I am a high school band director. The junior high band director that I work with was having “officer” elections for her sixth graders – gonna-be seventh graders – today. They were voting for President, Vice President, etc. Very heady stuff for a junior high kid.
Each student running for a position wrote a paragraph explaining why he/she was the ideal person for that particular job. There were two candidates for president. One of them is white, the other African-American. Both wrote paragraphs that were mostly unremarkable. The white kid wrote “Make Band Greater Again” in big letters on his paper. Okay. Whatever – it’s a slogan (even though he mis-paraphrased it). It’s not even a bad slogan, from a certain point of view.
So, late this afternoon, it was brought to my and my counterpart’s attention that the white kid, in his efforts to make band greater again, has been going around school telling other kids to vote for him because “at least I’m not black.”
Sonofafuckinbitch.
Trump didn’t invent racism. He’s not even the best practitioner of racism. But, he has allowed the racists to feel emboldened. I am supposing that the white kid told his parents about the upcoming election and his opponent. The African-American kid has a name that one might commonly attribute to a black person (am I showing my own biases?). Perhaps the parent suggested the “at least you’re not black” campaign tactic.
My quesrion is what you guys are going to do about it. Unlike the real thing, you’re actually in a position to possibly nip this in the bud. That said, I’m not sure the best strategy.
One would hope this would be a self-correcting problem - that is, that racist-boy would get voted down by a landslide and perhaps realize that being racist-boy isn’t cool.
However that approach relies on the other kids not being racists, and one thing that the last few years have taught me that we can never rely on the decency of our fellow man. Kids. Whatever.
Before you condemn him, please make sure you have proof that this is true. Until you hear it with your own ears, or have corroborating evidence, it could just be a rumor. If its not true, then you avoid tarnishing this kid. If it is true, then you can take definite action.
My knee-jerk reaction is to want to find racism boy a foster home because his parents are the problem. My knee-jerk reaction is not good, but there it is.
I’d be very tempted to quietly take this kid aside, and let him know that rumors have been spread to impugn his good name, and these rumors reflect behavior so repugnant that, if they were true, would disqualify him from serving as president, even if he were to win the election (we can bluff a bit here, can’t we?).
So it’s up to him to make sure that they’re not true, and that they stop spreading. And whether he wants to publicly disavow the hateful attitudes reflected in these rumors, or publicly apologize for their content, is up to him.
Then after being thus tempted, I’d probably let cooler heads prevail.
Yeah whenever I hear anyone say something like “children are so innocent, hate has to be learned, everybody is born kind and loving and non-racist &c”, I’m like…no,no, that’s not how it is…kids are horrible to each other, everyone by default is a little monster, it’s being nice that has to be taught.
I think that sounds like a great strategy, and wouldn’t bother leaving any space for cooler heads at all. Advantage: it’s **not **a public shaming strategy. Public shaming is terrible, and should never be used by people in authority, who have much better tools at their disposal. Especially not on children.
A similar strategy which occurs to me, if it is definitely proved that the events in question happened, would be to invite the two candidates to a quiet one on one meeting, where their differing campaign strategies can be discussed, and Kid #1 can be invited to explain to Kid #2’s face why he chose the particular campaign strategy that he did. Noelq’s point is a good one though. It might be a bunch of bullshit.
Perhaps you could hold a school assembly on the eve of the election, where you announce that you are opening an investigation into the campaign tactics of white kid. Leave it ambiguous what may have been said. Let speculation among the student body run wild. Leak some choice info to the school paper.
My associate is investigating by asking other students what, if anything, they know about this. The principal is aware of the problem. Since this is my first (and last) year with this school, I am not going to handle it any more than I already have. In three weeks, it will be their problem, not mine.
(I am victim of this same sort of thing. Some students decided to say nasty – and untrue – things about me. I’m done with this crazy town. There are some good kids here, but this shit is nutz. Adults and children here think nothing of smearing someone’s reputation just because they don’t like something.)
Back to Trump, when the Access Hollywood tape came to light a while back, an eighth grade girl came up to me after class. She was visibly upset about something. After some coaxing, she finally told me that the two boys who sit next to her said that they wanted to “lick her pussy.” Now, I’ve had boys be mean to girls before. That’s part of the joy of middle school. But, that was the first (and only) time that word has been in my classroom. Now, over a year later, I’ve got Mr. “Make Band Greater Again” allegedly telling classmates to vote for him because he’s not black. Trump has truly elevated classroom discussion. Two problems I’ve never had before and both have attributes of Trumpism. I’ve been teaching for 26 years, so this is hardly my first rodeo.
I need to ask, what are race relations like in the school? Was there a racial incident that might have started all this? In many schools the kids can be pretty divided. Like all the black kids sit together or they have alot of race based gangs.
If this were a light hearted comedy, the black student could counter with “Band President should be someone with rhythm” speech. Then a write-in campaign started by a girl in a wheelchair would win by two votes, ironically cast by the other two candidates.