https://contemporaryracism.org/3001/the-bad-kid/ An academic blog about whiteness, implicit bias, and systemic racism Sun, 27 Mar 2016 21:01:58 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://contemporaryracism.org/3001/the-bad-kid/comment-page-1/#comment-653 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 21:01:58 +0000 http://contemporaryracism.org/?p=3001#comment-653 From the Powell article we read, “My son has been suspended five times. He’s 3,” instances like your experience I’m sure are more common than we believe. It makes me wonder how the system might have perpetuated John’s trouble-making behavior. As you said, there were kids that would do the same sorts of things as John, but ultimately you remember John being reprimanded for his actions. Could it also have been that you witnessed John being getting in trouble more because he was getting in punished more than the white kids, which might have occurred based on the color of his skin?

]]> https://contemporaryracism.org/3001/the-bad-kid/comment-page-1/#comment-648 Fri, 18 Mar 2016 23:36:56 +0000 http://contemporaryracism.org/?p=3001#comment-648 I had a similar experience in elementary and middle school Brendan where I probably didn’t know more than ten black people that I had even acquaintance based relationships with. When I think about your story, I think too about the actions that got this student in trouble so often and if he was acting out because he felt so other-ed in your school. After reading the article about the impact of dorm lives in predominantly white colleges for students of color, I wonder what extreme impacts that predominantly white elementary and middle schools has on these key developmental years for students. Do students internalize these feelings of being unwelcome and being different? Do they act out as a way to compensate for those feelings and express them? I don’t know but it is definitely something to consider.

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