Tough Conversations: When Students Make Jokes about Race in the Classroom

Written by Rocío Robledo-Zak Interviewed by Ryan Zak During a session of guided reading, I was re-teaching a mini lesson on cause and effect with a group of students. The passage we were using involved an expository text on the Pony Express. After students read the passage to themselves, they had to identify and describe at least three causes and effects into their journals. Once they completed that task, we did a turn and share in the group. One student identified one cause by stating that the riders of the Pony Express crossed territorial lands to help deliver mail and the effect was that Indians would kill them for invading their lands. After I praised the student’s response, another student made a teasing comment towards that student, “you see what your people did to the riders.” The lighter-skinned girl, whose comment directed towards the darker-skinned boy, seemed to have the explicit intention playfulness, but the implicit effect of race-related prejudice. After she made that comment, I asked her to repeat what she said aloud giving her the opportunity to take ownership of what she said. She hesitated at first, but repeated what she had said aloud and clarified that she was just stating the truth. Instead of using judgmental language towards her response, I asked her why she made that comment. She answered; “Well look at him, Mrs. Zak,” as though I should agree to what she considered an obvious physical observation because of his indigenous features specifically his dark brown skin. I then asked her if she would make that same comment to someone that looks like me, a lighter-skinned Mexican-American. She answered no, with a puzzled look on her face.  At that moment, I decided to share some personal truth about my own family origin so that the students could develop understanding on the hybridity of different groups of people as well as the power and implicit racism prejudice through identification of people exclusively by the tone of their skin. I expressed my feelings to the student, stating that her comment was hurtful to me, because I have darker-skinned family members. Although at the moment she might think it was funny, it was just hurtful because it was racist My intention wasn’t to condemn her as racist, but rather, I think that racialized thoughts and jokes often occur naturally as students absorb the prejudice in our world and try to make sense of their own identity. As her teacher, I felt it my obligation to facilitate an open conversation about race and power to prevent negative perceptions in my classroom community that would promote racist behavior and thinking. As a fourth grader who is light-skinned, she benefits from the privilege of her lighter-skin, yet her awareness of this privilege and her own implicit biases is still emerging. My goal was to help her understand what is racism, how can it be displayed based on our words and actions, and finally how can we take a stand to stop it. In the end of our conversation, I asked her; what should good community members do to stop those cycles of racism? Engaged and interested in this conversation on race and identity, she apologized for her comment and reiterated that she would try to not do it again. She turned to that student to whom she said that comment to and said; “I’m sorry for hurting your feelings by calling you an Indian, I didn’t mean to be racist and I’ll make sure that it will not happen again”. The student responded saying thanks and then we continued with guided reading. Ryan, “Why do you think that the girl made that comment?” Rocío, “I think she made the comment to negatively classify the one student who looks a bit more indigenous to make him feel bad with a joke.” Ryan, “What does it say about her current understanding of race and identity?” Rocío, “I think it says that she understands that lighter-skinned people have more power and can get away with comments like this. She understands that she is in a position of power to make comments like that.” Ryan, “Our time in the classroom is limited. As a teacher providing guided reading on cause and effect targets, you decided to pause instruction to have a challenging conversation. Why was this a good use of the time for student learning?” Rocío, “I did not want her to think that comments and jokes like that were okay. Considering the diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds of the students in my classroom, it was important for her to be aware how comments like these perpetuate negative stigmas that promote racism. In order to ensure that all students are learning to the best of their abilities, I need to actively create a classroom community in which no racial or ethnic group is superior or inferior than others so that we are all equal contributors. I do now want a ‘us vs. them’ mentality in my classroom.” Ryan, “You could have strongly redirected the girl who made the racialized comment without a conversation, but you did not. What do you think would be the effect of this alternative response of a strong redirection without the conversation?” Rocío, “If I just strongly redirected her without the conversation, I don’t think she would have understood the impact of her words towards darker-skinned people who are constantly seen as inferior in the eyes of society. As a younger person in society, she was not trying to be hateful, and now she is more self-aware of her own identity related to race. Additionally, the conversation allowed the victim - the boy - to also process his self-awareness related to race and identity, which are comments that he probably frequently hears and dismisses because of his incomplete understanding” Ryan, “You could have ignored the racialized comment and focused on instruction, but you did not. What do you think would be the effect of this alternative response of ignoring the comment?” Rocío, “If I ignored it and moved forward with instruction, the boy would have thought that this type of joke happens, is okay, and should just be ignored. If I ignored it and moved forward with instruction, the girl would have thought the same thing: jokes like these happens naturally and we should just ignore them because they’re not a big deal.” Ryan, “How did your response help educate the girl who made the racialized joke?” Rocío, “It helped her develop self-awareness in terms of her own racial identity and her relative position of power. In her position, rather than putting others down, I encouraged her to use this power to bring people up, rather than put them down.” Ryan, “How did your response help educate the boy who was the object of the racialized joke?” Rocío, “It helped him develop a response to not accept any jokes that put him down as inferior related to his linguistic, cultural, and/or racial identity. It helped reiterate the classroom community position on racial equality and his rights to defend himself. He developed the self-awareness that this is wrong, he shouldn’t accept it, and he now has a response with which to address it.”