Clueless White Person Question

In My Humble Opinion
1

I guess this is the right forum because I want feedback…Move it if needed.

Yesterday I was invited and gladly attended the Black History Month presentation at the inner city school where I volunteer each week. The kids were all hyped up about it last week when I visited with them and begged me to come and I told them I would be honored.

Quick background for those who don’t know me. I have done volunteer work in inner city schools in Birmingham for I think going on 5 years now. I work with a literacy program and I take special interest in my classes. I buy them clothes. I host Christmas parties that wouldn’t take place without some assistance. I get large companies to sponsor field trips so my kids can see things they normally wouldn’t see.

I’m not bragging…I love doing this. I do a lot of it behind the scenes and could care less if I get any acknowledgement. I love these kids and I know that I may be the only good adult influence some of them will ever have. Most of them have tremendous potential and just need someone to tell them they are worthwhile.

I digress…

I get to the school and am directed to the library. I walk in and I’m the only white person in the room but that’s pretty normal for all my weekly visits.

I attempt to introduce myself to some of the parents of my students and quickly surmise a large majority of them could care less about shaking hands with this white lady and why is she in this school or at this program any way?

I shake it off and I sit down next to one of the teachers I know. I get this a lot when I first go into a new school until the parents figure out I’m for real and not just there to do my good deed to ease my white guilt. This is my first year in this particular school and it took me about 3 years at my old school before the parents warmed up to me. No big deal…I’m not there for the parents. I’ve had parents tell me in the past I have no business in their school and I should take my white rich ass home and stop using their kids as a charity to make myself feel better.

My kids file in and faces light up and I go give out hugs and tell them how great they look in their homemade costumes and how proud I am of all of them and can’t wait to see the show.

I notice on the program that the first thing we will be doing is standing for the African American National Anthem.

I must say I honestly had no idea there was such a thing. I then had a moment of panic because I’m not sure if I should sing along or stand quietly or bow my head or what. I pick up the tune pretty easily and I sing along and I’m not sure if that was the right thing to do or if I was viewed as being disrespectful. I plan to do some online research today and find out if I should have been doing something differently and the origin of this.

The program starts and it consists of a prayer, a welcome, a tribal praise dance and a living museum. The living museum part has all the kids dressed up as a particular African American and they tell some facts about their person and then sit down.

Okay…we’ve got Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Absolutely. We have Jackie Robinson. Okay. Great. Barack Obama. Super nifty and timely. Joe Louis. Okay. Michael Jordan. Alright. Mary J. Blige. Hmmm…okay. Grammy Winner. I get it. Oprah Winfrey. Really? Oprah? Sure…okay, I guess. Will Smith. Interesting. Tyra Banks. Now I’m getting confused. Maybe the kids picked their own person instead of the teacher giving them a list of people to choose from?

Then it turns bizarre. “Ladies and gentleman…taking some time to join us from prison…is Michael Vick.”

Are you kidding me? All the famous Black Americans who have made such advances for their race and people everywhere and you give me Michael Vick?

Where is the Rosa Parks? Booker T. Washington? George Washington Carver? Carter G. Woodson? Mae Jemison?

I absolutely cannot wait until next Wednesday so I can ask if the kids picked their own person or what and how they made their decisions.

I’m thinking if I’m a teacher and my student picks Michael Vick I quietly pull him aside and explain why we celebrate Black History Month and why we may want to pick a better role model. Maybe toss out some other possibilities and use it as a learning tool to open him up to others?

I’m thinking about taking in some packets of info next week to expose the kids to other Black Americans who overcame amazing obstacles and did amazing things for people all over.

What do you think about this in general?

2

The whole thing sounds very “ghetto”. Not a very polite term, but it sure seems to be accurate. Honoring Michael Vick? I’m shaking my head just reading about this program. The people who set up the living museum did a poor job. I guess probably did let the kids choose their own people, or wanted them to be familiar with the choices, instead of using it as a teaching opportunity. Please take the packets in, and give them to the students.

3

I consign with OG.

4

The board won’t let me edit again, but I do want to say that I don’t think Oprah really deserves the question mark.

5

Personally, I think the whole concept of “Black History Month” is offensive (or any celebration based on criteria that one has no control over, race, sex, gender, etc). So why not go whole hog and celebrate Michael Vick?

6

The choices you mentioned are pretty much ones children would be automatically familiar with, the civil rights pioneers of decades ago, probably not, so I’d guess the children picked them.

7

No question she has done great things…but out of every single choice out there for a strong black woman? Like I mentioned, how about Mae Jemison? She’s from Alabama even.

8

The only thing I’d have any issue with is the Michael Vick kid. I don’t know why you’d have any issue with Oprah Winfrey - she’s a hero and role model to millions of American women of all races, as well as one of the richest women in the country, and one of the only ones who didn’t inherit the bucks or step into the family business.

Why is it OK for white folks to speak highly of the Gates’ or the Rockefellers or Warren Buffet, but there’s something odd about black kids feeling proud of Oprah Winfrey?

I think you’re guilty not of being a clueless white person, just of bringing your prejudices to the event. It reminds me of a friend who volunteered to read once a week to the elderly blind. I asked her how it was going and she said she had quit. She was anticipating reading Thoreau and Emily Dickenson but they wanted her to read People magazine.

9

Sorry… I’m still hung up on the idea of an African American National Anthem.

Say what?

But then again, I’m white… so I can’t possibly understand.

10

At least no one picked O.J.

11

I’m not knocking Oprah…or at least that isn’t what I’m trying to do. I happen to like her. I think she is a beautiful, talented lady.

But, there are only 15 kids in my class and I can think of many other Black Americans I would think of first before Oprah.

If I’m coming across as being offensive toward Oprah or her accomplishments I sincerely apologize.

12

Another clueless white person chiming in - I share the OP’s confusion and apparent dismay. And, it does sound like a good time to just try to follow along and understand.

Michael Vick is a very visibly disobedient citizen, and I can imagine that if you’re part of a group that has been systematically abused by society at large, disobedience has its own charm. If you’re part of a group that you perceive faces an unfair added risk of arrest and convection, arrest and conviction could be a kind of badge of honor. There are probably other threads like this one might follow. Or, I don’t know, I may be entirely off in these guesses. But I’d always have to wonder how different things might look from the other side of this ethnic divide.

13

Aries28, you forgot Harriet Tubman! :slight_smile:
Don’t worry too much about the kids’ media “role models”; they’ll be forgotten quickly. There was a time when I was the only white kid in the class, and I doubt that tastes have become any less ephemeral since then (Wesley Snipes was the Dude!).

14

I can see where Vick is a bad choice. His crimes have overshadowed his sports career. But other than that you’ve got a pretty common list of the kinds of “historical” figures a bunch of schoolkids would admire. If you had asked a class of white students to choose white heroes, they’d have been dressing up like Tom Brady or Johnny Depp or Avril Lavigne.

15

One thing about dealing with a different culture is you are often in akward situations where you don’t quite know how to react and people’s decisions seem completely inexplicable. You havn’t lived until you’ve seen a bunch of African pre-school kids dance in front of the mayor to songs with the lyrics “Fuck you you bitch.” And you have no freaking idea of popular Celine Dion is here. Just figure there are some things you will never fully understand but they make sense to somebody, and try not to judge.

16

I don’t worry about the kids’ choices as much as the fact that they’re being taught by people who green-lighted those choices. If you’re going to have Black History month, shouldn’t it be used partly to teach kids that although they might only see blacks succeeding in the music field, or on the ball court, there are many others who’ve excelled in other fields? Or to teach them about potential role models that they’d never heard of before?

17

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900. It was adopted as the “Negro National Anthem” in the early 20th century. I can see why, in the days of lynchings and Jim Crow, black folks wouldn’t feel too much attachment to The Star-Spangled Banner. You could argue that there’s no need for a “separate” anthem today, but IMO, it would be shame to lose “Lift Every Voice.” It’s a beautiful song–gives me chills every time I hear it–and one that I think all Americans should be able to identify with.

Here are the lyrics to the first verse:

  • Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
    'Til earth and heaven ring,
    Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
    Let our rejoicing rise
    High as the listening skies,
    Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
    Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
    Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
    Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
    Let us march on 'til victory is won. *

(Mods, I hope it’s okay to post all of that. I don’t think the song is copyrighted.)

18

I think picking contemporary figures to present on should be encouraged. When I was a kid Black History Month always was about people who were long dead and gone and centered heavily on people who’d worked in the civil rights movement, which gave the impression that the only relevant black people were the ones who’d live during that era. (Once they had a Filippino girl play Rosa Parks in a skit, which was interesting, but she hammed it up so the audience was actually laughing at the whole bus scene, which seems a bit … wrong … in hindsight.)

I digress. Michael Vick really should not be a role model for anyone.

I have never heard of an African American national anthem, but then again I have had very little experience with African American culture.

(Okay, I just looked it up on wikipedia and it says that it’s usually sung after “The Star-Spangled Banner” at African American gatherings.)

19

I think it’s perfectly appropriate to judge when little kids are looking up to a criminal like Michael Vick.

20

First of all, good on you for going and supporting your students. I absolutely agree that Michael Vick is an inappropriate “hero” for this event, and the teachers should have directed the student to another choice. But I don’t see how Oprah Winfrey is any less worthy than Jackie Robinson or Joe Louis.

As some of the other choices…it’s hard, because you want the students involved to feel ownership of the project. If you let them pick their own heroes, they’re probably going to be more invested than if you say, “Hey, kid, your hero is Carter G. Woodson.” And I agree with HazelNutCoffee that it’s important to celebrate contemporary figures as well as civil rights heroes.