“I’m A Little Bit Racist”

“I’m a little bit racist.”

~Mr. R, an elementary school teacher

I once knew a teacher (yes, a teacher), who was fond of using this phrase. He really liked to use this phrase. I think he was proud of it. I think he thought the “little bit” was okay. He’d got away with it for over 25 years, after all, and never been called out on it. He probably thought this was some profound point about human nature.

(If pushed on this phrase, maybe he would say, like some right wings folks currently do, “we’re all a little bit racist”. The universalizing of the statement, of course, being designed to give it legitimacy it might not otherwise get)

His initial wasn’t “R”, and he’s likely long retired, close to 70, but let’s call him “Mr. R”. The “R” fits here.

Mr. R was of that “old school” type of man, the type to think this sort of statement is some kind of badge of pride. A dinosaur, in other words, even in 2002, when this happened.

Later on, this man ranted about how Barack Obama would be assassinated. He spouted to me some nonsense about how “black mothers don’t love their children”, and I thought about it over night, and then came back, ready to talk about it. When I say, “ready to talk”, I mean spitting mad, and ready to take on an “alpha dog” of 25+ years of experience. But silence is complicity, and my silence stayed with me like a stain all night. I brooded on it. I decided what to say.

“I didn’t appreciate…” I know I started something like that. I had to tell him. The words came out in a jumble, a tumble, with anger.

Guess what? He was ready to tell me what he didn’t “appreciate”. Some people have a justification for everything. Some people absorb so much poison politics that they go around being hurt and wounded by life. Some people need to have opinions on everything.

And so you want to know why I don’t buy the “world’s not racist anymore” line of thinking? It’s because of this man. The world has changed, but it hasn’t changed that much.

This happened in a school just like any other. It happened in a school board just like any other. I am not complacent because I know there are other Mr. R’s out there. I know there are many Ms. R’s and Mr. R’s. They work with children, and if unchecked, they can do damage. They may claim to not let their political beliefs enter their classrooms, but that is a pretty hard claim to agree with: implicit bias is part of your worldview, when you are “a little bit racist”.

The Mr. R’s of the world must be called out. The Mr. R’s of the world teach your sons and daughters. Turning away from the “little bit racist” people, because there are others who are “a lot racist”, is not an option. What is the difference between “a little bit”, and “a lot”, when you are working with children?

There is no map, or no plan, for when a Mr. R springs his racist nonsense on you. You might need to go home and think about it, like I did. Calling out Mr. R is never easy, but it must be done. The kids around you need to know you are standing for them.