Discussion
  • Read More
    Ugh.Genetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 12:07pm

    Who the fuck IS this woman?

    Reply
    • Read More
      Darmok eats Challah at 12NagraUgh.
      3/31/17 12:13pm

      Tomorrow’s Secretary of Education.

      Reply
    • Read More
      Where are my keys?Ugh.
      3/31/17 12:23pm

      He argues that the things that will allow black kids to succeed are different than the things that allow other groups to succeed. As if encouraging them to speak nonstandard English or to rap instead of studying will help them go to college and earn a living.

      If this isn’t the soft bigotry of low expectations, I don’t know what is.

      Some racist Becky who actually wrote this shit and thought, yeah, post it!

      Reply
  • Read More
    Hoyo AfrikaGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 12:20pm

    I always find it so rich when white people feign a sense of concern about the education of minority children. Those same idiots, like this Riley person, will attack black PhD students for their subject material when she says: “How could we overlook the nonwhite experience in “natural birth literature,” whatever the heck that is?” So which one is is Bex? You’re concerned or you’re actively mocking? What am I saying, that is the white way of doing things.

    ETA: For some reason, The Ways of White Folks popped into my head. Good read for those bored on the weekend.

    Reply
    • Read More
      Kyo Soma A.Hoyo Afrika
      3/31/17 12:26pm

      Thanks for the book tip I will pick up today!

      Reply
    • Read More
      Cardi B's Other ShoeHoyo Afrika
      3/31/17 12:31pm

      Thanks for the rec, but I’ll have to read it next weekend.

      Reply
  • Read More
    thenewmrssalazarGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 12:28pm

    As a Latina teaching math I agree with you 100%. People who have never taught need to STFU. And let us not forget the shitty treatment teachers of color get. I have had students ask me why I don’t teach Spanish. I have had parents tell me it is stupid to push for minorities to take up teaching.

    In the end good teachers understand that their students need to feel important and valued. Their culture, the student as an individual and their experience. Keep up the good fight for all of us in the trenches!

    Reply
    • Read More
      Where are my keys?thenewmrssalazar
      3/31/17 12:57pm

      Thank you for teaching.

      Reply
    • Read More
      thundercatsaregothenewmrssalazar
      3/31/17 2:28pm

      “I have had parents tell me it is stupid to push for minorities to take up teaching.”

      What the everliving what?! How is this even still a thing we’re debating anymore? There is such an inherent value to being able to see yourself reflected in the racial and cultural makeup of your teachers (at all levels of education). I’ve attended three different universities and worked at another three—and in none of those English departments was the African American literature class taught by a black person. None. It’s a problem that I’ve never had a black literature professor.* And if someone can’t see how that effects the kind of student who feels welcome and like they have a place in that field of study, then they’re being extremely narrow-minded. It matters that you see other people who are like you succeeding in a variety of contexts. It makes you feel like you, too, might have a seat at the table.

      And quite frankly, most of my white students could benefit from learning from a more diverse crop of teachers, too.

      *If American literature programs were structured appropriately, they should be full of black faculty members and students. Jesus, the vast majority of American literature from the 20th century that’s worth a damn is written by African Americans: Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and of course, Toni Morrison, who is without doubt our the greatest American novelist ever (sorry Fitzgerald and Hemingway, it’s not eve close). Arguably, the literature of America in the 20th century is African American literature. The rest can take a seat. But the canon doesn’t reflect this. Instead, it shuffles black literature off into a single elective when it should be basically the main focus of the post-1920 curriculum (and a much larger focus of pre-1900 American lit). American literary culture would be fairly pathetic were it not for the contributions of African Americans. This subject should be so popular with students of color, but it’s not because we’ve basically said that there’s “American lit” and then “African American lit,” which is divorced from the “classics.” It’s bullshit. ...OK, that’s the end of my rant. If you’ve read this far you’re a saint.

      Reply
  • Read More
    SaidTheTickTockManGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 2:21pm

    What really impresses me about white people who talk about ‘fixing’ education for black kids is that they essentially take everything that makes white, suburban schools successful and argue poor black schools do the opposite. The idiocy is truly spectacular.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Manitos, The Tiny Hands of TrumpGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 2:40pm

    I can’t even with her. She’s the epitome of WYPIPO. She refuses to acknowledge systematic disadvantages among minorities. And every time a minority fails it’s because of their culture.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Darmok eats Challah at 12NagraGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 12:18pm

    Apparently people living in the lap of luxury criticizing how other people teach disadvantaged children or struggle to explain the challenge is a ritual in of itself.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Absent HumanityGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 1:58pm

    Bookmarked your book and will totally buy it once I’m not broke.

    The sheer level of idiocy and white privilege in Riley’s words is nothing short of cringeworthy. Her (toxic) whiteness is so strong that she thinks that even without teaching experience OR the firsthand experience of being black or brown in or out of the school system, she’s qualified to mock the revolutionary works of scholars like you as well as give baseless input on something that has nothing to do with her. That said, I much applaud your way of picking her apart (in a tactful fashion, no less) and hope she sees your response to her non-article.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Carmen Sandiego's GPSGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 1:49pm

    From what I read about her, she has a fixation on Black Studies and Black students. She has a lot of opinions, but lacks the research to validate them. She’s criticizing without adding anything of value to the conversation.

    “Lets do away with Black Studies, then ...”

    It always rubs me the wrong way when people who lack experience or research opine about minority issues.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Cali4lifeGenetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 2:18pm

    Thanks for your research and field of study. And for not showing up to becky’s house and shooting her with a water gun like Lilo does to Stitch when she’s training him on how to behave. Though she does deserve some water splashed on her face...

    Reply
  • Read More
    cjas9298Genetta M. Adams
    3/31/17 12:50pm

    “Research says otherwise, but we’ve already established that Riley doesn’t read.”

    Reply