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Q: Some of my world history students have taken to drawing Confederate battle flags on their homework assignments. What should I do?
Q: Some of my world history students have taken to drawing Confederate battle flags on their homework assignments. What should I do?
You need to let your students know right away that it’s not OK to submit the Confederate battle flag along with their essays on Napoleon or ancient Rome. Is it a good idea to share its history of racism and oppression with them? You bet.
They should also know how symbols like swastikas, nooses and Confederate battle flags can offend and anger other students.
Please share what you’ve seen with an administrator. This behavior could be an indication that there’s a hostile environment for students of color on your campus.
Illustration by Andrew Degraff
Q: I’ve heard it over and over again—“Don’t act so white.” I see that these attitudes make it harder for my black students to strive for good grades. What can I do?
This trash talk raises two concerns for educators: They worry that students will either avoid excellence or give up their identity.
Some social scientists say that “fictive kinship” is at work—that black students unite because of “who we’re not.” Students who “act white” are betraying the group. It’s like asking, “Aren’t we good enough for you?”
The good news is that studies show high achieving students of color are fairly good at resisting the message—if their achievement provides offsetting social benefits. Also, those who are more aware of how racial barriers work are also more resistant.
Don’t coach your highachieving students to respond to these taunts with clever remarks. Instead, encourage them to develop friendships with people who appreciate them and share their values and goals. Help them to brainstorm ways to find common ground with all their peers.
Q: How can teachers nab “teachable” moments when overhearing students make intolerant remarks without appearing to be like the police?
Good teaching is about building relationships. Establish positive rapport early on, model respectful behavior, and you’ll be ready to grab those moments with compassion and kindness. Respond right away by talking with your students on their level. Try to find out what motivated the remark, what they think it means, and help them understand how others hear it. Most of all, you can avoid looking like the bad cop by being open to the discussion and avoiding words and tones that sound judgmental and scolding. And remember— not addressing it, especially if students know you overheard the remark, sends the message that you agree.
Need the kind of advice and expertise that only Teaching Tolerance can provide? Email us at Editor@tolerance.org with “Ask TT ” in the subject line.
Comments
Oh dear. I am almost sorry
Oh dear. I am almost sorry that I stumbled on this discussion, but now that I have I can't help commenting since this is an issue very dear to my heart. I grew up in Florida--a state now populated mostly by northerners. All my family is from the South. I have been living in the Northeast for almost ten years now and I bump up against the underlying hostility towards the South often here. I realize that the original question was from a northerner which changes the issue, but the advice given was not sound.
The Civil War is a complex, and at least for many southerners, still very personal issue. How many of you know that the emancipation proclamation did not actually free the slaves? I've read it and it is very specific about ONLY freeing the slaves in confederate states and counties. Think about that for a second. . . . The North did not free the slaves in the North at that time. They only freed the slaves that would hinder the confederate cause. While I know that there were many in the North who believed in freedom and equality (as there were quite a few in the South, as well) the Civil War was really about economics and politics. The North dealt the South a blow that they have never recovered from--which is why I suspect it is still such a touchy issue for southerners.
When I was teaching in upstate New York one of my students wanted to learn to play "Sweet Home Alabama." The head of the school told him that he couldn't because it was racist. It's not, but the association between the South and racism is so deeply ingrained in our country's mythology that most people accept it without question. Consider how I must have felt growing up being taught by northerners that all the cultural symbolism of my family meant nothing but racism? Consider how southern children must feel constantly being told that their heritage is about nothing but hatred? And the fact is that it's just not that simple. Racism was rampant in the North as well as the South during the Civil War and it continues to be. It seems to me that a much fairer and less harmful response would be to honestly examine and discuss all sides of these issues with our students.
Many of the ideas I see in
Many of the ideas I see in print about the use of the confederate flag seem to be generated in the South. To a Northerner ( and a history teacher ), this flag ought to be banned--for its political symbolism, and not solely for its racial history. A group of people who said they believed in democracy seized a federal government fort and fired on it, when they were afraid they would soon be outnumbered and would no longer "own" Washington. They raised the confederate flag as an act of treason and an act of war--a costly war that they lost. The use of the confederate flag ought to be prosecuted as treason.
I have read your magazine for
I have read your magazine for insight as a long time teacher at an all black high school. Many people do not realize the nuance of many of the symbols you use as examples. For instance the swastika is both Indian(Asia) and Native American. My Uncle carried his Confederate flag into the battle of Okinawa. Our ancestors owned no slaves and were simply defending their homes from invaders who burned everything. The Confederate flag for my uncle on Okinawa had nothing to do with keeping black folks down. I understand it does bother some people but making the Rebel flag into some forbiden fruit is not helpful. True diversity seems quite elusive.
What sort of explanation can
What sort of explanation can I give to my students about precisely why our diversity is our strength, without merely defining diversity?
Hello You might want to look
Hello
You might want to look into the work of Alan Lomax and other like-minded ethnomusicologists:
"The dimension of cultural equity needs to be added to the humane continuum of liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and social justice."—Alan Lomax, 1972
http://www.culturalequity.org/ace/ce_ace_about_ce.php
As with all complex ideas, diversity is probably too abstract to really hit home on an emotional level. People need life-affirming, life-changing experiences in order to consider ideas at a deeper level. I believe that music - and other art forms of course - is an excellent starting point for such experiences.
Shawn
That is exactly the premise
That is exactly the premise behind this book. (Diversity Consciousness) It is a CONSCIOUSNESS that needs to be developed - not just a bunch of facts.
I find it useful to relate
I find it useful to relate such a question to smaller contexts that students are familiar with, and in which the strength of diversity is already self-evident, and then simply draw parallels with larger contexts.
For example, we teach students how to use the library to aid their schoolwork. The strength of a library is the diversity of its collection. A library with 1000 different books is stronger than a library with 1000 copies of the same book. A library with books by 1000 authors is stronger than a library with 1000 books all by the same author. To become educated about any given issue, we want to find books which defend a position and books which criticize it, and we want to find a variety of different defenses and criticisms. From here it is a simple matter of pointing out that people are human sources just like books are textual sources, and hence that discussions that provide varied viewpoints arising from diverse life experiences and backgrounds will generally be more educational.
What examples may work best will depend on what subject you teach. We could use a literary example: in any story, the team of heroes always have a range of different character traits, talents and perspectives on the situation, not all of which are useful at the same time, but which in the long run allows them to accomplish a mission they could not have accomplished with less diversity. We could use a statistical example: the more diverse the sampling pool, the more potential to select a set of objects satisfying a larger range of arbitrary conditions. We could use a biological example: species which reproduce sexually evolve faster than species which reproduce asexually due to cross-fertilization. And so on. I am sure you will be able to come up with something suitable from within your own subject area.
When ever I have encountered
When ever I have encountered the Confederate flag issue I take time to discuss how the flag was used during the Civil Rights Movement and the message that was attached to the using of the flag. I acknowledge the NASCAR idea of "I'm my own person" but returned the conversation to the message it gives to many people.
I really do respect and
I really do respect and admire all your intentions as Teaching Tolerance, but the point you are missing is, that reality of education in the Western World shows that the deliberate political war on education and science takes effect. "It's all about costs," our politicians say and the way they cut and regulate is the way of increasing the costs without any necessity. So there isn't a decent wage for good teachers to prevent them flowing away into easier jobs in the private business that pay more. Don't blame them for that. When official basic education falls short, private enterprise needs additional education and teachers, so they, those educators, can still doe to few, what they on public costs learned to do for the community. And meanwhile the drop-outs and potential drop-outs suck the blood out of the remaining depraved system.
Of course, the result is a drop of quality, but not only the quality of schools, but also - it's hard to speak out - a drop of quality in mind-set, so in effect, a drop of human quality, despite all men are born equal. Some, a lot, can't become what they are to be without deprivation. A lot of pupils, teachers and whole schools are subsidized disasters. It's a mess.
And it can be so simple to bring up and educate a child the right way. There is only one rule of behavior and intention that covers it all: That all is allowed what isn't harmful.
It is always easy to explain why something is harmful and something is not, if you don't turn away from the question "why?" by the answer "because I say so!" or something according to a fantasy or tell tale. It has to be a reality-check.
Been there and done that nature will fulfill all the child will need if you are prepared to give it, knowledge and skills. A child wants it all.
Most faulty expressions during childhood is a sign of inconvenience and not a lack of understanding. Satisfy them with leading wisdom and our offspring is more intelligent and understanding than we are.
That's what we want, isn't it?
That's also what they want to become.
The display of the
The display of the Confederate flag is a controversial and emotional topic, generally because of disagreement over its symbolism. Some view it as a symbol of southern heritage, cultural, and pride. Others view it as a symbol of racism.
If we are truly teaching tolerance, I believe it inappropriate to presume the intentions of the students drawing Confederate battle flags on their homework assignments are doing so for nefarious reasons. Rather than presume the worst, as the response to this question appears to do, I recommend asking why the children have decorated their homework with Confederate battle flags. If their response is benign, I would do nothing. If there appears to be some basis of hostility toward others in their response, then I would address the matter. Part of teaching tolerance is not imposing our biases on others and giving people (especially children) the opportunity to explain their actions. Presuming the worst in others is not a good start for teaching tolerance.
If their "responses are
If their "responses are benign", there is just as much reason to educate them. If they don't mean anything by it (hardly believable as that is), we have a responsibility as educators to inform them of the symbolic message they might unintentionally be sending. It is a teachable moment and that is what we are there for, that is our job.
The issue is not the intent
The issue is not the intent of the artist, but the effect the symbol has on the other students. It's pretty common, in my experience, for those with privileges to feel defensive about and vigorously defend those privileges when someone criticizes them, even when the privilege hurts/offends other people. It's easier to understand, I think, if we choose an example that you don't hold dear, such as (I presume) a swastika. In the purest sense of "tolerance," we would accept that some people like the symbolism, or the design, and let people display and use them, but we can all agree, I think, that the message they convey is not acceptable in contemporary society. Confederate flags are as abhorrent to many as swastikas, and so if we decide to continue using them, we need to be willing to accept the consequences (offense and harm to others, and being outcast socially by others).
Ask Teaching Tolerance did
Ask Teaching Tolerance did not assume that the young man had bad intentions or even knew the history and meaning of the symbol. That's why we suggested sharing its history with him. We don't think that recognizing that the Confederate battle flag is, in some quarters, the equivalent of using fighting words, and sharing that information, is not "imposing our bias."
Since this came from our magazine, please keep in mind that we didn't have a lot of space to talk through the issue. If we had, we would certainly have begun with the suggestion that our World History teacher try to unpack the young man's understanding.
Space considerations also meant that we didn't mention where this question came from -- perhaps we should have put that in. It was from a community near Buffalo, NY.