Black Education / Schools : Black teacher white student

[Full Speed]

In 2005 I moved to Dallas and was substitute teaching about half of the time I was there. Worked in a northern suburb (Frisco) which is relatively affluent. It was an interesting experience because I found that my east-side lost angeles, west coast dialect was actually considered "proper" to most Texans I interacted with. After awhile I used to catch myself as my dialect started changing to an 'informal' mode which to me was awkward because I times I would have to deal with administrators who also were from different parts of the country whose dialect was less informal. Most of the Black administrators I interacted with, who were local Texans, seemed to be very cautios to speak 'standard' english which seemed a way for the listener to not detect their origins. I actually had one sister explain this to me.

Working at a 7/11 one summer i got to experience the 'red neck' language up close because oftentimes they would come in asking for tobacco products and i could hardly understand what they were talking about. Since many of the customers were return clientele i quickly remembered their purchasing patterns which helped alot but they would crack me up at times.

Back to los angeles. I used to date women who would always ask where i was from. I often had folks tell me i sounded like i was from Brooklyn or that i sounded 'eastie'. I still dont know what that means but i used to be a musician and most of my hometown musician friends all had left lost angeles and moved to europe and/or new york and then returned back to la before moving on elsewhere. Usually back to new york. I guess i got so comfortable around them i never detected any changes in dialect until i started self-checking and foun that i was picking up some regional dialect batterns which indeed were east coast. I think that i got that also the more time i spent with my daughter who was born in la, raised in atl, and attended graduate school at columbia...and her mother was raised in bk.

When I first move to this area I had this guy with a strong "southern drawl" tell me "you talk better than any Black man I ever met" to which I responded, "Thank you, You have about an average southern redneck drawl" He said "Hey, I wasn't tryin' to be racist, I was tryin' to compliment you" I said, "What? Do you consider my assessment of your speech pattern racist?" He thought about it for a second then said "I guess I did sound racist, sorry"

 

[Full Speed]

This story is a fabrication like the "Willie Lynch Letter"

Yeah, I'm sure....nothing like this could ever happen in real life.

 

[cherryblossom]

In 2005 I moved to Dallas and was substitute teaching about half of the time I was there. Worked in a northern suburb (Frisco) which is relatively affluent. It was an interesting experience because I found that my east-side lost angeles, west coast dialect was actually considered "proper" to most Texans I interacted with. After awhile I used to catch myself as my dialect started changing to an 'informal' mode which to me was awkward because I times I would have to deal with administrators who also were from different parts of the country whose dialect was less informal. Most of the Black administrators I interacted with, who were local Texans, seemed to be very cautios to speak 'standard' english which seemed a way for the listener to not detect their origins. I actually had one sister explain this to me.

Working at a 7/11 one summer i got to experience the 'red neck' language up close because oftentimes they would come in asking for tobacco products and i could hardly understand what they were talking about. Since many of the customers were return clientele i quickly remembered their purchasing patterns which helped alot but they would crack me up at times.

Back to los angeles. I used to date women who would always ask where i was from. I often had folks tell me i sounded like i was from Brooklyn or that i sounded 'eastie'. I still dont know what that means but i used to be a musician and most of my hometown musician friends all had left lost angeles and moved to europe and/or new york and then returned back to la before moving on elsewhere. Usually back to new york. I guess i got so comfortable around them i never detected any changes in dialect until i started self-checking and foun that i was picking up some regional dialect batterns which indeed were east coast. I think that i got that also the more time i spent with my daughter who was born in la, raised in atl, and attended graduate school at columbia...and her mother was raised in bk.

Yes, without realizing it, we do often pick up regional speech patterns/dialects through exposure.

Many years ago, I had a white professor who stopped me after class to ask me where I was from....He said that he was retired Air Force and had been around the world, twice, and was pretty adept at identifying a person's regional background by their speech; but he couldn't pinpoint mine because he heard different ones when I spoke in class.

I asked him what he "heard" and he said, "Southern, Mid-west, and East Coast."

I laughed because I had been exposed to all three. I am Southern born/bred but didn't realized that I had picked up the other 2 from exposure.

Even now, very often people will ask me, "Where you from?" (lol)

 

[lutherbarack]

hmy: wow
this is ridiculous...is this the type of stories you hear from coworkers at work?....GIVE ME A BREAK.. so you mean the story is, a benevolent white mother whose kid is in a school ran by incompetent minorities who set out to miseducate and mistreat promising young white students...until courageous mom defies all the odds and risks everything to bring justice forth..which all led up to the final moment were the educator, parent and administrator are all face to face and suddenly! As if by a miracle! It is exposed that the teacher wasn't communicating in coherent language but in a foreign dialect proven to be detrimental to all that hear it!...in the educators final cry..her last chance to reserve her right to continue teaching in her peculiar style that systematically destroys the intellect of young white hopefuls she yells:"I can't believe this, you are BLACK, you are supposed to be on my side" to which the admin replies "I am supposed to bring a resolution and mediate what is ....what is.....WHAT IS RIGHT"!!!!!
*courageous music plays in the background*

Years later the foolish black teacher apologizes and admits that the benevolent white mom "cured her" of her pathological sickness...and that's how the story end..



I'm done! Is she voting Palin 2012...she sounds like a supporter...white hockey moms have to protect their children at all cost.. even if that means tackling ebonics head on and putting these minorities in their "place"!...after all they dont know any better..white people crack me up...Every bodies wrong but her and her bad @ss son that needs a whopping...That admin is a sell out! so you mean to tell me this teacher went from speaking fluid English to Arabic in a matter of moments?

 

[Full Speed]

hmy: wow
this is ridiculous...is this the type of stories you hear from coworkers at work?....GIVE ME A BREAK.. so you mean the story is, a benevolent white mother whose kid is in a school ran by incompetent minorities who set out to miseducate and mistreat promising young white students...until courageous mom defies all the odds and risks everything to bring justice forth..which all led up to the final moment were the educator, parent and administrator are all face to face and suddenly! As if by a miracle! It is exposed that the teacher wasn't communicating in coherent language but in a foreign dialect proven to be detrimental to all that hear it!...in the educators final cry..her last chance to reserve her right to continue teaching in her peculiar style that systematically destroys the intellect of young white hopefuls she yells:"I can't believe this, you are BLACK, you are supposed to be on my side" to which the admin replies "I am supposed to bring a resolution and mediate what is ....what is.....WHAT IS RIGHT"!!!!!
*courageous music plays in the background*

Years later the foolish black teacher apologizes and admits that the benevolent white mom "cured her" of her pathological sickness...and that's how the story end..



I'm done! Is she voting Palin 2012...she sounds like a supporter...white hockey moms have to protect their children at all cost.. even if that means tackling ebonics head on and putting these minorities in their "place"!...after all they dont know any better..white people crack me up...Every bodies wrong but her and her bad @ss son that needs a whopping...That admin is a sell out! so you mean to tell me this teacher went from speaking fluid English to Arabic in a matter of moments?

What an imagination...you read much more into that than was ever insinuated.


If your son grades had dropped from straight A's to straight F's and told you he could not understand his teacher obviously you would want to meet with that teacher. If you then found out that that teacher had a strong southern red neck drawl and your son was not accustomed to that, you would want to say something to indicate that the teachers speaking pattern might have something to do with why your son could not understand her. Would that make you a racist for merely bringing that up?????? If you did not bring it up in the perfect diplomatic way, would that make you a racist??????

Even if you are a racist, your bottom line is you want your son's grades to return to where they were in previous years. If they return and your son is no longer complaining about not being able to understand, and you don't continue to come up with new reasons to complain against that teacher, its all good.