# Idiot assistant principal **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 19, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085 "2014-11-19T16:52:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/41 "2014-11-21T06:54:01Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Yes of course. Your normal posting style is of reasonably high quality but you missed a joke and a bunch of nuances in this case (I am sure through no fault of your own). She didn’t do anything wrong, especially nothing to deserve the guillotine or even a written warning over. It was ironic social commentary sort of like the Daily Show or the Colbert Report does every day on TV and most people think is hilarious. Recalibrate your social humor meter because yours is off. I’m standing by what I wrote on this one. When you’re watching Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert (or Bill Maugher or Rush Limbaugh) you’re aware you’re watching an entertainer. So you can expect a certain amount of irony within that context. A person speaking as a performer is often not presenting their sincere beliefs but may be saying something as a piece of a larger overall message. But a teacher is different. We expect them to educate our children and that includes being a role model. A teacher espousing racism is worse than an accountant or a dentist or a physicist espousing racism - their professions can be divorced from their beliefs. But with a teacher, passing on beliefs is part of their profession. As for the message here, there was no irony contained within the message. It could be a sincere expression of racist beliefs or it could be an ironic commentary on the racist beliefs of other people. If you’re going to go with an irony defense, you’d better make sure the irony is there. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/42 "2014-11-21T06:59:05Z")
> [@btthegreat](#): > > I think we need to get started teaching these high schoolers to grow a tough enough skin, that they don’t demand a pound of proverbial flesh every time someone says or does something that deeply offends shocks or insults them. The problem I have with this attitude is it inevitably seems to mean “I want other people to stop being offended by the things I say or do about them”. I rarely see anyone suggesting that they themselves need to grow a tougher skin and learn to be less offended by remarks directed towards them. In fact, I’d say it often goes the other way. The people who complain about how overly sensitive other groups can be are also often the same people who will become most hysterically offended at a slight to their own group. ---
**Author:** ![tonyfop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85f322/32.png) [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085/43 "2014-11-25T15:38:42Z")
Having lived in Norfolk in an inter-racial marriage for 8 years, I have to say that the bias I saw there was less than what I saw elsewhere. This is probably due to the high military population, and the fact that inter-racial marriages are pretty much “meh” in the military psyche these days. Booker T. Washington is in an extremely dense black neighborhood (duh!). According to this website [http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school\_ov/school\_id/85107](http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/85107) the student body is 85% black and 6% white. The assistant principal was teacher of the year for Norfolk last year, but at another school. Adding all of these facts and opinions up, I come to this conclusion: It was an anti-racist joke by someone who was very comfortable in her racial environment, but who was not yet very well known in the new school. I will equate it to the fact that I can say things to my wife that she will find funny, but if I said them to a random African-American on the street, I would get my face punched in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-assistant-principal/705085.md?page=2)