Miss, You a Nigga

I just drove home to hang out at the fire house this evening. I got in early, so i stopped at a local fire department blood drive. Both of those things are the cause of my first day of skipped exercise.

These kids are getting pretty excited about Science Fair. Today, I had 4 kids stay after school to work on their projects (in addition to a couple of them working with me during my preps today). I made a comment to one of the students while he was working, and he responded with, "Nobody's getting offended. I'm a nigga. Miss, you a nigga." (I suddenly remember a moment in about fifth grade when I had to ask my mom how to spell "nigger". I can only imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for her. Because if there is anything that makes white people uncomfortable, it's that word.

My response was something along the lines of, "I don't think so. Have you seen me?" He proceeded to explain to me that I am a nigga because my ancestors must have been brought here on ships to work as slaves.

Does he really think that people didn't come to America voluntarily?

I explained to him that my ancestors did her voluntarily, some of them were slaves at one time. We then discussed how my personal story relates to that of some movies they'd seen, like Schindler's List. And, being the great teacher I am, I managed to turn this into a lesson on bullying. Hitler was a bully, after all. Yes. Teachable moment!

Now I'll save three lives by giving a pint of blood, then enjoy my PD day tomorrow.