FastForward Vol. 30 #2 November-December 2020
BL ACK , INDIGE NO U S A ND P E OP L E OF COLOR
My history teacher made us have a debate pretending to be the founding fathers. We had to argue from the points of view on a few different topics and one of them was whether slaves should be considered whole people or fractions. Kids in my class including myself had to argue that slaves were only fractions of a person. I’m halfblack. When I told admin, they spoke with the teacher about how it wasn’t ok and how role playing with topics such as slavery shouldn’t happen again.
On the first day of AP English Lit, Mr. —— looked me up and down and told me I was in the wrong class. When I gently corrected him, he said, “This is *Advanced Placement* English” so I must be in the wrong place. I pointed my name out on his roster and sat down embarrassed. I truly internalized this interaction and felt like I didn’t belong in the class.
I had an older white teacher in my senior year that would frequently show us films that depicted BIPOC in negative, damaging ways. One time he showed us a film from the 80’s that had a racist plot. Essentially a white wealthy white man trades places with a black homeless man on a bet. The black character portrays several racial stereotypes and was called slurs. There was even a scene where the lead white character wore blackface and exaggerated the stereotype of a Jamaican man.
bipoc.of.marin
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YOU ARE NOT ALONE This is a safe space for people to share their experiences with racism in Marin County schools.
My elementary school was overwhelmingly white. I was the one of the only Asian girls. I faced a lot of pretty racist stuff (making fun of my food, etc) and I definitely did not fit in there. However, there was one incident that really stood out for me. I was eating lunch at a table with some other 4th graders. Sitting with us was a half-Asian guy, and out of the blue, one person asked, ‘Who would you rather have to hang out with if you had to, a half-Asian guy or me (full-Asian)?’ I was very much taken aback and expected people not to give an answer.
During Senior year, when it was time to meet with your school counselor to talk about college, my counselor told me that I would be better off going to a community college, and then transferring because it would be more affordable. She also only told me the classes I needed to graduate. I had a 3.8 GPA, not too shabby. Same counselor helped my white friend make sure she had the right classes to apply to all State schools and UC’s and that friend had a 3.1 GPA.
I am half-Mexican. My abuela fought for civil rights in Los Angeles and had influenced me and my family greatly. I would proudly tell my classmates, both white and Latinx, that I am Mexican — and then they would try to tell me, “No, you’re not really Mexican, you’re white” or “But you’re not really Mexican like the rest of them.” People would so often try to define my race and nationality for me. I began to lose sight of where my family comes from and what my abuela fought for.
One year I had a few classes with this one kid who was consistently racist. I’m white so I was never a target myself, but I witnessed him taunting a Black kid all the time in one class, making racial jokes and even using the “n” word. I told the teacher who I believe gave the aggressor a talkingto and the behavior stopped being as overt. (but he was basically a bully and went on his way to engage with this Black kid in class.)
In 8th grade, we were studying US history and we were given a roleplaying project. We were all assigned different positions and one of them was “slave/plantation owners.” The point of the project was to research the point of view of your assigned character and debate in favor of that character’s views. This was obviously super problematic as some people were going to have to argue in favor of slavery. Everyone was visibly uncomfortable but didn’t say anything. I was one of the few BIPOC kids in my class (half black) but I was assigned a slave owner as my character.
Growing up in Marin after moving from Sacramento has been a traumatizing experience. Racism is still at large. I have seen it at my school. I am Black and Mexican. A lot of white students looked at me as if I was a threat to them. Some even called me a “duck” because of my lips puckering up all the time. I always knew it was a symbol of bullying and hate. At times, I wanted to cut my lips off, but it would not make me any better. Teachers and staff need to really listen to BIPOC students who are being bullied, racially-profiled and not being treated fairly.