Another Crappy Teacher: Mocking Muslim Student

[kaylasdad99]

@Anaamika

I’d cry, too, if I was a kid. I just found out an acquaintance thinks I am Muslim. Why she thinks this I have no idea. I’ve only met her once or twice. I never indicated any sort of religion around her, at all. So it’s totally racist - purely on skin color. I am brown, ergo Muslim.

It’s fucking rude and offensive. She also thinks Muslims all wear turbans and put bombs in the turbans. Her petty ignorance would make me insane if I let myself care about it at all.

But I am thirty-five and self-confident, and not being told this by someone in authority. :rolleyes:

@CitizenPained

What’s offensive about being thought of as a Muslim? It’s her ignorance.

@yojimbo

So in your little world all Muslims are grieving about Bin Ladin?

I think you’re conflating the incident discussed in the OP’s link with Aanamika’s acquaintance making unwarranted assumptions regarding her religion.

[Cartooniverse]

@cosmosdan

At the very least hat teacher needs to apologize to her entire class and that student specifically. In fact, an assembly might be called for but I don’t expect that. I hope they do insist on an apology, perhaps a verbal, and then a written one. That was an incredibly thoughtless, cruel, and stupid thing for anyone top do, much less someone who chose to teach.

It will never happen. Ever. Teachers are in a position of ultimate power. Their unions and Administration enable that power and support it to the must surreal and pathetic lengths. To wit:

In the fall of 1979 I sat in my English class in a suburb of Philadelphia. The gal a few seats over had a pass to go to Guidance. The teacher, whose name I remember and whose face I remember, told her to stay seated. It was urgent that she leave, and he said no, sit down. Eventually, not wanting to miss such a key meeting, she stood up and said I really have to leave now. He said clearly, Fine you stupid Jew bitch, get out of here.

She was shocked. We all heard him. We were all shocked. She left, crying.

I was so enraged, I shut down in that class. I was raised a Jew. Roughly 1/3 of that school was Jewish. Dumb, yeah. But I simply shut down. Went from A to F in a few weeks. Guidance counselor calls my parents in because suddenly I’m looking not to pass English, which means I do not graduate.

Sitting there between Mom and guidance counselor, I was just so scared to say what I’d seen. I mean, accusing a holy holy sacred teacher of such a thing? I’d be suspended if not worse.

Finally I said, something really awful happened and I got mad at the teacher and just stopped working. When pressed, I gave an accurate accounting. The guidance counselor got up, left, and came back with the Principal. Who asked me to repeat it.

I was told to get my act together, and sent back to class. The Principal pulled the gal from class, who ( she told me later on ) broke down in his office and confirmed my story.

The teacher sailed on through, having had a talking to. No apology. No meeting with parents or studnts. No admin leave, no formal retribution. I will say that he did not look her OR me in the eye again. No easy A’s, but he also was incredibly careful NOT to single us out in any way for what we’d done.

You know what the saddest part is? I know his name, and I’d probably be banned for using it. He got to speak in a filthy degrading manner to a 17 year old girl who had done nothing wrong, and outing him now would cost him nothing, and cost me dearly.

FUCKED UP.

:mad:

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

Um… how did it cost you dearly?

[Acsenray]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Um… how did it cost you dearly?

And I’ll also note that this anecdote does not establish or even mildly suggest that “Teachers are in a position of ultimate power. Their unions and Administration enable that power and support it to the must surreal and pathetic lengths.” It does not even establish that proposition for the particular place and time that the incident took place. All we know is that at some place, at some point in Cartooniverse’s past, one teacher might have gotten away with something once. It doesn’t really tell us anything about what kind of powers teachers have or whether administrations or unions have done anything to facilitate such exercise of power.

[mhendo]

@Cartooniverse

It will never happen. Ever. Teachers are in a position of ultimate power. Their unions and Administration enable that power and support it to the must surreal and pathetic lengths. To wit:

Your story, if it happened as you say, is unfortunate.

But it doesn’t even come close to making the general point that you are asserting.

[Cartooniverse]

It does in my eyes.

[Cartooniverse]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Um… how did it cost you dearly?

Um… read for content, pal. What I said was, it would cost me dearly to name that teacher now on the Dope. Sorely tempted as I am to do just that, doing so would be libelous and I’d get banned.

But then, I just wrote that up there and you didn’t get it…

[storyteller0910]

@Cartooniverse

It does in my eyes.

Really?

A single isolated event that happened more than 30 years ago is sufficient to establish a general principle that you continue to hold today?

Yikes.

[Cartooniverse]

Absolutely.

[storyteller0910]

@Cartooniverse

Absolutely.

Just to explore this a little further, are you aware that this is insane?

[mhendo]

Cartooniverse seems to be a pretty level-headed guy on many issues, but he also has a few particular obsessions where logic and reason go right out the window. This is apparently one of them.

Another is the issue of (his definition of) child abuse:

Why hasn’t Colin Farrell been charged with rape?.

[_mostly_Harmless]

@CitizenPained

What’s offensive about being thought of as a Muslim? It’s her ignorance.

@OtakuLoki

<snip>

Did you even read the full post you quoted? Having someone thinking that one carries bombs in the turban that they expect you to be wearing is offensive. If you seriously don’t see how that is offensive, you’re even more of an idiot than I think you are for being unable to read for comprehension.

@yojimbo

So in your little world all Muslims are grieving about Bin Ladin?

Really people? This is the way you interpreted CitizenPained’s comment? I’m fairly certain that all the comment was trying to say was that there is no shame in being thought of as a Muslim and the teacher was ignorant to suggest so. That was apart from the fact that the teacher was a total douche for the hurtful comments themselves. I would be stretching my imagination into Spite territory if I thought that Citizen was actually putting down muslims in any way.

Grow up, you two.