TWA:
Teaching While Asian
by
Larry Elder
DWB. Driving
While Black. That's an expression some blacks use to argue that police
unfairly single them out. Let's try a new one: TWA--Teaching While
Asian.
Imagine you're
fifth-grade teacher Marylin Fong, an Asian, who last week got dinged
with a million dollar civil rights lawsuit. Fong teaches fifth grade
at James Monroe School in the San Leandro School District in the Bay
Area. Of the school's 574 students, 11% are black. The school has
no black teachers.
Ms. Fong's crime?
Frustrated because an eleven year-old black child refused to dot his
"i's" and "t's" while writing, Fong took a marker, and drew circles
and dots on the child's eyelids as a reminder. Wrong move. Asian teacher,
black kid. You know what's next--racism!
On my radio program,
I interviewed Taylor Culver, the attorney representing the parents
of the fifth-grader. According to him, the child suffers psychological
damage as a result of the teachers mistreatment, and now undergoes
counseling. I can understand, I said, why the marking upset the child's
parents. After all, the teacher held the child up for ridicule, and
there are better ways to make the point. But, I said, let's call the
teacher insensitive. Let's call her dumb. (Although, were I to come
home similarly marked for failing to dot my "i's" and cross my "t's,"
my mother would have said, "So next time, dot the 'i's' and cross
the 't's.") But, Mr. Culver, how does this become a racial issue?
Well, the lawyer
said, given the history of abuse towards blacks by the majority, one
can reasonably assume that race "may have" played a role.
Does the teacher
have a history of racial insensitivity? The lawyer said he didn't
know. Any prior allegations of racism? Don't know, said the lawyer,
"That's what we intend to find out."
Note the procedure.
Make the accusation first, find facts to support it later.
Well, said the
lawyer, given the history of blacks treatment at the hands of "the
majority," it is not unreasonable to suspect racism may have played
a role.
But, as an Asian,
the teacher is not a member of "the majority."
Well, the lawyer
responded, one can be a member of a minority group, and yet not "think
like a minority." Huh?
So there you have
it. Guilty until proven innocent. If a white, shoplifting-fearing
department store manager makes the same assumption toward blacks,
and sics a detective on every black patron, the fit hits the shan.
Call the NAACP! If the police routinely bust black or Hispanic teens
on suspicion of gang activity, simply because of their ethnicity,
get me the ACLU! But how justified is the charge guilty-until-proven-innocent?
A recent "Time"/CNN
poll shows that nearly 90% of black teens find little or no racism
in their own lives. Surely they encounter lots of non-black "racist"
teachers. In fact, polling data finds white teens more concerned about
racism than black teens.
While thirty or
forty years ago the average white would not vote for any black for
president, now over 90% say they would. Thirty or forty years ago,
the majority of whites said that they would move to avoid black neighbors.
Now they would stay put. And former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff Colin Powell might well have nabbed the GOP candidacy for President.
Remember the Supreme
Court case that struck down race-based voting districts? "Ethnic cleansing,"
cried some black leaders. Yet, every single one of the black Congresspersons
who now had to run in majority white Southern districts, won his or
her race.
Look at Texaco.
Exhibit A for white corporate racism? No, just the opposite. Texaco,
in three days, lost a billion dollars in fair market value. Why? Because
right-thinking people abhor racism and refuse to patronize companies
that openly practice it.
But never mind.
Ms. Fong stands presumptively guilty of racism towards blacks. Forget
that according to the school district, Ms. Fong apologized to both
student and family. Forget that a district investigation failed to
find a racial motivation, and that the school district wants to mediate
any outstanding concerns.
Perhaps there's
another, simpler explanation for Ms. Fong's harsh treatment of the
child. Maybe the teacher simply sees her black students the intellectual
equal of the non-blacks, and thus demands the same level of excellence.
Just a thought.
When Reverend
Jesse Jackson used the terms "Hymie" and "Hymietown,"
he apologized. America forgave him. Guess the standards get a little
tougher when you teach fifth grade.