This Dad Had a Powerful Response After a Teacher Asked His Son a Super Offensive Question
One dad is absolutely furious that a teacher called his kid a mutt – and now, he's firing back in the best way possible: by going viral with an important message.
"This is my beautiful, smart, joyful 11 year old biracial son Kaden," Kevin L. Brown wrote on Facebook. "On October 12, 2016 at Wolfe Middle School in Center Line, Michigan his teacher (a white middle age woman), his educator, looked at his beautiful curly hair and asked my son, 'are you a mutt?'"
"Not understanding the question, my son said he didn't know what that was. At that, another student and the white teacher told him, 'when you're mixed with other races (ethnicities),'" he went on.
"This left my son, my heart and joy, feeling like he meant nothing, that he was less than nothing...he even went home and asked his mother 'why can't I be all white?' He wants to disown his African American heritage for his mothers' German, Italian, Irish heritage (guess his mom is a Mutt too)!!!!" Brown said he was "outraged," and rightfully so.
"This racist behavior should not be allowed in our schools, our children should never be faced with this BS, especially in the classroom from people that we (parents) entrust [with] our children's protection," he added, going on to implore that the teacher be fired and asking people to share his post.
The post's important message is going viral - about 16,000 people have reacted to the post and over 20,000 people have shared it, with many people commenting in support. The Huffington Post also reported that there's an investigation going on and that the teacher hasn't been in the classroom. The school is trying to facilitate an apology, too.
"None of our staff ever intends to injure a child in any way," Center Line Public Schools' assistant superintendent for human resources Andrew McKinnon told the Huffington Post. "The teacher is very sorry and wants to apologize, wants to make this right."
So does that just make her utterly clueless or someone who's been conditioned to not embrace diversity? Either way, this teacher's behavior isn't an anomaly - recently, another teacher's offensive letter to a parent asking her to put less coconut oil in her daughter's hair also went viral.
Unfortunately, racism is an epidemic that still hasn't been completely eradicated. But as Brown powerfully put it his post, "This cannot be tolerated....I am tired of the hate, tired of the affliction, and pissed off that my innocent child has become just another victim to racism in this county."
Brown's post has been lightly edited for spelling and grammar.
(h/t Huffington Post)
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