I work in education and in employment. I engage with students from all different backgrounds, and teachers from all walks of life teaching different faculties.
I’m pretty new here, and I’m learning to keep my political attitudes to myself. God knows I come from a background of ‘extreme political correctness’ as people might say; I say and I come from a background of giving a shit and respecting other people.
But something transpired in the lunchroom today that forced me to do what I always do when I am fuming; I write.
A teacher from the Tech department, a student success counsellor, a member from the Law faculty started chatting about students… And quickly began chatting about gay and trans students.
Immediately, I was on guard; I don’t know these faculty members or trust these people. So I had my fists up in the shape of a pleasant hand clasp, waiting to jump in if needed. Over the years I’ve learned to be ready.
We started chatting about a particular trans student and the tech staff stated, “Ya, tech is about computers, not gender, so we don’t really care about all that, we just get along.”
Perhaps that’s a kind statement to the ignorant ear. However I found this to be widely dismissive of the huge violence and barriers of women and trans folks succeeding in male dominated areas of work force. Not to mention this was a Video Game Development staff member. It took everything in me not to talk about the sexism and gender divide in that field. I remained quiet.
Then, they started chatting about oppressive language or behavior in the classroom. I found myself getting very anxious but I wanted to connect with my new co-workers. And so I tried to fight the urge and engage in the conversation.
Then someone told a story about a hateful comment made and said that “he didn’t really mean it,” and began talking about intentions and how important they are.
Shaken, I spoke up to remind folks that despite good or bad intent, the focus should be, and always be, on the effect of the student receiving hate speech.
A teacher who I have hardly spoken to, who was remaining quiet in his chair, finally spoke up and disapprovingly responded
“Intent does matter. It always matters.”
I responded with a little more strength: “If someone in my classroom is being hateful towards another student, out of ignorance, then I educate, I intervene, and I deal with it constructively while ensuring the maintenance of safe space of my students. If someone in my classroom is being intently hateful, then I deal with it more severely. That is the only case in which intent matters to me. “Let’s not privilege the education of oppressors, over the mental health of the marginalized.”
The teacher laughed and stuck back “It’s not privileging.”
“Yes it is!” I quickly responded.
“Students who experience oppression in classrooms are not in a space to learn. Students that come from marginalized backgrounds have enough barriers to education and learning. Our job is to ensure the safe space of all students so they have equal opportunities to learn. If that means silencing hate speech in my classroom, or using that moment to educate and to reduce the chance of that happening again, then that’s what I will do
Regardless of intent. Ignorant or polite racism is still racism.
The teacher got up, shook his head, and said “I disagree, and I have to get to class.”, leaving me in my chair to feel as though I overreacted or crossed a line. This left me feeling isolated and awkward in the lunchroom, clasping the arms of my chair. I, embarrassed, got up and cowarded back into my office.
Yet again, I feel out of place. Like I don’t belong here.
Let me just stress one more time how important education is; so you don’t end up like that feeling the way I did.
Moral of my story is:
Giving of ‘benefit of the doubt’ to privileged populations is cumbersome. We rarely give marginalized folks the ‘benefit’ of any doubt. Or take a moment to analyze the intentions of ‘poor behaviour’. We jump to conclusions and actions imbedded in stereotype.
Intention might matter, but even if it does, why is this a topic of discussion in the face of destructive behaviour to other peoples learning? We are supposed to be educators who understand the complexity of different learners. I believe the student support counsellor should know these things and should be in solidarity of these people.
Featured image via Photo by Adi Rahman on Unsplash
