I always thought they were purple.
It’s fourteen, right? Fourteen beatings?
I’m not trolling, and I don’t think they were talking about Roman slaves specifically. It’s just that when I think of slaves I think of slavery as an institution throughout history (and often used as a plot device in fantasy and sci-fi – I mean, Anakin and Shmi Skywalker were white slaves in very recent, very high profile fiction so it’s not precisely unheard of) rather than that ONE specific instance that happened to be local to my country. Perhaps I’m just odd, like I said, it’s still horrid, I just don’t think you can immediately connect it with racism. Hell, during the Holocaust it’s not like the Jews weren’t basically enslaved in Concentration Camps (in addition to all the other terrible things done to them) – it’s not just limited to one race though racism is often a driving factor IN enslavement.
Since Labrador Deceiverhas already secured the front seat in the douche canoe, take your proper place on the back seat.
Is it REALLY that bad that I don’t find it necessarily racist? I still said that it was in really poor taste, slavery is terrible, it’s just that the world has had a history of slavery much longer and more diverse than one specific instance in the US. Even if the context of their social studies class was Civil War era, it doesn’t make references to slavery racist. After all, slavery is terrible no matter who it’s done to (and it’s still being done, i.e. sex slave trafficking) and I’m pretty sure they make that rather clear in school even if they avoid the more gruesome specifics.
Gwinnett County: the [del]power[/del] stench of the place.
I remember hearing a proverb (I forget where… maybe Japan): “Don’t retie your shoelaces when you are walking by someone else’s melon field.” Why go there?
I think you may be thinking of “Don’t tie your shoelaces in someone’s melon field, and don’t fix your hat under someone’s pear tree”, which I think is Chinese. Does what you’re thinking of more or less mean “don’t do something that could look bad even if it’s innocent”?
No, I meant just don’t be stupid.
You’re right, of course, the entire population should remain fixated on it lest it should ever recede into history and (perish the thought) we should all start getting along together.
Amen! We’re all good now. No reason to go on about that slavery business.
You’d better answer if you know what’s good for you.
You’re acting as if Georgia’s relationship to its own history of slavery is no different than its relationship to all the other instances of slavery in the world. It’s not just a matter of ancient history. We live in a society in which our history of slavery is relevant and profoundly consequential on a day to day basis, especially if you live in Georgia. Our politics and economy and society make no sense unless you understand that. If you think that living in this country that a mention if beating a slave is no more invocative of American slavery than Roman slavery, you’re either oblivious or deluded.
And again why do you keep harping on the issue of whether it’s “racist”? That’s not the primary issue.
Oh man.
As a Georgian who has been commuting to Atlanta from Athens for more than 20 years, I can say without doubt that this is the worst crap I’ve seen in a long long time.
Seriously, y’all. I am embarrassed.
I have worked with educators at the state level (mind you this was in 1982) and this kind of (I want to write something else but crap) is unacceptable.
I am local.
I will protest this.
This is blankety-blank unacceptable.
I am embarrassed. Not all Georgians are idiots.
So it’s impossible to write a math question related to social studies without putting the student in the position of committing crimes against humanity?
I’m saying treat it as history, not as an open, festering sore. Keep picking at a sore and it will never heal.
Whoosh… I must get back to sleep.
My family, as far back as can track, never owned slaves.
But, up until my father, they all treated blacks as something other than human.
I will NEVER forget that.
That just is unacceptable.
I am very proud that my father forbid my mother’s father to use the word ‘nigger’ in our house.
I am also glad that I have been blessed to have among my friends several people who call themselves ‘black’ even though none of them are. They are all brown.
Trivializing? Possibly. “Asking the kids to put themselves in the mind of a slave owner”? Not a chance. My first reaction was empathy with the slaves. If you want to ask questions that highlight the horrors of the Holocaust, then by all means do so if the kids will actually learn something. It may even be a good thing to ask “kids to put themselves in the mind of” various bad people. It’s often hard to understand how people can pull such horrible shit on their fellow humans. I don’t think a 1-liner math question is the way to do it, but it’s not necessarily a bad exercise.
But seriously, if the questions bug people that much, then simply ask the teacher not to do it again, explain why, and tell parents that the curriculum has been adjusted so as to ruffle fewer feathers. The questions don’t mean that someone at the school is a secret racist who is trying to put anyone down. Obviously the curriculum integration didn’t synch well if parents are saying, “I’m having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem.” It does not, however, mean that we now “know that there’s still racists.” There are, obviously (we’ve all met them), but not because of math problems.
Well, I was edujoomacated in Joe-jah, all the way up to sixteenth grade, and I think I was learnt real good. And they didn’t even have to learn us that slavery stuff during math class. That was just how good them teachers was to us.
Actually, I don’t even think we learned about slavery in the third grade. Of course, I knew about it, but I don’t remember receiving formal lessons on it until the fifth grade.
Oy carayo… I have to start counting from 1 again…
