Why would anyone think this is OK?

[swamp]

www.wwnytv.com/2019/05/30/watertown-teacher-accused-making-black-students-act-slaves-mock-auction/?fbclid=IwAR3un8W8WHBNBdorRn8A4IMMVofTllxIelEkHUiw-2hRuyu3MoJjHaP1-2w

[bean29]

I have to admit I was conflicted about even reading the story. It is so obviously wrong, and I thought this is not new/recent...but it is another (new) incident of a teacher forcing students to act as slaves.

The last teacher who tried to "teach" this lesson was fired, one has to wonder why "Teachers" try to continue to teach about slavery in this manner?

[grumpyhermit]

Because they are a racist piece of shit?

[happyhoix]

Well, I have mixed feelings on this.

On the one hand, I really hate when we try to pretend Americans didn't do awful shit to a lot of different classes of people over the years. We shouldn't just whitewash over history and pretend (like some people want to) that blacks were content living as slaves and masters were always good to their slaves and everyone ate corn bread and danced jigs and were happy together.  

I have a problem with the fact that, even though thousands of people were lynched in this country, I think we only have  2 -3 memorials for the victims. They shouldn't just be forgotten; we can't pretend that didn't happen.

On the other hand - don't make the kids re-enact it! Surely there's some good documentaries or books geared towards kids that explain how horrible it was, without the play acting?

[Tennesseer]

Apparently, the teacher in the linked article doesn't read the news from around New York state.

From the linked article:

There have been reports of similar mock slave auctions in classes around the nation.



In March, CNN reports a teacher at a private school in Westchester County, New York, was accused of asking all of the African-American students in each class to raise their hands and then telling them to go stand in the hallway, where the teacher placed imaginary chains on their necks, wrists and ankles. Those students were then instructed to walk back into the classroom and line up against the wall, CNN reported.



According to the report, the teacher then conducted a simulated auction of the students in front of the rest of the class, in an attempt to depict the sale of enslaved Africans to white plantation owners that happened in the 18th and 19th centuries.



The teacher who conducted the lesson was fired, CNN reported.

[bean29]

May 30, 2019 16:10:09 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Well, I have mixed feelings on this.

On the one hand, I really hate when we try to pretend Americans didn't do awful shit to a lot of different classes of people over the years. We shouldn't just whitewash over history and pretend (like some people want to) that blacks were content living as slaves and masters were always good to their slaves and everyone ate corn bread and danced jigs and were happy together.  

I have a problem with the fact that, even though thousands of people were lynched in this country, I think we only have  2 -3 memorials for the victims. They shouldn't just be forgotten; we can't pretend that didn't happen.

On the other hand - don't make the kids re-enact it! Surely there's some good documentaries or books geared towards kids that explain how horrible it was, without the play acting?

I know what you mean, I know I wondered LAST TIME I read about a similar classroom exercise, if it would have been more acceptable if the "Slaves" and "Masters" where maybe chosen by a lottery system?

There was a Black Holocaust Museum here in Milwaukee, but I have never visited it, they are apparently trying to re-open it, but it does have a virtual component link is in the wiki link below:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Black_Holocaust_Museum

 

[happyhoix]

May 30, 2019 16:24:19 GMT -5 bean29 said:

May 30, 2019 16:10:09 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Well, I have mixed feelings on this.

On the one hand, I really hate when we try to pretend Americans didn't do awful shit to a lot of different classes of people over the years. We shouldn't just whitewash over history and pretend (like some people want to) that blacks were content living as slaves and masters were always good to their slaves and everyone ate corn bread and danced jigs and were happy together.  

I have a problem with the fact that, even though thousands of people were lynched in this country, I think we only have  2 -3 memorials for the victims. They shouldn't just be forgotten; we can't pretend that didn't happen.

On the other hand - don't make the kids re-enact it! Surely there's some good documentaries or books geared towards kids that explain how horrible it was, without the play acting?

I know what you mean, I know I wondered LAST TIME I read about a similar classroom exercise, if it would have been more acceptable if the "Slaves" and "Masters" where maybe chosen by a lottery system?

There was a Black Holocaust Museum here in Milwaukee, but I have never visited it, they are apparently trying to re-open it, but it does have a virtual component link is in the wiki link below:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Black_Holocaust_Museum

 

Maybe the teacher could enlist some grown ups to play act various people from that time - slave, free black, plantation owner, poor white person, middle class white person, a white woman (who didn't have many rights, either), a Quaker (who were usually abolitionists).   That would be interesting for the kids but not as terrifying, I think.

[justme]

We definitely shouldn't white wash history like a lot of it unfortunately is.

But that's not how you do it.


Much like you don't teach kids about Hitler by teaching them to salute him while a kid plays Hitler and recites one of his speeches...like another teacher did this year. 

[resolution]

We have a public high school that has a similar issue. They asked a black student to play a slave in their theater production and she declined, so they told her she could be a stage hand instead and then they failed her for not acting in the play. They didn't fail any white students that were just stage hands.

It is a magnet school for the arts, so on one hand you would expect the students to be willing to play roles in their production, but on the other hand they shouldn't require roles that offend the students.