Story Examples

Story Examples 

I was in my 6th grade math class one day, and my math teacher asked our class if we knew any famous mathematicians. A bunch of people raised their hands. Someone said Albert Einstein, someone said Isaac Newton, and a few other people.

My math teacher said, “What are the similarities of those people. They are all white men.” Then she pulled up a slide with a picture of a man with brown skin on the screen. His name was Srinivasa Ramanujan. She talked about how he was a really, really good mathematician, but he was not well known because he was Indian. She said she was going to introduce us to a new mathematician every once in a while, and most of them will be people of color or women, because even though they are really smart they are not known as much because they are people of color or women. I thought that was really good because people need to know about racism, and lots of teachers don’t talk about race in their classes and act like racism is not an issue. —NPS student

*

I wish I could walk into my kid’s school and see more teachers of color. —NPS teacher/staff member, NPS parent/caregiver

*

When I was in 6th grade we were watching a serious movie about people in Africa, and there were a few religious ceremonies in it. When the movie was over, my teacher walked out of the room to print something, and when he did, about 6 or 7 white boys started pounding their chests and making noises like monkeys. They were mocking African culture. Looking back I feel embarrassed that I didn’t stand up and say something. —NPS student

*

This year at a school assembly led by the first-grade classrooms at my kid’s school, the presentation included a book reading in English and Spanish (with a Spanish-speaking ESP of color doing the Spanish reading) and a song in English with ASL accompanying. It was really great. Also great: I later learned that the fifth-grade classrooms are considering a similar approach for their own upcoming school assembly presentation. —NPS parent/caregiver

*

I was walking down the hallway after lunch when a big group of 6th graders walked by. A girl yells the N-word at a boy, who doesn’t seem to care. I freak out and start crying when a WHITE teacher comes up and tries to comfort me with saying it’s okay. In my head I was saying NO it’s not okay cause you have no idea what it feels like to be me and hear the N-word all the time. After that I hear the N-word at least 3 or 4 times a day. —member of the NPS community

*

I attended a PTO meeting at one of our district elementary schools where two parents who were native Spanish speakers were in attendance. The conversation in English was moving very quickly and the parents asked for people to slow down as they were having trouble following. There seemed to be an attempt among the rest of the group to slow down, but the conversation quickly sped up again. Those parents never returned to the PTO meetings. I regret that I did not do something in that moment to make the space more open and supportive. —NPS parent/caregiver

*

In class we were watching a documentary about racial segregation and discussing it. One of my teachers (who was WHITE) said that her and her husband went to a movie and were the only white people there. She stated that “We knew what it felt like to be a minority.” She can NOT say that! If she knew what some minorities have to face she wouldn’t have said that. No one in the class corrected her or mentioned it. I don’t even know if anyone else noticed. She probably didn’t realize, that doesn’t even make it better. She could have been intentionally racist, however she wasn’t educated to know what she said was wrong. People need to understand and be educated on racism. —member of the NPS community

*

When I first got to this district I was one of very few people of color in my building. I still am. Every building in the district is staffed by mostly white people. Almost every administrator is white. There had been a Black principal for a short time just before I came. I was told by a white colleague that he was a reverse racist. One day, I found brochures on the table in the staff lounge from a memorial of a religious figure who shared a name with this principal. I wondered if this was a coincidence. Either way, I thought it odd that there would be religious material in the lounge. I checked in about my reaction with a white colleague who I knew to be anti-racist. She said she would take care of it. The brochures were removed. I later heard that this same brochure had been posted to his office door. The image is of a large gravestone with his name on it. —NPS teacher/staff member, NPS parent/caregiver

*

My child’s teacher reads books to the class which have people of color as the main character. Many of these books are not focused on the race of the character. —NPS teacher/staff member, NPS parent/caregiver

*

I have been struck again and again, both in visiting my son’s school and in attending various school-level and district-level meetings and committees, at how incredibly white – at least visually – the school personnel and administrators are. For a school in which 38 percent of the children are non-white, the predominantly (or maybe exclusively?) white make-up of those who are teaching in and leading the school (and district at larger) leaves me concerned. When talking about inclusion or hearing others talk about inclusion in the school, I can’t help but wonder what kids who don’t look like the teachers are thinking, whether consciously or somewhere in the back of their budding minds… “Why do none of the teachers and those with power look like me?” “What does that mean about who gets to make the rules, lead the conversations, and inspire others?”

Reflections on the make-up of the school personnel have only been heightened for me when I have sat in school committee meetings or other forums in which the topic of race equity has been nonexistent or quickly set aside with either an explicit or implicit assertion that that’s not an issue or problem in Northampton public schools. As a white woman, I know that when a group of white people state that racial inequity isn’t a problem or issue, it is almost without fail because we don’t see it, not because it isn’t there. And that “not seeing,” not talking about, not acknowledging, not candidly struggling with a dynamic and problem that is everywhere in this country, even in a place that prides itself as being progressive and loving like Northampton, is harmful. Harmful to those children and families of color (and of the global majority) who know that race equity is not a given anywhere. And harmful to the white children, families, and school personnel who should be and can be challenged and expected to get comfortable with the conversation and, in doing so, be more fully present and connected to their peers and neighbors. —NPS parent/caregiver

*

One time, I was constantly arguing with this kid when I was in sixth grade, and he was being really rude to me and he was just not a nice person to anyone. So one day I said I was gonna slap him, and was chasing him down the hall after lunch, and him and his friend kept yelling “white power” at me, and doing the sign with their hands. I was in the wrong for saying I was going to slap him (which I never was going to) but that should not excuse him for saying racist things.

Another thing happened at lunch this year, where a kid had a girlfriend, and this other guy went up and hugged her. The kid who hugged her is black, and her boyfriend is white. When the girl’s boyfriend saw him hug her, he very roughly pushed him, and they started arguing. Then when teachers came over, they took the black kid to the principal’s office and left the white kid there. The black kid didn’t do anything but hug her, and the white kid shoved him. They then walked with the white kid like they were protecting him from someone. —member of the NPS community

*

I wish that all vulnerable populations could feel safe in our schools. —NPS parent/caregiver