The Council on American Islamic Relations said the allegation was that the teacher had remarked, “I do not negotiate with terrorists,” when the Palestinian American student asked for a seat change.
Recent U.S. incidents involving children include the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas and the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois.
Other incidents include the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California and the shooting of three Palestinian American students in Vermont.
I think calling a black child a monkey without that being part of an established pattern or without reason would be racist, sure.
But if a whole kindergarten class was acting crazy, and a teacher said they were acting like moneys, and that class happened to have a black child in it, I wouldn’t think they were racist for calling that black child a monkey.
And if a news story ran that had the headline, “racist teacher calls black child a monkey,” and those were the facts presented, I’d call it rage bait.
So the question of whether this child was singled out and called a terrorist with racial intent, or we just have a teacher using a normal phrase with no racial intent seems a relevant point.
Where do you people come from where “I don’t negotiate with terrorists” is a normal phrase that teachers say to children?
I don’t even know any adults who have said something like that to each other in years.
The kid wouldn’t even have gotten the reference because they were born many years after Bush was in office.
I hear it often enough, I’m from MA. I don’t know what to tell you, but it’s a common expression.
Here’s the scenario, often as an adult you have to tell children what to do, (eat your dinner, get dressed, we have to leave now, etc). Sometimes they start making ultimatums or threats over issues that really aren’t up for debate, “No! I won’t do X unless Y!” - that kind of thing. It’s at that point one might use that expression, it’s really not uncommon.
Hey, maybe the phrase isn’t in your normal vocabulary, but you’re going to have to accept that it is in a lot of other people’s normal vocabulary. You don’t have to like it, but it’s a fact, and it’s generally best to just accept facts, cause you don’t really have other options.
So given that this is a normal thing to say, it was still a pretty massive fuck up. Being put on leave is probably an appropriate response. Was it racist? I’m like 85% sure no.
I mean, I come from a place that that’s a normal thing people say. And I’d think I’m as likely to say it to a child as “I’ll be back,” or “clever girl,” or “what we have here is a failure to communicate,” or any number of other referential phrases that a child is unlikely to understand the reference to.
But maybe you’re right it’s an age/generational thing. It’s definitely a phrase still in the zeitgeist of people my age, but maybe less so in a younger demographic? Maybe that’s why there’s a skew in the comments, where some of us see it as a phrase as common and normal as “we’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and some think it’s super out of left field and weird.
But the child not getting the reference is immaterial. Part of learning language is learning what phrases are in the zeitgeist. It’s not weird for me to use any of the above phrases with a child, even if they haven’t seen any of the things they’re from.
I don’t know what age you are, but I am 47 and I have not heard that phrase in years.
And you’re right, it’s immaterial whether or not the child gets it. The material part is a teacher insulting a child. Racist, not racist, it is absolutely inappropriate either way.
Have you ever heard that phrase used as an insult? I’ve only ever heard it used as a joking way to say “no.” Especially in cases where the person is being bullheaded about something.
I’ve literally never heard that phrase used in a pejorative way.
Yes. Yes I have. Because I know plenty of Muslims.
Maybe this is purely cultural/regional then. I grew up in an area without a large Muslim population. Perhaps the phrase was used pejoratively elsewhere.
Well this teacher is somewhere with Muslims, so maybe they should figure out how to be a little fucking culturally sensitive with the people in her class.
We don’t even know how old this kid was. It could have been a seven-year-old. What seven-year-old would even understand that was not insulting if you called them a terrorist? They don’t have that sort of ability to reason yet.
I kinda doubt many seven year olds are asking for a seat change?
But, so long as we’re making up scenarios that support our side of the argument, what if it was an otherwise white presenting student, who’s ethnic background the teacher didn’t know, who told the teacher, “change my seat or I’ll beat your ass”?
Without full context, it’s hard to say how deplorable the usage of the phrase truly was. It could have been horrible and racist, sure. I’m not arguing that it couldn’t, or even that it wasn’t. I’m just arguing that it also could also have been a completely normal and understandable turn of phrase that was not intended to be offensive, but unfortunately was.