Is it ever appropriate to use a racial slur?

[Unorthodox]

This is my son's History teacher btw. 

http://www.standard.net/Education/2016/05/06/South-Ogden-Jr-High-teacher-speaks-on-racial-slur-movie-policy

SOUTH OGDEN — A history teacher who used a racial slur in a classroom discussion says he meant no harm, but was trying to educate students and prepare them to watch a movie about the Civil War.

Teacher Douglas Barker planned to show the film “Glory” to his history class at South Ogden Junior High. The movie includes the repeated use of the racial slur, and Barker discussed it with his students.

Parent Holly Frye, who is black, found Barker’s use and discussion of the word offensive, according to an Associated Press report about the incident, and wants the teacher fired.

Barker said he discussed the slur with students Friday, April 22. Frye complained to the school and district at the beginning of the following school week. Barker said he doesn’t know how Frye learned of the discussion, but assumed her son talked to her about it.

Weber School District spokesman Nate Taggart said the district launched an investigation immediately upon receiving the complaint, which concluded on April 29.

“We are ready to put this behind us and focus on educating students,” Taggart said.

Barker told the Standard-Examiner he didn’t mean to offend anyone.

“I did make reference that this — the n-word — does offend people, and that's why we don’t use it. So, I guess out of ignorance on my part, I said the word so they understood what I was saying.”
•RELATED: South Ogden Jr. High teacher violated policy by using racial slur

South Ogden Junior High has 818 students. According to Taggart, there are 30 black students, 608 white students, 19 Asian students, 141 Hispanic students, 7 American Indian students, and 13 Pacific Islanders. He did not have a breakdown for the students in Barker’s class during the incident.

Barker, who is white, said he didn’t mean to be insensitive or to hurt feelings when he discussed the use of a racial slur with students in class.

“I just told them we don’t use it any more,” he said. “I told them what it meant, and it’s offensive in society today, and always has been to people.”

The character portrayed by actor Denzel Washington uses the word several times in the film, and Barker said he was was trying to prepare students.

“In historical context, I was explaining the word and why we don't use it,” he said.

Barker said he also discussed how far the country has come since the Civil War, using as examples the appointment of Colin Powell as the first African-American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice as the first African-American woman in that role and the election of President Barack Obama.

According to the Associated Press report, Frye said her 14-year-old son, D.J., no longer feels safe in Barker’s class because of the discussion. Attempts by the Standard-Examiner Thursday to contact Frye were unsuccessful.

Taggart said the investigation conducted by the school district included having students who were in the class write statements about what they heard and how they felt about it. District officials felt the students’ statements about how they perceived the incident backed up Barker’s explanation of what he was trying to accomplish, according to Taggart.

The Standard-Examiner requested copies of the students’ statements, but the request was denied by the school district. Taggart said the request was denied because of FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), which protects students. The statements are student records and thus protected, he said.

Parent Gwynne Gomez, who is white, said her daughter was in the class during the discussion and backed up the explanation given by Barker. Gomez said her daughter is of mixed race, Mexican and white.

“I think he’s an amazing teacher,” Gomez said. “I don’t think he should be fired from the school district for showing a movie I saw in school.”

Barker has not been fired, but Taggart said use of the term is not appropriate in any classroom context.

“Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken,” Taggart said, but would not elaborate, citing employee privacy rights.

Barker said he was on leave during the investigation and returned to the classroom May 1.

• RELATED: Commentary: Liberal ideals are stunting speech on college campuses

“Glory,” released in 1989, is about the struggles and treatment of African-American soldiers during the U.S. Civil War.

Gomez said the only time she saw the movie was during a history class, when she was a student in Nevada.

“I’m OK with my kids watching that kind of stuff,” she said. “It’s our history.”

Taggart confirmed Barker was in violation of district policy when he showed the film. Policy 8400, on video usage, states junior high schools may show PG-rated videos with approval of the building administrator and written approval from parents.

“Glory” is rated R, but Barker said the version made available to schools is edited to PG standards.

“We've had it approved in the district in the past,” Barker said.

The violation, he said, was related to a change in the parent permission process.

“I didn't know the policy had changed,” he said. “That's on me.”

On the district’s website, policy 8400 is marked with a date of January 1997. There is no note on the page stating whether or not a change has been made.

Barker said he sent home a disclosure at the beginning of the year for parents to sign, stating that some PG movies might be shown for educational purposes.

“I thought that covered it, but the policy now states that for any movie that is rated PG there needs to be a permission slip sent home to parents,” he said.

Barker, who is also a member of Ogden School District’s Board of Education, said he’s shown the film in classes for about 10 years and this is the first complaint he’s had.

“We didn't show the whole movie,” Barker said, explaining that he pulled this year’s screening when Frye complained. “I was being sensitive to the feelings of the parent.”

Frye wants Weber School District to provide sensitivity training for its educators, according to the AP report.

“Training is required for all employees yearly,” Taggart said in an email, but added he’s not aware of any formal training for history teachers regarding how to deal with offensive terms used during the Civil War era and other times in history.

Clay Rasmussen, an assistant professor of teacher education at Weber State University who has helped prepare future social studies teachers, said he doesn’t know if there is any direct training on how to handle the use of racial slurs in historical context.

“There’s always discussion of being considerate of others’ feelings,” he said. “The training is on how to address sensitive issues, remembering where we are today and also where we’re trying to go, trying to respect everyone and support everyone, and trying to learn from our past.”

You can reach reporter Becky Wright at [email protected] or at 801-625-4274. Follow her on Twitter at @ReporterBWright or like her on Facebook.

[Unorthodox]

On a side note, I guess I need to find a copy of Glory for my son to watch now...I do consider it worthwhile viewing. 

I will say the teacher has been MOST inventive on what he has the kids watching in class.  HBO specials, History channel stuff, all over dramatized but high production value and educational stuff. 



Another aside:

My history teacher in high school got disciplined for showing Nazi propaganda as part of the WWII section of history....

[Lorizael]

Which words are the racial slurs we're not supposed to use?

[Buster's Uncle]

[black and proud].

[Lorizael]

Bingo.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm not aware of a pejorative ethnic application of the word "bingo".  -It does kinda sound like one, though.

[Lorizael]

 

Re: OP, we have to be able to talk about difficult subjects, even if doing so is unpleasant. I don't think we'll ever be able to eliminate racism by sealing it away in a box.

[Unorthodox]

Do we have any Germans here? 


I would be curious for an objective view of how outlawing anything related to the Nazi party has been effective...it's the only place I can think that has attempted just outright squashing of historical unpleasantries. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Eedee, darkestcolors and Yabcock, off the top of my head, are of the Kraut persuasion.  Eedee has remarked about how profoundly uncomfortable Germans are about the unpleasantness of 70+ years ago - see Rusty's Military/Naval history thread.

On a closely-related note, as a pale native of the southeastern US, I don't much want to talk about it, ever, either...  Never seen Glory for that matter, and not curious.

[Unorthodox]

Glory, Gone With the Wind and Soldier Blue were films mom found to be mandatory viewing for their historical value. 

Soldier Blue is probably not the best thing to be showing a 6 year old...or maybe she was going for immersion therapy by that point.   

Glory, at least, is one many people seem to agree with her on.  It (edited version) was shown in school back when I was going. 

[Rusty Edge]

When I read the title, I thought I can't think of an appropriate situation, and then I concluded- in a play or other historical context.

Now I can understand the fuss that occurred when a teacher had the black student read the black parts of Huck Finn aloud to class so that they would "sound more natural".

I don't understand why the student doesn't feel safe in history class.

I think it's one thing to be polite and considerate as I always strive to do, and entirely another thing when people aren't allowed to use words, even in an educational context such as a high school (where kids are expected to build their vocabularies) or a college (where young adults are supposed to be exposed to new ideas), lest somebody be afraid. 

My German uncle always share his love of aircraft with my brother and I. My brother knew a Dutch college professor pilot who used to fly a Messerschersmitt.  Once something came up in conversation that puzzled my cousin. I explained that Holland was second only to Austria in volunteers for the German military.

She raised one eyebrow and said "Oh, really? I've only ever heard of the valiant resistance fighters."

Strange things start to happen when you edit history. Maybe you even get to repeat it.

[Valka]

Did the teacher warn the class ahead of time that he would be explaining this word?

I'm reminded of my Classical History course in college when, on the first day of class, the instructor told us that at some point in the Roman portion of the class, he would be discussing the Crucifixion in a political/historical context, and not in a religious context. He said that what happened every term that he taught the course, at least one person would get offended - not because of any intentional offense, but just because some people have trouble looking at this event objectively. He said he was not pushing any agenda, and always strove to be completely neutral. I think he succeeded quite well, although a friend of mine started arguing with him, and there were indeed two students who abruptly got up, stomped out in a huff, and slammed the door behind them. There were two of us in the class who were atheist, and we just exchanged bemused glances and continued taking notes.

As for the students who walked out, I don't remember if they came back the next day. If not, it's their own problem. They had three months' advance warning that this topic was going to come up, and they can't claim that it was suddenly sprung on them.

That said... how on earth do you discuss a word and its historical and modern context if you're not allowed to say what the word is?

[Yitzi]

As long as you're just quoting what other people said, it's fine.

(There are also rare cases when it's fine anyway...but that requires some really strange situations.)

[Oerdin]

He was trying to explain it in context so the PC police shpuld shut the [fuddle-duddle] up and get over themselves.

[Eadee]

Do we have any Germans here? 


I would be curious for an objective view of how outlawing anything related to the Nazi party has been effective...it's the only place I can think that has attempted just outright squashing of historical unpleasantries.

German reporting in.
What exactly do you mean by squashing of historical unpleasantries?


There's a lot of stuff forbidden such as:
Use of Nazi Symbols.
Use of Nazi-greeting.
Denying the Holocaust.
And several other things.

However noone's going to bat an eye if there is a Nazi-Symbol somewhere in a picture of WW2 in a school-book, they just won't print the symbol right on a cover of a book about WW2.
If you discuss the Third Reich its also okayish to say they had to greet each other with the phrase "Heil Hitler" as long as you are clearly just discussing objectively not shouting it out or making the corresponding gesture.
As a politican or celebrity I would even refrain from citing it on Camera, I mean, Youtube, people editing stuff... you know.

The average person in Germany just isn't comfortable discussing this topic, but most feel obliged to contribute something to it because if they remained silent one might think that they're secretly nazis. However in school the topic of WW2 is streched over several years so it gets quite annoying (at least it did for me).

To get back on track:
I think a teacher saying the "N"-word to explain it should be perfectly fine. Kids gotta have a chance to learn stuff in an objective context. And yes, probably every kid in that classroom did know the word before, and probably every kid in that classroom did know what it meant before. But its a good sign when you get confirmation in school about things you already learned out of school, this gives Kids the self assurance to be able to discuss stuff and be part of a democracy where you're supposed to have free speach and the right to discuss political and other topics.