History Repeats Itself Time After Time

Having been privileged enough to grow up in arguably one of the most diverse areas of the country, children I went to school with were from origins of all walks of life. The cul-de-sac I live on is like a mini-U.N with family backgrounds from China, India, Ireland, Turkey, Italy, etc. The school district nourished multi culturalism by providing a host of after school clubs, and offering several different languages. I am sure racism occurred, but it was not an issue woven into the school culture, unlike other parts of the country, which made adjusting to college in North Carolina all the more difficult. 

I encountered several racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic people while attending East Carolina University. At times I thought I was walking into pages of my high school history text book, where you read about the atrocities of extreme racism in American and World history. A philosophy professor told my class that the Holocaust never happened, and it was the “liberal media” which exaggerated the atrocities of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi cronies. I am not sure how this professor could explain the extermination of 11 million people; then again, he probably believed that was an exaggeration too. I was asked to join some friends for the Raleigh Gay Pride Parade. I was stunned beyond all belief when I saw hundreds of bible thumping Christian extremists throwing rocks at people, holding up very mean signs and shouting through megaphones, all the while the police stood by and refused to intervene. There is a laundry list of examples of racism that I witnessed, but the one that stands out the most is when a professor told my small class on the first day that it was going to be the best class he will ever teach in his X amount of years of teaching because there were no “N word” students in it. I am pretty sure my jaw actually dropped open. I reported him to the director of the department, who told me that professors tend to be quirky and to either deal with it or drop his class. 

I never had to be told that discrimination is not to be tolerated because it was never even an issue. That is just common sense, which is not so common. My resume is sprinkled with teaching experience in an affluent New Jersey High School, Philadelphia inner city Charter school, a bilingual Chinese middle school, a British Columbia offshore Chinese school and now a diverse British junior school. I have traveled to 9 countries in the last 7 years, and without fail have still encountered the most closed minded people in the U.S.

We often read stories of racism in the news, or see videos gone viral of police brutality. These stories seem to have become a permanent fixture in American society; George Zimmerman who shot and killed an unarmed African-American teen and then was found not guilty, Joe Rickey Hundley who slapped a toddler on a plane after telling the mother to "shut that *N-word* baby up”, and most recently Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman being called a “thug” throughout various media outlets despite him being a Stanford graduate, and highly educated with an admirable work ethic. I decided to look up the actual definition of the word "thug" in an Oxford Dictionary, because if anything will have the proper definition it will be an Oxford dictionary. I found that a thug is "a violent person, especially a criminal". It can be used as an adjective in the form of "thuggish", or as an adverb in the form of "thuggishly". I am still scratching my head as to why Mr. Sherman was referred to as a "thug" so often in the media because is he neither a violent person nor a criminal. His only crime in the media is being an African-American male.

Be prepared to have your mind blown by the following statistics:

According to the American Leadership Forum, one in three African-American boys born in 2001 stands a lifetime risk of going to jail and in 2007, one in every 15 black children had a parent in prison. According to Ohio State University law professor, Michelle Alexander, there are more African-American men in prison, on probation or on parole in the US now than there were enslaved in 1850. Almost one in 10 young black men are behind bars. In New York and California, state data suggest African-Americans are much more likely to be arrested for marijuana related charges than Caucasians. African-Americans make up about 12% of the U.S. population - and about 44% of America's prison inmates.


While teaching in Philadelphia I had learned that 40 plus schools were being shut down due to an apparent "lack of funding". Most of these closings, if not all, affected the poorest children in and around the city. The real kick in the teeth is that the city has decided to build a massive prison outside of the city costing tax payers nearly $400 million. My taxes were extremely high while working in Philadelphia due to a specific city tax, a Pennsylvania state tax and then of course a New Jersey state tax because I was employed in two different states while working two concurrent jobs. Somehow the elected officials believe by laying off thousands of educators, closing the doors to dozens of schools, diminishing the quality of education for thousands of students who have a lower socioeconomic status is justifiable because they need to beef up the availability of space to imprison the thousands of young black "perpetrators". An environment is essentially being manufactured so the less educated, and poorer populace can be directly fed into the penal system. It is almost like the politicians are promoting a life of crime, instead of a life of education. This also brings up the question of where did these officials get educated? Where did these politicians learn that building a prison is a better investment than maintaining schools? 


As mentioned in a previous blog post, Philadelphia Mayor, Michael Nutter, who is an African-American democrat, thought it would be a genius idea to also close down nearly a dozen public libraries, as well as homeless shelters. He proposed a warrant-less police search technique, a.k.a. "stop and frisk" from being considered legal throughout the city. Not surprisingly, a majority of people who are stopped under any motive of suspicion are African-American males. I am not sure how this guy won a reelection in a city where he has essentially declared war on his own citizens. A quick internet search showed that he earned a business degree from Wharton University of PA. I can not imagine under any circumstances where closing schools, libraries and homeless shelters, just to open a massive prison is good business for the community. 


As Americans are being led by a half African-American president, as Martin Luther King Jr. now has a day dedicated to him in January for his efforts in racial equality and as we enter Black History Month I wonder if Nelson Mandela's legacy was buried with him or if it will live on, and people in power will finally open their eyes instead of cloaking themselves with the thick blanket of bigotry and insecurity .

Recently, one of the best and brightest students whom I taught at a Philadelphia Charter school experienced the highly debated “stop and frisk” actions that police have extended to themselves. This child is a well mannered, straight A student, and has never been in any trouble. With the North East region in the grip of the “polar vortex” it was viciously cold on January 7^th – so arctic their generous principal, Ms. Veronica Joyner, had given them hats, gloves and scarves to wear. He and his teammates were on their way to a basketball game when they say they saw a police officer "staring them down" and my ex-student says one of them "may have said something smart". The police say they saw a dozen young men running in "ski masks", which is already proven not to be true as their principal gave them scarves. Even if it were true, which it is already proven not to be, wearing winter apparel in the midst of winter should not be a crime. The various news reports that I combed through say this young man stopped running thinking it implied guilt.  He was first tackled to the ground by several police and then frisked by a female officer with such ferocity that he ended up in a hospital with a ruptured testicle, and with the possibility of not being able to father children. I first saw this story posted on my Facebook newsfeed by a friend currently in Guatemala. As I read it, I slowly began to realize who it was about, and tears ran down my face in shock. I do my best to teach the students who enter my classroom, no matter where in the world we are, whether it is America, China or England, that discrimination of any kind is not okay. I wish only the best for my students, and to learn that a police officer man handled him so inappropriately and unnecessarily makes me very angry. It is sad that society has taught this policewoman that it would be acceptable to perform her duties in such a barbaric way, so much so to physically harm an unarmed child. Could education have prevented this tragedy from happening?

As I was sharing the story of my Philadelphia student’s experience with a co-worker, who is from Rwanda, she became very choked up. She told me stories of how in Rwanda she was targeted for her skin color even by other darker skinned people, for the way her facial features were or for which village she came from. When she was in 4^th grade she had the highest grade in her class, and then was forced to repeat the grade allegedly because her teacher did not like her. Her teachers told her parents to pull her out of school, because she would never be more than a maid. After moving to the UK, she had endured countless incidents of discrimination simply for having an African accent or darker skin. She said she knows that no matter where she goes, she will never escape the racism. While telling her life story, she pointed to a group of students and said “I am hopeful they will live in a better world than we do. But as history shows, it always repeats itself."  


Various forms of discrimination and racism are clearly rampant all over the world, not just in the US. However, I believe that as the self proclaimed leaders of the developed world, Americans need to practice what they preach and take better care of their citizen's human rights. People often believe the status quo will never change because you can not change the masses, which is simply not true. As a teacher, I am happy if I have influenced one child in a positive way, because that one child can then impact a number of other people. 

History does not have to repeat itself.  

Here is the Black Eyed Peas - "Where is the Love" music video for your viewing pleasure: