Class Discussion

Everyone is unique. We all have our own convictions which lead us to who we are. That became evident when we had our class discussion about "Teaching the "N" Word." Third block got in a very tense discussion about the word nigger than the actual reading. We could have very easily ranted for an entire school day, but we got cut relatively short. I would just like to take a moment to say a couple things that I didn't exactly get a chance to say. DISCLAIMER: I do not mean to offend anyone. I will try to speak objectively and if some terms come out biased, that is not my intention.

A point that I made in class is that nigger is put on the taboo list because of the constant reassurance that it is a bad word. However, when you look at other condescending terms like Pollock or patty for example, they are often overlooked. Nobody considers them horrible because those words are not as well remembered.

There is no doubt that there is a lot of hate behind the word nigger, but why? People remember that it was a word used when slavery was prominent, but still the question remains. Why do people get so upset over the word? I understand that negro was the formal term for Africans and nigger was slang, but they were just words at the time.

One can argue that everything that African Americans have adopted from "white" society can be racist. Generally speaking, white people gave them the word nigger, first and last names, society ideas and principles, and many more things that did not originate in Africa. I don't exactly understand why nigger is so offensive seeing as how it started as just a blanket term for African Americans.

Something that I want to rant about is racism in McFarland. Within our class discussions we consider this town sterile. In most respects that is true, but from what I have observed, racism is the stain on our "clean" society.

I like to think that I have mingled with a relatively large amount of McFarland citizens. It seems that they are all good people for the most part; however, when someone says "black person" for example, racial slurs and jokes normally follow. When I am driving down a street with people, it strangely seems like someone feels the need to scream out "White Power" to people on the side walks. To the best of my knowledge racism in McFarland is mild. Students for the most part use it as a joke, and when it comes to a confrontation with someone of a different skin color, they seem to treat them like people.

To a limited extent, the white people of this community have an excuse for their mild racism. White people typically have a better education than blacks due to bigger bigotry, but that's a different discussion. The people who inhabit McFarland are disproportionately wealthy compared to neighboring school districts. We have had minimal contact with other races because not many minorities feel comfortable in rich, snobby McFarland.

It is my understanding that most of our black students have been expelled from "ghetto" schools like Lafollette and East. I could be wrong, but that is the common belief of the students who I talk to. What I am really getting at is that I think that it is very unfortunate that we only come in contact with the less than reputable students of other schools who just so happen to be black. We generally don't see African American students in AP, advanced, or accelerated courses at McFarland. This only adds to our accumulative racism because we see all of the bad and stereotypical things that are associated with African Americans.

The issue of racism has many people all over the board of where they stand. There are many things associated with racism and the roots of it that I hope to understand within the near future. Our class discussion opened up a lot of points of view that enlightened me. I hope that we see more controversial readings in the future in hopes that we learn from each other.