Lanee: Education

I am a former classroom teacher of seven years who has taught in three predominantly Black schools in Washington D.C. and Maryland. Hearing the way my white colleagues spoke about Black children and their families was appalling. “These kids” was a phrase that I loathed hearing. I remember when a white teacher transferred to my school. She complained to me, “These kids are so disrespectful!” I stopped her and said “Do you mean all the kids in your class or was it just one or two students who disrupted your lesson?” Another white colleague once said, “These kids are so grown. They’re having sex in seventh grade! It wasn’t like that where I grew up.” Once again, I found the courage to speak up and correct that statement. I often found myself having to defend Black students against white teachers. I remember a white colleague, who was also a department chair, said something so ridiculous it left me floored. I had been in the teacher’s lounge speaking about one of my brightest students, a Black girl who is a gifted poet and who is not afraid to stand up for herself. This colleague interrupted me: “Oh her? She’s a piece of work. Good luck getting her to do anything in her class. Have you met her dad? He’s never around. Always on vacation or something. He has so much gold in his mouth that he looks like Flava Flav.” This woman is an appointed equity leader and facilitates conversations about race at the school. 

Every day I fought battles to protect Black students. There are so many more stories that I could tell about the inequities that I witnessed and experienced, but it’s those daily racist remarks that go seemingly unnoticed need to be addressed.