...I will one day be shocked (shocked!) by the use of an archaic term.
Posted on 11/18/2002 10:57:58 AM PST by marshmallow
AIKEN - Nick Hurshman looked forward to his 14th birthday party and a chance to see friends, most of whom he had known since kindergarten.
So Nick invited about a dozen of his buddies from St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic School.
Only three showed up. The others said their parents wouldn't let them come.
After the October party, Nick went home and cried.
That's the price Nick and his parents, Dennis and Regina Hurshman, say they have been paying since September when they sued St. Mary's and the Diocese of Charleston.
Their lawsuit alleges a white teacher singled out Nick, the son of a black woman and white man, during a class and said he is a "Negroid." The word is considered archaic and racially offensive, educators say.
The remark was humiliating, said Regina Hurshman, 40, a building contractor. "It hurt Nick so it hurt me."
The incident also has triggered a debate over who has the right to define a person's racial identity.
"They have stolen Nick's right to establish his own identity," said Dennis Hurshman, 53, an investigator and mediator of employee concerns at Westinghouse Savannah River Co.
The school and diocese have apologized for the remark.
In a letter to the Hurshmans, diocesan attorney Peter Shahid Jr. said the teacher "had misapplied the proper ethnic term to Nicholas without intended racial prejudice."
However, the Hurshmans have sued, saying their son has been harmed by the incident. They also charge the school and church retaliated against Nick after his parents asked the teacher be disciplined.
A GEOGRAPHY LESSON
The incident happened Aug. 27, 2000, about halfway through teacher Jean Cook's seventh-grade social studies class. The word "Negroid" came up during a lesson on the migration of people to North America.
In the 18th and 19th century, European anthropologists used "Negroid" as part of a system of human racial classification.
The term comes from the theory that races developed in certain regions of the world. That theory said "Caucasoids" were from Europeans, "Mongoloids" from Asia and "Negroids" from Africa, south of the Sahara Desert.
Some of Nick's classmates had never heard "Negroid" before and thought the teacher had used a racial epithet. They even apologized to Nick, the lawsuit said.
Stephen Criswell, a Benedict College professor who studies racial language, laughed when he heard "Negroid" had been used in a classroom.
"I was shocked because it's such an archaic term," Criswell said. "But it isn't used just because the word isn't politically correct, it's also incorrect science."
DNA research now shows the origins of all races can be traced to Africa, educators said.
"Negroid" faded from most S.C. classrooms years ago, said Charles Kozacik, coordinator of the S.C. Geographic Alliance.
"It's not an alien term or something people wouldn't understand, but it may not be in favor to use it at this time," Kozacik said. "I doubt we've ever used that term."
The Hurshmans asked St. Mary's principal Keith Darr to discipline Cook, but he refused. Later, school officials said the incident was because of an outdated textbook that Cook used, the lawsuit said.
The school referred all questions about the incident to the diocese. The diocese declined to make either Darr or Cook available to comment.
After lodging their protests, the Hurshmans say they noticed Nick's grades starting to fall. By the end of the school year, Nick - previously an "A" and "B" student - dropped at least one grade level in all but two subjects.
Dennis Hurshman, who holds two master's degrees, said he became convinced the school was retaliating against Nick because of his parents' complaints when Nick brought home "F's" on homework that Hurshman had checked.
Charleston diocesan spokeswoman Maria Aselage denied that. "At no time did the teachers at St. Mary's grade down this or any other students' tests or assignments," Aselage said.
'I'M TAN'
Another question, the Hurshmans said, is just who can assign a racial identity to their son.
Nick said he usually checks "other" when filling out information about his race because he doesn't consider himself either black or white.
"I'm tan," he said.
While the percentage of people who are biracial or multiracial is relatively small - about 2.4 percent in the United States - they represent a growing segment of the population, said Susan Graham, director of Project Race, based in Tallahassee, Fla.
"This is a terrible problem," said Graham, whose son is biracial. "We shouldn't let this happen to any child."
People like Nick should be able to identify with one race or as many as they wish, Graham said.
For example, Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry, daughter of a black man and white woman, identifies as an African-American. Golfer Tiger Woods, son of a black man and Asian woman, calls himself "Cablinasian," a mix of white, black, Native American and Asian.
In Aiken's Catholic community, people offer mixed reactions.
Some disapprove of the lawsuit and the Hurshmans' actions. They give the school the benefit of the doubt and believe the church would not knowingly do anything wrong.
Others, like Shirley Paige, a parishioner at St. Gerard's Catholic Church, a historically black church, thinks it's racist to even suggest a child's race.
"His race shouldn't matter," said Paige, mother of two teenage daughters and graduate of Catholic schools.
Added fellow parishioner Emily Lemme, "He's a human being. His color is not important."
The Hurshmans had picked St. Mary's because they believed Nick could use the religious grounding.
"As a biracial child, he needs a good, moral foundation because he's going to face things most kids don't face," Dennis Hurshman said.
But by the end of last school year, the Hurshmans had decided to pull Nick out of St. Mary's. They enrolled him at Aiken Prep, where he started eighth grade in August.
"It felt like the longest year I've ever been through," Nick Hurshman said. "I was glad to be going to a new school, but sad that I wouldn't be seeing my friends."
Aselage said the diocese attempted in "good faith, in every way humanly possible, to listen, investigate and resolve this matter."
But April Sampson, the Hurshmans' attorney, said she called diocesan attorneys five times and sent four letters seeking to mediate the dispute, but never got a response.
Friends had discouraged the family from taking on the Catholic church "because it's so powerful," Regina Hurshman said.
"This is my kid, and I don't care who they are," she said. "I don't care if I lose every dime that I have fighting it."
For Dennis Hurshman, who was raised Catholic, the incident has become a crisis in faith.
"I knew since the day Nick was born that there was going to be some kind of racial incident," Dennis Hurshman said. "But I never expected it to occur in a Catholic classroom."
Wasn't Florida. I'm sorry to say it was my home state of NC.
Happened in the DC gov't as well. (The Mayor eventually reinstated the guy)
This is so ridiculous. The only reason the kid's grades fell was probably because his parents wouldn't let this thing go. If his folks had not made a big deal of something so irrelevant, he'd be fine. I'm sure the embarrassment his parents created was another major point.
You recall correctly. DC city gov't
Evidently unfamiliar words of more than one syllable confuse and offend you.
In other words, you have a very niggardly intellectual capacity.
LOL, no rappers don't influence children at all. Tell that to the single black mothers whose children are heavily influenced by what is foisted off on their children as cool.
My daughter's peers were so heavily influenced by the MTV Rap culture that without realizing it, they started wearing makeup that was designed for Blacks. They styled their hair like Blacks and wore clothing that resembled the clothing the black rappers wore.
We didn't let our kids watch MTV. Our kids still wound up wanting to be like their peers. What kid doesn't?
I'm talking about a middle class white and hispanic school.
You really need to get out more.
...I will one day be shocked (shocked!) by the use of an archaic term.
While I did not intend to underestimate rap music's influence over children, I am still convinced that a teacher is a very different thing. Most people must send their children to public school. It's an economical fact. So, the majority of children are face to face with a teacher every day. Do I believe rap music can influence a child? Of course. Do I believe that dealing with a racist teacher (and possibly school) for a whole school year has more impact on a child? Yes. Are you telling me that a child (any child) could deal with a teacher with these attitudes and NOT come out harmed by it? Do you have children? Negative rap music is out there, but it's not in every home with children. The majority of children are with a teacher 8 hours a day during the school year.
Also, we are not discussing one misspoken word, but the overall treatment of the child in addition to it.
It seems the time limit for discussions with racists was not properly explained to me. This board is under many new eyes, 1992 or not.
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