Saturday, December 6, 2008

NWSF Bullet: Slavery is Back in Effect

The Associated Press is running a story about a white teacher, Eileen Bernstein, in Haverstraw, New York who is "sorry" for binding two black middle school girls and making them crawl under a desk during a class slavery reenactment.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gc0c1hB9MlLCLoAjdsaRHOWOraWQD94SR4I81

According the the story, Bernstein was just tryin' to keep it real with the slavery thing.

Problem is it really upset one of the teens who had to miss a day out of school.

Yeah, I guess for some girls being made to crawl around in front of a bunch of teenage boys, who at that age can find humor in a car wreck, would be kinda humiliating.

But I guess that was real authentic since her ancestors who had to crawl around in front of mobs of white men probably didn't like that too much, either.

I'm just glad that the teacher wasn't doing a lesson on pimps and ho's.

Superintendent Brian Monahan did say that "if the student was upset, then it was a bad idea."

Duh, ya think?

The child's mother, Christine Shand, thinks that the teacher should be removed from class but Monahan is not saying how the situation will be handled.

(In other words Berstein will be forced to write "I'm sorry" 100 times on the blackboard and sing, "Let My People Go" in blackface during the Black History Month program.)

Maybe, Bernstein really didn't mean any harm and was just adding a little flava to the lesson. But like Grandma used to say "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

I wonder what would have happened if black social studies teacher, Tyrone Jackson, had decided to demonstrate the horrors of the Holocaust by marching two little Jewish girls to the ovens in the home economics room?

Somehow, I don't think Mr. Jackson would be getting a paycheck at the end of the month. Nor do I think Ms. Bernstein would have found it enlightening.