As an educator, I am privileged to work with Black students. Unfortunately, I was, more often than not, the only Black man teacher in those buildings where I taught. It’s a truth for most Black men teachers; we only comprise approximately 1.5% of teachers nationwide.
However, that truth provided me with an insight into the experiences of Black and brown children with their white teachers, which sometimes mirrored my own experiences with some of my white teachers when in school.
Educators speak on the importance of building relationships with students; this idea has been covered extensively in education literature. I argue that building authentic relationships with students is important. A key aspect of that is meeting them where they are. For some teachers, it means speaking their language, in other words, using slang words or generational colloquialisms to build trust and relationships.
That can be tricky for any teacher, but especially for white teachers when conversing with Black and brown students.
I’ve seen white teachers use slang appropriately; meaning the word and the cultural reference attached was appropriate for the moment and the comedic timing was perfect. But also, the teacher already had a rapport with the students to say what they said. I’ve also witnessed white teachers, misuse slang and misinterpret cultural references. In other words, their use landed as poorly as their judgment.
They end up sounding like Mr. Fellows from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; fetishizing Black culture under the veil of well-intentionality.
To make it worse, thinking they’ve stuck the landing, they either overdo it by continuing to use it or they’ve applied such language jokingly with their white colleagues; making fun of how their students speak—specifically Black language and Black cultural phrases. It’s not cultural appropriation and cringeworthy, it’s racist and it’s wrong.
Connecting with students is important. This is true for all teachers with all students, but even more for white teachers who teach Black students. However, attempting a connection with disingenuous uses of slang words and phrases is not how you establish connections and build relationships with Black students. Building relationships requires that we come into the knowledge of who our students are, so our teaching and mentoring are targeted according to what we know about them.
While I argue that teachers should study their students, I recognize the difficulty when you have five to six sections of students. But there’s a better way to build relationships and establish connections.
Using slang has more to do with making students feel comfortable so they can be taught—because often achieving improved test scores is a priority when teaching Black students. What should be an even higher priority is reducing the suspensions and arrests of Black students, as well as teaching them in culturally relevant ways.
That doesn’t require knowing slang or misappropriating Black language. It requires recognizing how Black people see themselves and each other; who Black people are to one another. It’s genuinely understanding Black cultural norms. That means white teachers have to research to understand.
It begins with understanding how Black people are engaged. The first is according to how the social structures of our society interact with us. That’s the institutions of society, like law enforcement, banks, and schools. White people and other non-Black people take their cues from these institutions. What’s taught and reinforced is a posture of paternalism because Black people are intensely and behaviorally inferior. An example is the Black maternal health crisis. This is when the pleas for help of Black pregnant women get dismissed and they and their babies die.
The second way is according to how Black people see one another. We don’t see ourselves as social structures see us. We see ourselves as human. Our culture and our very being is an expression of our humanity. An example is when two Black people greet one another. More than likely, those who greet do not know each other. Yet they do; as Black people in traditionally white institutional spaces where we aren’t seen unless we are “exceptional.”
That’s often the case in schools. Black students are seen when they’re seen as “exceptional” Black children. This means they defy conventional racist wisdom by their display of intelligence according to what white people value… and even then, they are still Black; WE are still Black.
Understanding how Black people see each other, and how Black students see each other can prevent white teachers from unnecessarily using slang and unnecessarily suspending Black students or recommending Black students for arrest. Some simple ways to do that include the following:
- Frequent Black spaces to consume a meal, partake of art, or purchase an item (preferably a book to build your knowledge of Black history).
- Investigate why Black narratives are either ignored or erased from mainstream conversations and classrooms and learn of these narratives to learn a more honest telling of history.
- Attend a community meeting or discussion among Black people and objectively observe how Black people relate to and see each other.
- Establish genuine relationships with Black people; colleagues or otherwise… not to extract information but to genuinely establish a connection.
- Challenge white colleagues to stop perpetuating racist norms to build connections with Black students; challenge them to do these same action steps.
When white educators understand how Black people see each other and who Black people are to each other, their teaching may reflect best practices for educating Black children as the human beings they are. Certainly, we need more Black teachers. However, the presence of a Black teacher doesn’t let white teachers off the hook for properly relating to and engaging with Black children in the classroom.
So engage and relate with humanity. Anything else is educational malpractice.
