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The Time I Got Called Racist for Teaching Middle Schoolers About Prison
Only by bringing such patterns into the light of day can you begin to undo the harm they have caused
One morning, the principal of my school called me into her office. “Mr. Wright, I got a call from one of the parents,” she said. “She complained that you were promoting racism.”
As a Black man, it’s not exactly a usual occurrence to be accused of being racist — let alone as a teacher. The parent in question had a child in one of my most challenging periods that year, a group of eighth graders. The majority of the students were male and Black; the student who complained wasn’t.
In my eight years as an educator, I’ve been no stranger to challenging environments. I’ve worked in schools where 100% of students came from free- and reduced-lunch backgrounds, where students didn’t have running water, where gang life was embedded in the social environment of the city. None of it made a difference to my teaching; I believe that all students can learn and deserve a fair and even approach. I knew that not all the students I taught would be Black, and so I have always fought to maintain a reasonable balance between teaching what was most needed while avoiding bias in my teaching. I haven’t always succeeded — but up until…
