No, instead she did it quite deliberately in a context where nationality was already being discussed and the student was feeling like he was being treated unfairly because of his race.
I consider that worse myself. Rather than ‘she was provoked’ being an excuse, I think in that situation she had an even greater responsibility to not respond - she’s the one being paid to be a role model.
Otara
What if, in the same context, she called him a “dirty spic” and a “wetback”? Would you find the circumstances mitigating in that case? To me “Go back to Mexico” is of the same degree.
I think it was extremely inappropriate, and she should face serious disciplinary action.
She is a professional, and “Go back to Mexico” is not something you say in a professional context, ever. It’s not appropriate for the workplace. It’s not really appropriate for any place. If I said that to anyone in my office, I would fully expect to lose my job. If I said that to a client…well, it wouldn’t be pretty. It’s just not something you say.
I’ve been a teacher, and I know quite well how easy it is to react emotionally when a student is pushing your buttons. But while you may get frustrated, it’s not okay to say something that personally hurtful to a student. Letting lose an occasional zinger may be helpful in classroom management, but these things cannot be personal attacks.
IMO, some people don’t belong in this country.
I think the teacher was spot-on.
How do you know any of that? Where does it say that nationality was being discussed of that he was being treated unfairly due to his race?
It’s not the same to me at all, because there are no circumstances where you could call someone that without being racist (you could of course use the terms in discussion, like you just did).
He’s a eighth grader. A kid. He’s probably not through puberty yet.
But you are willing to say he doesn’t belong in the country? Based on a couple of lines in a news story?
A country he almost certainly had no say in his existence in?
You do realize what a personal, off-putting, shakes-you-in-the-core thing it is to be told that you don’t belong where you live? Have you ever had someone, especially someone in authority, tell you that you fundamentally do not belong? Have you ever felt like you don’t have the right to exist in the space you are occupying in your daily life? It stings. It shakes you. I’m not saying the teacher did all that, but you sure as hell did.
That’s fucked up. He’s a thirteen year old mouthing off, and you are willing to use that to say he doesn’t belong in the country?
As a Mexican American born in Los Angeles, you would be amazed at the countless times I was told to go back to Mexico since childhood. Often it was used just after any minor disagreement with an anglo, and sometimes for no apparent reason at all. Like when racists pass by myself and my grandmother walking, and would yell “go back to Mexico”, and worse from their cars.
The use of that statement may be more politically loaded in the southwest U.S. because the Indigenous Mexican population here often knows our history from a different perspective then the anglo. Many of us learn from our elders that we were here before the border was superimposed on the land, and we still identify as Mexican in an anglo dominated society, despite being born on the north side of the border. This is more beneath the surface, than outright, but it still simmers away and sometimes boils up to the surface.
I believe that it was a disparaging remark, and especially from an adult educator to a child. The teacher is by her actions, setting an example to anglo children- who will continue to think that it is OK to consider Mexican and Mexican American children different, and from somewhere else, NOT ONE OF OUR KIND.
I was sad to hear the story, because it brought back hurtful memories. I would not fire the teacher unless I thought that doing so would change society, and end racism. Which it would not, the teacher would only become the hero of people who think the wind stops at the Mexican border.
Just as another example of how ignorant the remark is, I have also heard racists say a similar thing to Black Americans, with many generations in the U.S., that they" go back to Africa", as if history made no difference.
No it is not. It was specifically applied to him and only was a retort to his refrain “I’m from Mexico” and generally aggravating the hell out of her. Calling the kid a “spic” would have directed against all Hispanics.
I believe this is something called hyperbole and sarcasm.
It’s exactly the same to me. There’s never any circumstance in which you tell someone he or she doesn’t belong to the country he lives in. No person has the right to say that.
There’s really no difference, spic, wetback, nigger, go back where you came from. Regardless of the circumstance, to the extent that any of them are hateful against a class of people, they all are.
Knowing that poster’s history, he doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe you could elaborate more on this comment?
She didn’t say “All of you people should go back to Mexico”, she said that only after he kept saying “I’m from Mexico” like a broken recording machine. The student’s statements practically made such a statement a natural retort.
If the teacher said “All you people should go back to Mexico” then you would recognize that statement as a racist comment or a less “natural retort” ? Yet since it was directed at only one child means that other children of the same racial background, who heard this remark from their teacher- might not pick up on it, as if it were not an important statement from a respected authority figure?
And you are positive that the child was not repeating himself in order to get her attention, because you were in the room with them, or you read it somewhere?
I think it was a stupid comment made in the heat of the moment that she didn’t realize until it came out of her mouth. Like when a person says , and you automatically respond ‘your mom is !’. Except this time the automatic response ended up in a very bad madlib. It’s happened to me way too many times and then I just slink away embarrassed.
Send her to some special teacher sensitivity workshops and maybe giver her a temporary suspension, but I don’t think she should be fired for it. She has a clean record up to this point.
Absolute bullshit. This sort of ridiculous hyperbole is like handing accelerant and a box of matches to the “political correctness is out of control!” contingent.
The haste with which some of you are ready to destroy someone’s life and career over a single sensationalized comment—and to equate it with her flat-out calling the kid a “nigger,” no less—truly sickens me. Go ahead, sanitize the language; make the teachers fear the wrath of the children. See what you end up with.
So the next time it happens, they can say that it was merely a slip of the tongue or a natural retort? Now that is what I call sanitized, and it can get in the way of dealing with the real issues of racism.
Teachers and future teachers as well as the students could possibly benefit more with a straight forward approach to this kind of problem. Is cultural sensitivity part of the “political correctness out of control contingent”? In that case teachers fearing the wrath of the children may be the least of the worries, and the parents may soon come to the realization that enough is enough, then come the activists and community leaders. One solution might be to tell everyone to go back to Mexico. Maybe that will make it all go away.
Why not treat it as a serious issue instead of making excuses and pretending it is a fluke and hurts no one?
With this particular teacher, I’m guessing if she said it again she’d be fired on the spot. For that matter if she had a history of making prejudicial comments or discriminating against Mexicans in class I’d say fire her, but she doesn’t; even if she made a "Mexicans Go Home!"or similar comment on Facebook or some other public but off-school venue, I’d take it into account, but again, she doesn’t. For any other teacher I would say that next time it happens they examine the particular set of circumstances and have a hearing, just as they did with this one.
She shouldn’t be fired or reprimanded. How is this even a story? She and every other teacher should be able to mete out meaningful consequences to such mouthy little shits. Instead we have an avalanche of PC bullshit from people who don’t understand context and apparently can’t bear a little levity. This is the kind of thinking that leads to zero-tolerance policies, heaven forbid we actually exercise judgment.
Wow, right on the first try!
I do think that what she did was on the wrong side of right, but the kid was being a douche. Ye without sin cast the first stone.
She wasn’t saying he didn’t belong in the US, though.
And of course there’s a difference. It’s not like there’s a group of ‘bad words and phrases’ and a group of ‘OK words and phrases’ with nothing in-between.
It’s very difficult to evaluate the perlocutionary force of any utterance without knowing and being able to review its occurrence in “real time” (i.e., on video tape, for example). Even from the news accounts, we don’t really know:
Exactly what kind of relationship this teacher has with this particular group of students.
Exactly what the student really meant, and how he meant to express, this phrase, “I’m from Mexico.” (Was it an aggressive taunt? A mere attention-seeking stock phrase, etc.?)
Exactly how the offense was originally marked as an offense, and by whom. (The student himself? Another student? Another teacher?)
Paralinguistic signals such as tone of voice, body language, etc. (We do know, however, that the teacher has admitted that she “lost her temper” by saying it, so that reveals a lot.)
And others…
Even the phrase “fuck you” can be used without any offense in certain situations, such as among good friends, to mean the equivalent of “get lost,” or “you’re annoying me” (expressing minor, good-natured, or mock irritation.) It’s conceivable that someone could say, “Then go back to Mexico,” in the same way (especially because the phrase begins with “then.”)
That said, at the very least we can say it wasn’t the best choice of words, considering the history of this phrase in the Southwest, as florez has described.