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Like I asked, well, did you talk about slavery, and the effect that has on lives today?
And he kind of talked about having that conversation with people about
like what generational slavery, how that has effected people for generations
having that conversation in his class with these privileged white people
you know, and he was able to have that conversation
it wasn't really much, it didn't do much much though
they stuck with what they were thinking
that "oh, they were set free, for like 100 years or something but how come they still not get up on their feet"
I'm like, they were set free with nothing
how are you supposed to build off of nothing
there's white people downtown sitting on huge house they've had for hundreds of years
and people just all like "oh, well, it's not our fault that bla bla bla"
and they say black people were all, not all, they weren't saying stuff like that but they were like
"there's a lot of crime from black people" and stuff
and I'm like OK, well, if you really want to talk about that then we can trace it back
from how black people, well, do crime because they're in poverty
and they're in poverty because they were held for slaves for having different colored skin for 300 years
they're all just like "errrm, ok well, whatever"
even my teacher, he was like "ummm, it's not exactly like that"
and I'm like but it is.
In classrooms in general
talking about stuff like in history class
where they're talking about slavery, we'll have a white teacher
but then he'll feel all uncomfortable talking about that
stuff like that, so it just felt uncomfortable for them to talk about anything
so we didn't really get any feedback
so you felt like specifically your history curriculum was leaving things out and wasn't being taught right
yea, mainly like that
from my experience we haven't had any talk about it like now
it's all been like in the past, this happened, so this happened
and so, I guess, sometimes people are lead to believe that racism and homophobia is all gone now.
Every time when you walked into my old school there would be an armed guard
well, armed police officer with his hand on his gun like watching everybody, that was kind of..
In your middle school?
Yea, just standing in the midst of everyone
How old are you?
I'm in 7th grade, so I am 12
you're 12, so as a 12 year old, everyday last year you had to walk by...
yeah, actually I was 11
a policeman with a hand on his gun who was looking at everybody
yeah, yeah
if you come to a North Charleston school, if you come to a predominately black school
you come to a school that's less, that's more known for having issues ya know I mean
you're at Lang Middle School and you've got a helpful resource officer
he's there, but he's not, he doesn't feel like he's
ya know, on the prowl looking for trouble
where is if you are at North Charleston or Stall
you're more likely to see a resource officer who's very much so
keeping an eye out in a way that, it's not a keeping an eye out for the safety of the students
it feels more like that authority in an intimidating way
rather than the protective authority
just like, for a lot of straight, white, middle class, or upper class people
police presence is comforting
where as for a lot of us who are ***, brown, both
police presence is not.
part of why all of this criminalization of the school system has happened
is because of school shootings
All of which, right, we all know were committed by white males, middle class white males
And yet, that has caused a panic that has made middle class white parents
want to crack down on kids of color in ubran schools.
And as much as anything, that is what has caused, those school shootings, that caused the terror
But of course, that was "kids shooting kids" not "middle-class white boys shooting kids"
so the race, class, and gender dynamics of that disappeared and therefore of course as always
it's black kids who are the problem, poor blacks kids in particular
As to where, if there's fighting involved, um, nowadays they're going to get arrested
And when I was in grade school, you could probably get away with about 4 or 5, 6, 7 times before you know, it gets to that point
I think you would get, you would get expelled before you actually got arrested
So, it's easier for these kids to accumulate a criminal record now
And when you have a domestic violence charge on your record you won't get hired for anything.
Because they're afraid for they're safety at that point.
So, they're really not getting a fair chance by just being unruly teenagers and trying to learn their lesson and discipline them in a different way then to arrest them
It's just quicker now for them to accumulate a criminal record.
which is definitely going to effect them in the future, and you know
will they get a fair chance as an adult because some records will follow you into adulthood and won't erase.
What happened to guidance counselors
do you even hear about guidance counselors anymore?
What about a parent teacher conference?
Do you hear about those anymore?
What about sitting down with two people that may of had a beef over something so simple as a step on my shoe.
What about sitting those two people down to find out what the problem is
and how we can solve it and can you two at least be cordial.
What happened to those simple things, instead of just being harsh now.
Did you feel like all the schools you taught at were safe and welcoming for the students?
Yes, yes, yes.
And what made that environment?
Well, what made that environment is that.... teachers were part of the community.
So, it was our community that we taught at.
You know, it's when you went to the grocery store the children saw you.
You know, when you went to church, you went to church with the children that you taught in your community.
You were on committees or organizations with the parents of these children.
So, yeah, very safe, it was a community school.
That's exactly what it was.