Black Teachers Matter

Black Teachers Matter. 

Participant Interview Responses...

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When asked why they decided to participate one of the participants responded...

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“Um A lot of times as black educators are voices aren't heard as less times as educators as a whole, our voices aren't heard. So when there's an opportunity to speak, why not speaking up.”

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Participant response when asked have they experienced any issues with racism while working at school.

“Work in a school that has a lot of minorities in it. Sometimes you see when, um our white educators, don’t necessarily understand a relief. to our black students. So when or Hispanic students, so when something issue arises, it's a um I'm right, you're wrong, I'm being I'm little so you I have to come in and I kind of you have to figure out a balance of still supporting that teacher or not making them feel like they're wrong, but also giving that child within me. and it's kind of that fine line of this is this isn't the way to handle this or this is excessive. without um tarnishing the respect that child has for them or, um, the respect they should have for them and still showing the child that that's that they matter in their needs matter. okay, so a student got in trouble in their class, they asked him to do something, they didn't do it. So it's like, okay, I'm sending you out because you were sitting the wrong direction. Um, sending you out because you crumbled up a piece of paper. Like this is you're making this a bigger deal than it needs to be, but when it's oh, I student, you don't you don't do any of these things. You give them extra chances, and you try to talk to them and oh, well, I know they're having a really hard time at home, but you you don't do that for our other students or, um, you don't know, um, I granted, I understand you knew, you ha you you need to learn the students' names of everyone in the building and, um, you don't know my students' names, but you can call out in there with their discipline should be your should not be or how they were being disrespectful and stuff like that, but it's like what a white student does this and it's you know their name. If they need to talk, then come straight to me, then come to me, but you don't have the same patience or grace for someone else.”

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Participant response when asked have you ever felt like you were treated differently than a teacher of another culture.

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“I was a vice principal and uh supervised about 10 teachers and like 300 students, because at that time we were in communities and I supervised the human, um resource community, um, and so that's when they had like Turk certain like not colleges, but certain areas that you were able to major in and so um it was a lot of Caucasian teachers and I was the only um black well, they had a black principal, but I was the uh black vice principal over that woman over that community. So um I was sometimes referenced as the um angry or angry black woman and and that wouldn't be the case because I was either d direct or how I believe, I would be referenced as that. or, um there would just uh make comments to me or try to challenge what I said to them, but if a white male said something, who was uh the vice principal of another uh community he could say anything do anything and not get any repercussions. I will never forget that this particular teacher did not do with that one white man said, about straighten up his room. I was that administrator went into his room, dumped everything in the trash. I couldn't have done anything like that. Most of the comments were behind my back. It could be said indirectly. You know, somebody says can be done, indirectly, they make a comment. you say, I was racial. But I think back as a teacher, um I was a teacher for six years um and I never experienced anything like that was racial. However, in my when I went back to teach that one year at a middle school, I had uh there was a Latino student who used to tell his mother things about me that wasn't true. and uh he would tell his mom that I always yell at him and was direct, but it wasn't the case. It was just me really setting expectations of being clear. Um, but I believe that parent only came in because of, uh that I was I was black.”

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Participant response when asked if they think Black students need Black teachers for role models.

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“Absolutely. Because I know, um, for example, I keep going back to that the old school, but um we had started this um African-American lit course at that school. um Initially I was in um it was between me and this other black teacher. She went with him, but then he had some legal stuff going on. So then I had to take on the class. um so they assigned me at the course. They assigned me with this very powerful um um black man to leave the to co-teach the class. And um I just really saw it as a good space for students to just vent their frustrations because like I said, it is it's a mixed school in terms of the student body, but there's still you know, there's still obviously that sense of otherness that the black students felt and they didn't really have a space to have that like in an academic sense. So they did appreciate having that course. like taught by two black teachers um and really going through all the issues and um, you know, within black culture. um because like I said, they didn't really have that at that school. So, um and, you know, not just in the high school level, like I I feel like that's just needed just across the board. Like there should be a black, um teacher across the board. um, and it's funny because like I feel when I was so I used to live down south and down south, um in South Carolina, um, it's predominantly black, at least the community that I was in. So I always grew up having black teachers. That was always a thing. And now that I'm in my adult life, I'm hearing people say like, oh, I've only had one black teacher in my girlfriend life or. I've only had like one black professor that was all the way in college or whatever. And it's like mind boggling to me and I was like, wait, what? Like, you've only had one black teacher so like it um, and I think you were inviting me to this study because um you know, I guess in my pocket in South Carolina, like I didn't see that, but obviously everyone has different experiences and obviously now as an adult, I see like, oh yeah, there is a disparity, but black educators just across the board um, you know, so yeah.”

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Participant response when asked if they feel as if their opinions are valued by school leaders.

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“My opinions are not valued by school leaders just an incident that I said the Hispanic boy threw a ball at me and I could not let that go for a while. and I never got a call from the principal. She never apologized to me. She gave all her, uh advice or whatever she wanted to say through the vice principle. I feel that being the leader of that school, she should have had the should have been humbled enough, no matter who what color it was. But for me to get hit in the head with a football, it was nothing but the grace of God, because whatever school I go to, at this particular school I always pray before I walk in. That's why I did not follow with the water that they go down the hallway, which was almost the whole hallway. Everybody was following by me. So, yes, it was not valued. Then all of the surveys, any to every school I've been in, you are given, I would say five to seven surveys a year. The surveys are to read to evaluate and to make suggestions and to to do something about all the surveys I got out of this new district that the football almost hit me. I did about five to seven per year and I was there for two years, and not once did anyone call me. They just took my statement and so they did not value This teacher that I'm talking about this teacher is myself and I was I took pride in my in my school. I took pride in my classroom and I take pride and the hard work that I did to earn this this this uh certification of teaching. The student and intentionally threw the the ball at me football because they were upset because there was going to be a big fight, so I had them stay in and just work on their laptops. and he was sitting right over to the right from me and I moved from the from the front area of the classroom to the back area because I could see everybody from the front, I couldn't see in the back. so no one could go to the front because that was the classroom desk and I was the teachers dance and no one could get on the desk and the board. But in the back, I shift in the back and I can see all angles and he took the football and he aimed it and he even said, watch this. He aimed it right at my head, but like I said, it hit a desk right in front of me and then it gipppped off and went on the floor. So yes, he intentionally was going to hit me in the head because they were upset that they couldn't go outside to have this spot. Yeah, but he was knocked he was not suspended. They had witnesses. We had our witnesses, there were several students who sat there quietly and they were come up and saying we hate this classroom. They said it's never no they said we never can get something done and the teacher who was on who was absent that day. She was Caucasian. And when I got back, she never came to me. She never apologized. She walked past me like she never said thank you for watching my class. It was just it was just I was ignored at that whole time during this incident and when I came back, all the kids were some of the majority of the kids were really happy on the elementary side. A lot of people said they thought that I had left and thought I had quit, but I came back. I just wanted something to be done and I told them the only reason I would come back, I would never work in that classroom again. and that's what I told them, but they put me the next year that's when they put me in the middle school because those two teachers now, the art teacher and the um the math teacher.”

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Participant response when asked if they feel they are provided the adequate tools or supplies to do their job.

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“When I talk public, no absolutely not. I spent majority of my I want to say majority of my check, but yeah, I would try innovative ways of Dollar Tree, dollar general dollar dollar Walmart, anything I remember um and I even just school supplies, like even behavior intensions before they was a dojo store or they were dojo points like I would give you know, like you had a great week you earned an animal like in that's literally out of my pocket or if my kids in the I had kids in my class that their parents were, you know, in poverty, you know, and they didn't have a snack or they didn't have enough lunch, you know, I would have a kid that would eat ramen noodles, dry, you know, every day. And I'm like every, you know, and so um, you know, so I would always have some type of extra food in my class or put something in the M fridge, you know, something I would mind, you know? And, but um, yeah, public school, no. You were saying with the money that they get per head that that would be um a more importance, but it's not. um coming off, I mean, people think, oh, it's just a pencil or it's just, you know, but if you think about how many times kids lose things. you know, uh supplies eventually, you know, you have to go to the store and to go but I'm, you know, you reach out to some of the parents, they just they don't have it or they're like you'll figure it out as an adult, you know? I don't know what Johnny Deal happens. I go get another one. I don't know where you're going to get it. And so instead of going back and forth with the principal or whoever, you just be like, you know what, let me just go the store and go get these flies, you know, that's just how it is. But no, I don't feel like even bookwise, I remember in public kids City that I remember I was teaching the science curriculum and I looked at the year and it was like 1972. I said, why are we still teaching the science books in 1972? That's crazy. And it was like, I was just like, why? So I on my own, I just started cooling up like a Missouri standards and I just started looking at them and and started just teaching stuff and out of my pocket, you know, doing secret float and all this stuff coming out of my pocket because at the end of the day, I wanted these students to be prepared and in this 1972 science book, they're talking about bears. I'm like, that's great. But you know, this is first grade. Like, we they already know that bears time when. Let's move on. You know what I mean? Like 1972? No, we have to do better than that. So yeah, I spent a lot of coins when I try, I mean, public. Just trying to keep my kids where I felt like they needed to be, absolutely. And that was nice of you to, you know, go and out of your pocket and so they can have things that they need. I think a lot of teachers are very, and I I'll sweet for like for a lot of black teachers, majority of us love what we do. We love it. I agree. It's just, I think we love it. Otherwise, we would be doing something else, but I think where we get weary and we get tired is when we put all this effort forward and it's not recognized or it's not recognized like I have to win an award, but I think recognition and support is the biggest thing. And when you kind of feel like after a while you're not receiving support, I'm known phenomenal teachers who have left the teaching field to become one became like a airline stewardess, and another one. they've left fields to do other things. They' just like, I'm not going to keep pressing myself out. I've met a teacher weirdly a couple of years ago here in Houston, she actually went to school and she's a mur ER doctor. She was like yeah, I used to be a teacher. I was like, well, she's an ER doctor. And she was like, I so like I don't know how you do. She was like, I, I, I love my job. She said, look, it just, she's like it's too much. She said crazy. It's easier. She said it's easier for me to be an ER doctor than this for me to teacher school, but that was great. Absolutely. Like you said, she was and I could just tell they're really good teachers and I just think it's I just think it's, you know, it's kind of hurtful that they, you know, had to leave for whatever reason.”

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Participant response when asked are you satisfied with your pay rate and benefits.

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“I mean better. I use my wife's benefits because ours are really expensive and they don't cover as much and I had I was already on my wife's when I started the job, so we just kind of maintained that. um but um pay wise, I do think it needs to be more pay for teachers. I mean, if you look at and this is not to talk about anybody else's profession or anything like that, but uh if you look at doctors, lawyers, uh athletes and this nothing, and they make so much money. Somebody has to teach those people. Abs. I mean, I think that's a value that doesn't happen. I think the reason as a teacher shortage and a teacher a African-American shortage is, you know, we're looking in our communities a lot of times like, man, we got to find jobs that make money and bring wealth to our families. teachers salary don't, you know, alone, say if you're a single parent with two, three kids, you're going to be struggling future still. I single goal and pay for all the education and end up becoming a, you know, admin or a head press where you're making six figures, but or you were in it for so long and got out and paid the education, you got two different degrees to be able to get paid over to the highest pay scale and then you got longevity in the district. That's when you'll start actually making it like real money, but like starting off and where we at now, I do think there needs to be a higher pay for teachers.”

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Participant response when asked to explain a time they were treated unfairly or witnessed another Black teacher being treated unfairly.

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“Um maybe I'm going to cover a couple of um questions with this one. Um, this experience is the reason why I don't teach anymore. um I had a fellow black, um drama teacher. and we was on once we was on once um we was on lunch together. We had lunch duty together or whatever. and we went in this end this kid, a white kid called African American a black kid black girl, a black N word. and the black and this was in the middle of the cafeteria and in the barraced the black girl in the black bureau, beacest girl was beating this girl up. She knocked on the ground and started hitting her and the white girl hit the white kid's head was hitting off the ground. I personally was the thought they was just still arguing because all the kids were standing up. When he went over there, she was pounding the girl, this teacher grabbed the girl off of the off of the girl from being her up, right? And he kind of picked her up across her like this and then he hooked her his arm under her leg and he pulled her off. Now, my job is to walk with him, so I'm walking with him to the office. He's in front of me. He got the girl tied up, she's going crazy because she was beating up on that girl, put her in a chair in the principal's office and say, you see it here to the classroom. We go back to lunch attention, he goes against the other girl, the other the other girl didn't wanna go. So he grabbed her right her arm and says, you're going to the principal's office at that, which supposed to restrained, and can, you know, so we come to the going to principal's office or whatever, and um passport, just fast forward to make it quick. Fast forward, make it quick. They end up firing him because they said they he grabbed a girl inappropriately. And he was breaking up a fighting. And this is a This is a black teacher. He is one of the best black teachers.They say he touched her inappropriately, even if he was breaking up to fight. and he just grabbed he just snatched the girl up. It wasn't like he said, I'm put my hand right here on her and take my other hand and grab. He said, you just grab the girl took her to the's office, got the other one brother, put it in the counsel's office. So they can handle the situation. We went to go write our like all teachers have to do and we see a fight. By the time we come back, he's getting fired because he didn't grab through. They got him on camera, grabbing the girl inappropriately when breaking up the fight. And that would have never happened to a white, ever. I saw before he did that, this was at my year 15, 14. Before I did that, I used to see, um Coach Bell breaker fights all the time on them, because we used to go outside. There were fights all the time. Hey, grab, grab a girl by whatever, boy, by whatever, like just to try to break the fights up. You know, they'd just be like these. So I just thought it would never would have happened if it was like, oh gee, they did that because anyway.”

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Participant response when asked have you experienced any trauma while working at school that can lead to you resigning now or in the future.

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“Basically just unfair pay and just a unfairness of the pay and how no matter how long you've been teaching your status is never above one of the white teachers even if the white teachers are started and I said it's been this we had a black teacher close to retiring and she's never one time been invited to do the curriculum, but um a new teacher was invited to do it so it doesn't it doesn't matter to them.”

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Participant response when asked if they had anything they would like to add to the interview.

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“Yes. I really would like to say that I really would hope to, like to research and I hope that a lot of people uh that's in power to bring in more uh African-American teachers hear your I hear your research because it really puts a real good balance into your school, having African-American male and females in and even in our carad school, you know, it helps them to the diver diversify and puts in social lights on how the real world is. And I don't, for the longest time, it never is like the and it needs to be like that. Now granted, I've been, you know, I haven't teached in a while, but it needs to be more heard that it helped your school. We do a lot for school, African American do a lot for white schools because kids that never be around African Americans, Mexicans, other ethnicities and they get out of the real world have to run with these people. They're very awkward. They're very awkward and they're very outside of the social loops, you know, it's just given perspective and I hope everything, you know, this research really get heard by a lot of, you know, a lot of people.”

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