Professor writes of dreading children’s encounters with racism
A teacher at Princeton University posted a piece in response to the incident in which the day-camp kids were turned away from the swimming pool because they might change the complexion of the swim club. Melissa Harris-Lacewell is an associate professor of politics and African-American studies.
“When I read the story I felt that familiar sick feeling that black adults have when we witness our children encounter nasty, old-fashioned racism for the first time,” she writes on the Nation.com website. “So many of us have these stories ourselves. Whether we grew up in black communities, mixed ones, or largely white neighborhoods, in the North or the South, urban or rural, we remember the first time. The first time we were called ‘Nigger.’ The first time a teacher explained ‘Nigger means black person.’ The moment our friends declined to invite us over because their parents didn’t want us in the house. The first brutally racist joke whose punch line we still remember decades later.”
People survive these incidents and go on to live their lives. “But the scars remain,” she writes. “The damage is real. And the racial distrust and division in our nation are cemented with these acts of racial cowardice and avarice.”
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Jean is projects editor at the Post-Dispatch. She is a member of Bridges Across Racial Polarization, a group devoted to creating friendships and fostering communication among racial and cultural groups in the community. After growing up in a small town in Kansas, she lived in Kansas City and Wilmington, Del., before moving to St. Louis in 2004. She and her husband, Dan Wiggs, live in University City. 
this would be a teaching moment to educate these children about how stupid people can really be…..quit the posturing and do something constructive to make sure this doesn’t happen and quit the jawing about how bad this is. Is it bad and stupid? Of course it is….welcome to the real world and let’s hope we can do something to educate these children about how racial distrust and avarice can hurt and not make this an us against them moment. Better to learn this now and hopefully make this world a better place than to sit there and whine: “poor us, poor us!!!”
tndoc3,
Yes, I suggest you educate your children concerning ugly from the time they begin comprehending things. Including all ugly in this world that children may encounter including pervert men and women and inappropriate touching. No matter how much one prepare their child you still do not know how deep the scares may take. Of course we attempt to prepare, just like we attempt to prepare our men and women for war, it doesn’t always succeed because we are all built different mentally and experiences and emotional traumas leave different kind of scares for some. Children are very vulnerable at the slightest slights coming from adults and even other children.
I don’t see anyone whining, nor do I think people should just brush it off, as there are just stupid people in the world as you put it. We can’t change hearts but we can attach certain consequences upon people and entities for emotional distress to the point that they will watch what comes from their evil lips when directed towards innocent children. Yes, it should cost adults consequences for emotional distress that they inflict upon children.
As far as whining goes, I have strong feeling that the cries and complaints of all those Iranian citizens sound like whining to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also.
So true professor.
I see the encounter of white children attending a school system that the majority are black. I see the poor white child being intimidated by the black thugs.(which is behavior taught by their parent/s)
I see the black girls that bully the little blond hair girl because of the color of her skin and texture of her hair. I see the principle that’s black at that school, watching all that behavior and say “oh it’s just kids being kids” Yes I can empathize with those poor white children, I was one.
Ps Hey Tyrone, you owe me about 20.00 buck for the lunch money you stole from me until I kicked your BUTT in sixth grade. You didn’t have your thug buddies with you that time did ya!!!!!
My question is - since people of color ‘prepare’ their children for the onslaught of this evil racist world do they do more damage than if they just left things alone and let the children develop naturally? When you build in fears and resentments that is what you are going to get and this promotes suspions, hate, fear, dread, and an inability to adjust and survive whatever comes their way! When children are brought up to ‘expect’ the worst in white people, etc. then that is exactly what they are going to get! So, in retrospect you create your own problems! What tndoc3 is saying is stop creating the attitude and stop whining about it all of the time and maybe, just maybe, it will get better! If a child just grows up without any negative influences suggested by their family that child has a better chance of accepting and surviving the outside world because they don’t go forward with ideas of what is going to happen, consequently, cannot take things out of context but will relate to others naturally! In other words, folks, leave your kids mental attitudes alone and let them develop their own, NOT YOURS!!! You color their lives for them, the don’t.
Purdy
Excellent post. You hit a home run.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say that 95% of problems at schools are brought on by Black children and their attitude towards a perceived hatred by whites for blacks.
I can attest to this, when I get out of bed or my children we not thinking of ways to discriminate or hurt people of Color. But I think lots of kids that are black do.
While it may be a good time to point out that there is evil in the world.
It is also a good time to point out that 90% of us are good people. By us, I do not mean whites or blacks, I mean ALL OF US! The jerks make up a very small part of us. They just get all the attention, because the rest of us are quite boring. Don’t know about the rest of you, but I like boring.
Still nothing about the Ohio incident. Hmmm….
You mean life isn’t fair? And here I was just getting ready to spend my Summer vacation at Hyannisport with the Kennedys.
Look, if it’s a private club, they can allow who they want. It may not be nice, it may even be reprehensible, but having a free country means people are also free to be stupid. The important thing is to not let the ignorant control your life or determine your self-worth.
I’m a 56-year-old working class mongrel who would never be allowed into the fancy-schmancy country clubs around the area. It doesn’t bother me because I wouldn’t like the snobs who populate those places anyway. I don’t lay awake at night pondering the injustice of my socioeconomic status. It takes too much time away from dreaming about Camaros, Mustangs, and classsic muscle cars.
“We hold these truths to be self evident”
Not a small number of Black kids are mean and disruptive but lots of them.
Look at the schools and district that HOUSED them. Shall we start to name the ones that are failing just in St. Louis? And they all have one thing in common. They are populated with Black kids, run with Black boards members. The disruptions within the classrooms are Black kids, not white kids, Black kids. But we ignore them because they are Juveniles’. Look at the PTA meetings or lack of involement from the Black Parent/s. Look at the music that Black entertainers promote in the culture of these kids. Rape, disrespect for laws, violence towards women. Shall I go on? I say we as a society look the other way when its Black children making noise because of white guilt, and Good black people refuse to standup because they don’t want to be an UNCLE TOM for the white population.
Purdy
So white people treat black people poorly sometimes because thats what black people think is going to happen? Wow. I did not realize that black people had that kind of control over the minds of white people. Thank God they don’t use this power over us for evil.