Disarm You With a Smile

kita0610 linked to a post by a2zmom who in turn linked to this post and thread that talks about the Holocaust, about Jews and racism in general. The ignorance that's floating about in the world really sickens me.

And that's on the macro level.

In the microcosm, I have it in my class. Willful ignorance about racism and racist tendencies. I'll give you an example.

One of my students has an Asian girlfriend. She's quite pretty - young, but gorgeous. He's obviously very proud to be dating her because he keeps a picture of her on the cover of his binder. Another student, supposedly a friend of the first one, said something that had me stopping my discussion with another student and zeroing in on what was being discussed on the other side of the room.

The second student call the girlfriend a 'chink.'

I lost my mind. LOST MY MIND, people. I asked him if he even knew what that word was. His response: it's a word used to say that someone is Asian! What??!?! I said, no. It's a racial epithet used to refer specifically to Chinese people. None of them knew what 'racial epithet' meant. None of them knew that that word was a bad thing to say. I actually had to explain that it was as bad to call a Chinese person a Chink as it was to call a black person the 'n' word. ( I literally cannot say that word. I get physically ill.)

THEN one of my other students asked, out loud, "What about 'kike?' I nearly threw up. I couldn't believe the ignorance and complacency they had about tossing these words out. I told them what that word meant, how it was used and that it was as TERRIBLE and DISGUSTING as the 'n' word. They were shocked. The student who asked about the 'K' word said that one of her friends had been calling her that for YEARS!!! I was just...flabbergasted.

I let them all know immediately that those kinds of words would result in an immediate dismissal from my class, and a referral for racial slurs and discrimination (punishable by ISS and/or OSS). then they asked me if it was okay to use the word "jew" as an insult! I don't....I'm at a loss. I don't know where this stuff comes from. I don't know how to combat it, other than what I did in my class. These are our YOUNG people saying these things. The future of our society! Calling each other "jew" as an insult, tossing about racial slurs like the words have no intrinsic power of hatred and malignancy. And their reaction to learning the truth about it? They're blithe about it: "Oh. I didn't know." *shrug* "Sorry."

I grew up in this area. I knew what those words were. What is it with these parents that they don't address this with their children?!?!? It makes me sick.