I came across some news today that really surprised me. There was an incident at a school in Georgia where a teacher allowed her students to dress up as the Ku Klux Klan and go around school doing a “film project.” Catherine Ariemma was teaching her AP History class about racism at the time of the Ku Klux Klan and actually dressed four of her students in white sheets with hoods and eye holes so that they could carry out a method acting exercise. The idea of method acting in this case was that in order to “understand the ways of the Ku Klux Klan and their effects on racism in the U.S., you must become them.” The students went around school to film “reenactments” and asked students to participate in their project. Obviously, students and parents were outraged and Ariemma says it was only an exercise designed for her students to learn history. I was really taken back after reading about this incident. You would think since racism is so prevalent and controversial in U.S. society, that a school teacher would not encourage her high school students to dress up as the KKK and thus threaten and offend others. History is taught in school, they should already know the negative connotations the KKK has with racism and why it is really not okay to reenact what the KKK did for a high school history class.
There are people asking whether or not this is a good way to teach students about racism and if people are being over-sensitive about it and blowing the incident out of proportion or if what the teacher allowed was in fact extremely insensitive and a little bit racist at worst. Personally, I don’t see how doing this kind of a reenactment aids in student learning and I think it’s disrespectful. Can we characterize the teacher as racist in any way? Active racism is defined as blatant, intentional acts of racial bigotry and discrimination versus the more subtle forms of passive racism. Does this have anything to do with what she allowed her students to do? For me, it’s hard to say that she didn’t know what she was doing. She teaches history, and therefore is knowledgeable about racism and the KKK and how it would affect people today. I don’t know if I would go as far to say that she’s racist, because maybe she had good intentions, I just really have no idea what she was thinking; she obviously wasn’t.
What a provocative and interesting example! It seems unclear as to what Ariemma actually wanted her students to learn from this exercise--to understand the actions of the KKK or to condemn these actions? And imagine how students of color at the school must have felt. Always feel free to bring interesting examples like this up during class discussions.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great example of how racism is sometimes hidden in certain places. I agree with Sarah and totally believe that this is disrespectful. I could only imagine what was going through other students' minds while this was going on. I feel like some students would have thought it was funny which is sad to say. Although it might be funny seeing kids dressed up in costumes, dressing up as a KKK member is just outright horrible.
ReplyDeleteThe parents, teachers, students, as well as the administration of the school must have been going through a tough time with this along with the teacher that assigned this project. Although, the teacher assigned this project maybe with no intentions of being a racist, I believe that there is hidden racism in this or "passive racism". She might have not wanted it to be as bad as this but inside I feel like she knew what she was doing was absolutely wrong, even if it was for a school project.
oops just realized I forgot to sign this!
ReplyDeleteSarah