During my freshman year my English class read a widely known and celebrated novel. This novel was John Steinbeck’s, “Of Mice and Men” is a standard for everyone in my district for every regular ninth grade English class to read. During this book, a story about George and Lenny the protagonists, tiring to obtain the American Dream. In there quest for this goal they encounter many hardships and a few interesting people. Basically, these two men are different from other farm hands of their generation, mainly because they have this dream and save their money instead of wasting it in bars or whore houses.
During the book George and Lenny meet a black man named Crooks. During the course of the story Crooks is called a “Nigger” often by other characters.
We were “popcorn” reading in class, which is where different people take turns reading aloud to the class. A quiet (white) girl in my class was called on to read and she read for a few sentences before approaching some dialogue which said the word “nigger” smack dab in the middle of it. She read the dialogue in a shaky voice and skipped the word “nigger” altogether. At first my teacher ignored it, but when she did it again he stopped her and told her she was aloud to say the word because that was the way the novel was written. When she skipped the word again a boy in my class, who was himself black stood up and told her that it didn’t matter if she said the word, that it wasn’t offensive and that it was ok to say it because that’s what John Steinbeck wrote. The girl ignored the boy though and skipped the word a fourth time before the teacher called on someone else.
At the time I was confused as to why she couldn’t just read what the book said, but now I see that she was embarrassed and offended by the word even though she was not black. She was uncomfortable saying it because it was a word the belittled the black man, the black person, it related to a shady time in every white persons past relatives lives that demeaned blacks as unequal to whites and she was embarrassed by it. By saying the word, in her mind she thought she was being racist, but in my opinion the word is just a part of the past. Sure, that time period before blacks became equal is at this time embarrassing for whites in this day and age. They are ashamed of their past, but the truth is, that part of our history is long gone and its ok to read the word from a book. We learn from the past and racism and inequality is a part of our past. We cant just ignore it.
The thing about racism in this day and age, is that there is really not that much of it. Racism, is a hard word to use because it is a heavy accusation to put on someone. In my experience, a lot of times my peers and teenagers use It wrong. In middle school a scene played about regularly and every time it made me cringe.
A teacher repeatedly told a black male in my seventh grade science class to stop talking and to be quiet. He was causing an obvious disruption and the teacher warned him again and aging to stop talking or throwing things in the classroom. My (white) female teacher decided that she had had enough and told him to go to A.D.P for the rest of the class period. A.D.P. stands for Alternative Day Program and is a place at my old middle school where teachers could send students as punishment for causing disruptions repeatedly in class. Upon my teacher telling this unruly student to go to A.D.P. he evidently stood up and said, “It’s only ‘cause I’m black.”
This happened regularly through out the year and once he even called her racist. That is totally uncalled for in my opinion and every time this student “pulled the black card” I wanted to stand up and say “No! Its not ‘cause your black’ its because your annoying and disruptive and if I disrupted class time then she would send me to A.D.P. too.” Though I never said this, always irritated me when he called her a racist. He didn’t use the word correctly and he used it as an excuse for his own poor behavior.
Racism, is a very serious term. Dictionary.com defines it as: hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
By calling someone a racist you are in a since calling them a hater of a different race. It alludes to the KKK who murdered innocent people because of their skin color. It alludes to Hitler and the Nazis who killed millions just because of their heritage, because they were different. By calling someone racist they are putting them on the same level as these horrible historical figures and I don’t believe they realize this. I think the average teenager or pre-teen thinks its funny to pull the race card, but its not, it’s a sign of immaturity and naivety.
The problem with calling someone racist is that it is a huge accusation. If someone is ratted out for being openly racist or falsely accused of being racist could get one fired from their job, ruin someone’s reputation and even ruin their entire life. Racism is not tolerated to any extent in today’s society and being falsely accused because of a stupid teenager can ruin the accuser’s entire life. The word “Racist” or “racism” is falsely interpreted by teenagers and pre-teens on a regular basis and they just don’t realize what the word really means or how serious the term really is.
When teenagers use the words “racist” or “its because I’m black”, even when they are joking around there is a way to misinterpret the conversation. There is a difference in making remarks that can be interpreted as racist in historical context and making serious racist remarks in a joking manor. Teenagers need to have a better understanding that the term is not to be taken lightly and makes teenagers sound immature and naive. In my opinion if teenagers want to insult someone they should go quote some shakeshere and stop sounding like idiots by making false accusations.
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