White Chicago teacher sues to use n-word in class

I applaud this teacher who was TEACHING. As I understand it the topic was about racism and she used the word 'n-word' as an example of what not to say - Bravo.

Singling out the teacher for this is not only stupid but dangerous. it brings us closer to a ;police state and George Orwell's 1984. The Principle should be fired for taking such action against the teacher.

There is nothing wrong saying 'n-word' in front of 6th graders as long as they teacher is not using it in a racist fashion.

To all those who say the word 'n-word' is so bad in itself it must never be said in any context, I say GROW THE HELL UP - You must consider:

These 6th graders not only hear but say much worse than 'n-word' many times a day. If you deny teaching of this word in the context of what not to do, then you are part of the problem. See no evil hear no evil and speak no evil will not teach anything to our children.

You people would agree with teaching about Hawaii becoming a state in 48 but deny teaching that it was the U.S Military who forced the Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii to abdicate her thrown under threat of killing her loyal subjects. It was an illegal forced takeover. No one can deny that. Our government is EVIL.

You people would teach Christopher Columbus discovered America and was such a great guy we had to have a holiday named after him when in reality Christopher already had maps showing where America was - he just followed them - because America had been discovered many times before by many peoples - while not allowing the teaching that Christopher Columbus was a mass murderer that almost wiped out the entire Haitian population for not being good little slaves and digging up the gold Chris wanted to bring back to the Queen of Spain. Chris was a slave master and a mass murderer - He killed many more people than any terrorists did during 911 and more than Hitler during WW2.

The man is a monster of the worst kind - yet, teach this truth to the 6th graders? Oh No, we cannot do that ! We need to protect the little children! Again GROW UP. You people are a Big part of the problem. We must have truth taught in schools or this country is going to be way more messed up when these kids grow up than it is now.. and that's frightening.

Originally posted by redoubt

Originally posted by LonelyGuy
its just a word. just like cracker or honkey. exept they seem to be used alot more.

edit on 20-2-2012 by LonelyGuy because: (no reason given)

Funny. ATS will zap the hell out of the 'n-word' but allows those...

No matter. Sticks and stones... you can't hurt anyone with words and ATS can't hurt anyone with a well meaning, but slanted censorship.

edit on 20-2-2012 by redoubt because: (no reason given)

If the word is used in a proper context such as a proper title, ATS doesn't zap it. Like it is here capitalized in one of my favorite books of poetry: Saint 'n-word' by C.E. Cannon published by the Broadside Press.

It's a book of poems about 1960's civil rights movements and the Vietnam war - written by an African American the title poem Saint 'n-word' talks about how many African American people who were civil rights activist wanted equality with whites but they disliked the movements leader Martin Luther King because they felt hew was out for his own gain and had hidden agendas. These African American's were taken back that MLK was portrayed as such a saint in the white media when they who knew him best did not see him like that at all.

Was the teacher using it like a curse word AT the students??
Or was the teacher using it as part of the class study about racism??
BIG DIFFERENCE.

Considering the 'n' word is so widely used by the hip-hop community, maybe the kids should hear just how bad the word is, so they'll stop using it with each other. Black on black 'n' word calling ... it's something I just can't understand. The word is so vile ... These are 6th graders, right? Educate them on how bad that is NOW before they get their heads blasted with that nonsense that plays on the radio.

reply to post by Brandon88


Probably because cracker is an actual object that you can eat. 'n-word' isn't

reply to post by RealSpoke


But if everybody gets all worked up about 'n-word' why isn't cracker held to the same standard, both have the same history behind them, and both are words regardless of what context their used in. One shouldn't be held more offensive then any other.

Heres a list of derogatory terms
en.wikipedia.org...

There is a seperate list for anti semite slanders
en.wikipedia.org...

Ive learned lots of new words today but what is the value since I would never use them?

PS I didnt realise there was a cockney rhyming slang term for Americans ie "septic tank"

I guess when the worlds largest online encyclopedia publishes a comprehensive list then there isnt really anything wrong with a teacher using the word in the correct context ie to deny ignorance rather than insult.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Was the teacher using it like a curse word AT the students??
Or was the teacher using it as part of the class study about racism??
BIG DIFFERENCE.

Considering the 'n' word is so widely used by the hip-hop community, maybe the kids should hear just how bad the word is, so they'll stop using it with each other. Black on black 'n' word calling ... it's something I just can't understand. The word is so vile ... These are 6th graders, right? Educate them on how bad that is NOW before they get their heads blasted with that nonsense that plays on the radio.

From reading the source:

Mason gave a different account of the incident and charged Brown with "using verbally abusive language to or in front of students" and "cruel, immoral, negligent or criminal conduct or communication to a student, that causes psychological or physical harm" which is in violation of the Chicago Public Schools policy. Mason disputed the context in which Brown used the n-word.

So I'm not sure how he was using it. From the principals account, he was using it in a derogatory manner, not just for teaching.
Whether using it in teaching or not, I still don't believe it should be used in a classroom setting. Yes, teaching about the term and what happened back then is important, but you don't have to actually use the word itself.

Originally posted by Brandon88
reply to post by RealSpoke

 

But if everybody gets all worked up about 'n-word' why isn't cracker held to the same standard, both have the same history behind them, and both are words regardless of what context their used in. One shouldn't be held more offensive then any other.

Cracker isn't auto-censored on forums like n-word is because cracker has common usage; auto-censoring the word on a forum would be akin to censoring every instance of words like cockpit, cocktail, assassin... etc.

If n-word is to be censored and "banned-speech" then yes cracker deserves the same within the proper context, because despite cracker paling in historical weight next to other slurs, it's intent is the same. Some may disagree that they are not equal but they are when you remember what they are. Hate, pure and simple.

In that sense, the double standard does exist but it's probably more because despite the intent of "cracker" few if any white people are actually offended by the word, where as with n-word... well, that should be obvious.

What about honkey? If people realized cracker was short for whip cracker it would put it in a new perspective.

Try to teach - Get sued!
This is ridiculous. The school is wrong, the world is frigging wrong.

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc
Try to teach - Get sued!
This is ridiculous. The school is wrong, the world is frigging wrong.

He isn't getting sued, the teacher is doing the suing.
All the school did was put him on a 5 day un-pain suspension from working.

reply to post by Believer101


We read Mark Twain in high school and we were able to use the "N" word in context. I hope we can use classic literature as an example of evolution. Everbody knows "N" word JIm was the most rational and good hearted character in the entire book.

reply to post by RightWingAvenger


Key word there, high school.
These kids in his classroom are sixth graders (11-12).


And to you guys out there that are saying "These kids hear it every day so it's not a problem." They also hear a lot more inappropriate words for kids their age, but that doesn't make okay for a teacher to spout those words in class, no matter the context.

reply to post by Believer101


Crazy thing is it means an ignorant person in her terms in other terms it is understood as never ignorant getting goals accomplished (2pac) Seems ignorant of her to want to use it and not see what it means

Originally posted by Believer101

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc
Try to teach - Get sued!
This is ridiculous. The school is wrong, the world is frigging wrong.

He isn't getting sued, the teacher is doing the suing.
All the school did was put him on a 5 day un-pain suspension from working.

Ahh yeah, sorry my bad. But still, think its being blown out of proportion!

Teacher: Morning children, today we're going to talk about "the word that can't be mentioned" so we can learn how bad and offensive it is, only, I can't tell you what the word that can't be mentioned is so you'll probably end up using it without knowing, have a nice day.

This is pathetic in my opinion, I mean what if it was a history lesson and you can't use the word Hitler, Nazi, Jew, Death camp, Blitzkrieg etc etc.... how is one then supposed to learn from past mistakes and improve?

It's like a gun or a knife in my opinion, in themselves they are harmless, it's the person behind them with the intent that is the real danger, same for words, words in themselves are just words unless given a context. Should guns and knives be banned?

Should words be banned? NEVER!!

The teacher as far as I can make out from the story was trying to show what a negative context for that word was and good for him.

reply to post by Believer101

surely it depends on how words are used that makes it offensive
if you want a black coffee in a spanish country , you ask for a cafe negro .
there are lots of words in english that are deemed as unacceptable these days but started out as innocent words ,
gay used to mean being happy , if we shorted the name of pakistan people to packi , this is seen as bad but it is ok to call a british person a brit or a scotish person a jock .
i think that it is in the context that a word is used that causes offense not the actual word .

I don't think that the word's longest history was as a derogatory slur, but
that it was a descriptive word.

Taboo and punishment for using it is totally ridiculous.
This is taking us down the road to another inquisition of sorts.
When will they start executing people for using this word?

Let the witch burnings begin.