White Fragility Digest #4: 16 May 2018

[MrScorpio]

Florida Teacher Under Fire for Distasteful Rant Against Haitian Student ‘Let Me Show You What It’s Like In America’

By Tanasia Kenney -May 15, 2018

Link to tweet

A high school teacher in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. has been removed from the classroom pending an investigation into disparaging remarks he made to a Haitian student, in which he referred to the teen’s native home as “some third-world island country.”

A high school teacher in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. has been removed from the classroom pending an investigation into disparaging remarks he made to a Haitian student, in which he referred to the teen’s native home as “some third-world island country.”

Palm Beach High School officials said they’re investigating the incident after video of the tense exchange was shared on Facebook, Newsweek reported. A relative of the student said the video has been viewed more than 26,000 times since Friday.

In the clip, the unnamed teacher can be heard berating the student in front of his classmates.

“It’s called a door, let me show you how it works,” he says. “I don’t know how it works where you’re from, down in some third-world island country, where they don’t got them. Let me show you what it’s like in America.”

Radio host and Haitian activist James Leger said the teacher’s comment was undoubtedly racist.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/05/15/florida-teacher-fire-distasteful-rant-haitian-student-let-show-like-america/

"White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium."

Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D

The Digest will be posted as needed...

White Fragility Digest Archive:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210609305

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210612268

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210616002

[MrScorpio]

1. WATCH: White woman calls the cops on black man who's trying to fix up house in her neighborhood

Brad Reed BRAD REED

15 MAY 2018 AT 10:54 ET

Link to tweet

A video posted on YouTube earlier this month shows a black real estate investor in Memphis, Tennessee dealing with local police officers after a neighbor called them on him while he was trying to fix up the next-door house.

As real estate investor Michael Hayes writes, he went to the house, which is in a dilapidated condition, to inspect it. The woman came out of the house and asked him what he was doing. At this point, he showed her the investment contract that he had giving him permission to work on the house, as well as written permission that he received from the house’s owner to be on the property.

However, this didn’t seem to satisfy the woman’s suspicions about him, and she ended up calling the police.

When the police arrived on the scene, Hayes calmly explained the situation to the officers, who were sympathetic to what he was saying. They then asked the woman in the neighboring house to let him do his job.

The woman tells the officers that he can do his job — but then she glares at him and tells him, “Hurry up, do it, and get out!”

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/watch-white-woman-calls-cops-black-man-whos-trying-fix-house-neighborhood/

[marble falls]

19. Yeah, 'cause house breakers cover themselves by forging letters with verifiable information...

and using the key.

The calling cops part is one thing, it's the getting involved before and after thing that truly astounds me.

I honestly believe some of these callers have the intention of being able to watch the cops beat or shoot a PoC.

[MrScorpio]

2. Over the top reaction to overhearing Spanish in Midtown Manhattan

Edward Suazo

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

18 hrs ·
So my wife and her best friend Just experience what America is becoming !
They where on there lunch time and ordering there food and just because they where speaking in Spanish to the waiter this asshole jumps in and started to call the waiter and my wife and her best friend all types of names and threatened to call I.C.E on them and the employees !!!!

I wish I was there because clearly this peace of shit need someone to punch him in his mouth !!
What a big man talking down to couple of women and a helpless employee. I wish someone tells me I can’t speak in my native language ! First of all they wasn’t talking to you !! Asshole !
My country !! Haha 😆

I love the way people are just throwing that world around lately !!
If you love this country this much ! Why don’t you put on uniform and protect it !!
If he was so offended because the waiter was speak in Spanish only because of a native person spoke to him in Spanish, why don’t he start waitering and he won’t have that issue and family stop getting Spanish nannies and stop getting Spanish people to farm and .........
You know where I’m getting !!

So please stop !! Because in the end you need them ! But what you need to do is stop trying to control us ! Slavery stopped a long time ago

https://www.facebook.com/eddiesuazo16/posts/1637928756325262

[olegramps]

10. He has empowered the worst of worst elements of our society.

The evangelicals, besides being bat shit crazy end-timers are misogynistic, racist, homophobic deplorables.

[kimbutgar]

18. This guy looks like he works on wall street

He will be fine, he probably works with a bunch of people who think like this!

[MrScorpio]

23. Nope, apparently he's a lawyer, of all things.

Link to tweet

Looks like someone needs to remind him about how free speech works.

[Kittycow]

26. He advertises "Espanol" on the home page of his office website!

Oh good Lord.

It's fun to read the Google "Ask a question'' cuz the hoi-polli are really dragging him, including remarks in Spanish. I imagine he will somehow get that removed but hopefully he's in a meeting with his partners right now getting his ass chewed.

[MrScorpio]

27. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise... He's a big time trumpanzee as well

Link to tweet

[Kittycow]

28. Wow. I couldn't even finish it because it was so ugly.😶

As someone said in the Google comments on his website, does he yell at people speaking Yiddish or Hebrew in Jewish delis.

Sadly, he'll probably come out of this smelling like a rose because some RepubliCon will prop him up as a victim who was deprived of his free speech

Maybe the Ethics Committee of the NY State Bar will rain on his head 😒

[grantcart]

3. You are going to need a bigger journal

[FSogol]

4. Hope they show that "teacher" how the door works.

[tblue37]

16. And maybe how the English language works while they're at it. nt

[demmiblue]

5. K&R

[heaven05]

6. ++

this country needs a national moratorium on racism and a national study day on race relations and WHY we are at this point now where an open and obvious racist is potus and AG. Also, hopefully, people can learn about the positive contributions AA have made to american society. That's cultural, scientific and any other positive way one can think of.

Make America Racist Again (MARA), openly racist again. This is the current direction of ameriKKKa and this can't end well.

I have always called american/society/culture schizoid. From a POTUS such as President Barack Obama to a potus like trump. Proves my point to me.

[gollygee]

7. No one would believe the kid without a cell phone camera

Thank goodness for cell phone cameras. This isn't new - it's just nobody believes people of color in these situations without cell phone footage. A lot of people don't even believe them with proof like this. Things are bad and always have been.

[MrScorpio]

8. Kansas City Student Sues District For Punishing Him While They Protected White Classmate

Kansas City Student Sues District For Punishing Him While They Protected White Classmate That Physically and Sexually Assaulted Him

By Tanasia Kenney -May 16, 2018

Link to tweet

A seventh-grade student at Lansing Middle School in Lansing, Kans., is suing school district officials over how he was treated after reporting physical and sexual assault at the hands of a white classmate.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S District Court in Kansas City, the African-American student claims he was the subject of repeated harassment and bullying by a white pupil but was instead treated as the aggressor, and punished when he finally fought back, the Kansas City Star reported.

Both boys are seventh-graders at the local middle school.

The complaint alleges that the white student groped the victim’s rear end while they were in study hall on Feb. 6. The victim reported the assault to a teacher — who only intervened after repeated complaints from the Black student. Her solution? Telling the victim to move to another seat.

The abuse continued on the bus ride home after school, where the perpetrator allegedly grabbed the Black student’s penis, hit him on the head multiple times, and kicked him in the face hard enough to cause a nosebleed, according to the suit. That’s when the victim stood up for himself and punched the other kid in the face.

The student’s complaint goes on to allege racial discrimination, arguing that the district failed to handle the bullying situation properly because of the victim’s race. For instance, after the school bus incident, school officials suspended the Black student but took zero disciplinary action against his white aggressor.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/05/16/kansas-city-student-sues-district-physically-sexually-assaulted-white-classmate/

[Perseus]

9. "where they don't got them"???

And that is a teacher?

[greatauntoftriplets]

12. I certainly hope that he wasn't an English teacher!

[geardaddy]

13. I noticed that, too.

What an eejit.

[bitterross]

14. Exactly what I was thinking.

That teacher needs to be shamed about "This is English... let me show you how it works. Not like in some backwards red-neck county where you missed learning how to speak proper English."

He won't get fired - that is too much work and they hate the Haitians in FL.

[IronLionZion]

11. Some of us grew up hearing this. I'm glad it's being called out now as wrong

[tblue37]

15. ". . . where they don't got them"??!! This guy is a teacher yet speaks this way?

[aggiesal]

20. My parents came from Mexico ...

My mom from Guadalajara and my dad from Chihuahua, although he was actually born in Colorado.
So my dad was the first generation US Citizen in his family, but he lived his childhood years outside
the capital city of Chihuahua.

They both met in Northwest Indiana and got married.

I remember growing up, we lived on a street named Catalpa Ave. then years later moving about
a mile east to a street named Oak Ave., because it was closer to the schools, we would later attend.

On that street we had a neighbor named Mr. Best, who was the biggest racist I had ever met.
I remember once walking past his house while he was sitting on the front porch, when he yelled a
question at me, "Why don't you go back where you came from?"

Being the smart a$$ that I am, knowing he meant, why don't I go back to Mexico, I responded,
"What? Go back to Catalpa? That's too far to walk to school."

Mr. Best was not happy with that response.

I still laugh when I think about that incident, but racism is alive and well in the 2010's.

[BobTheSubgenius]

21. He might end up working in the WH,

or one of the Cabinet offices. With any luck or justice at all, his teaching days are over.

[Codeine]

22. Cell phone video is going to be the catalyst

for so much change in this country. Obviously none of this behavior is new or even - if we’re being honest - particularly “Trump-related”, it’s just on video; now we don’t need to convince people that teachers are saying stupid shit or racist customers are popping off in queues — just show the video and shame the fuckers.

[oberliner]

24. The teacher was suspended

[MrScorpio]

25. That's a good start.

[oberliner]

29. What else should happen?

[MrScorpio]

30. I'd rather wait until further action is taken, find out their stated justification for such actions.

And read the response of the community to both the action and the justification.