictured? By a PC group like the NAACP?

The point is that we CANNOT detect racism from any picture, not even one with that particular caption. Maybe he's Jamaican and speaks (and spells) pidgin english. Then that spelling might be acceptable. You don't know. But you are scared.

The notion of racism comes from what is inside the viewer, not the picture itself. The picture is simply an image. You, the viewer, must supply the context in your own mind. You can choose how to view it, through race-colored glasses or not.

It would be much more fun and far friendlier to ignore all that PC crap and just admit that people are funny. Well, most people.... ;0)

[Darnright]

That picture is a textbook (pun intended) case of crass insensitivity.

[aruanan]

It’s offensive and it is meant to offend black people. That was its purpose.

How could you possibly know that? It could have been meant to offend mostly toothless people or people who can't spell or people who, by poor oral hygiene, insult the proud tradition of wearing straw hats and suspenders.

Or it could have been used to show surprise without any racial intent at all.

[Lee'sGhost]

If it’s true, it could be racist.

It is absolutely stupid.

[BenLurkin]

That is just plain revolting.

[windcliff]

Iron don’t make me laugh. This is a serious topic.

[Fetid Facts]

As others have said, such pictures have no place in math lessons. I'm guessing this worksheet is from a series of worksheets with pictures. It would be interesting to see the other pictures to put this one in perspective. As a stand alone photo, it appears to be inappropriate. However if the other worksheets have funny pictures depicting white people, exclusion of a funny black man could be considered racist.

The real problem started with the other kid asking the black kid if the picture was of his father. My guess is that the little smart-ass would have asked the same question if the picture had been of Martin Luther King.

Any competent teacher would have realized such a photo could cause a problem in almost any middle school classroom. This one even ignored the issue when students complained. I hope the dunce is now happy with how things are playing out.

[Lazamataz]

I know you don’t agree. I stand by my perception.

[Mac from Cleveland]

If that’s the actual pic—I don’t really blame the mother -that’s just stupid—and totally gratuitous. Why the hell don’t they just teach math?—they usually err on the side of sqishy PC and that’s wrong but this is just offensive and dumb for no reason. If (as is more likely) they show a stupid “hillbilly” caricature, I’d feel the same way.

[airborne]

So if the picture was of a white man, it wouldn’t be racist?

Exactly!

[Mac from Cleveland]

To clarify, while I sympathize with the mother in being offended—I don’t approve of the drama and lawsuit sure to follow—the teacher is pretty damn stupid and needs at least an ass-chewing, and a short, sincere apology is owed the mother and kid, and then back to algebra.

[Fred911]

One black kid in the class.....and the teacher puts a photo like that on a MATH test???

A better question for you might be in what context would that photo be approriate for any class of children???? Is there something positive about that image that I am missing?

Lets put it this way. If I were black, and the only black kid in the class......it wouldn’t make me feel good. Yeah, I question the teachers motives.

[JenB]

By the way, Saxon Math books have **no** photos whatsoever. NONE! Why are these educators trying to be “cute” about mathematics?

I was wondering myself how Saxon managed to actually teach me algebra without any offensive pictures or pictures at all...

[iopscusa]

Thanks to the PC nazis, like a number of the PC polizee on FR, seems many have loss their sense of humor.
This dimestore thin-skinned victim of Wacizm crap is stale ans old....surely the Racebaiting Industry can get some new material! Looks to me that the mother needs to move back to the projects where she can be sure to have her self worth vaidated. Instead what we will see is the lefty white guilt take over and make a mountain out of a POS.