Today I made the mistake of telling one of my students to take his little black arm out of his shirt.

I’m not black, I’m brown

Okay, brown arm.

What difference did it make? I don’t see a problem in calling anyone black. He got all defensive.

I looked across the table heard this conversation between two students:

Wow, your hair is long. My hair is long too. You look different with your hair out. You should wear it like this.

Look, Look. Look at her hair!

Aren’t you suppose to be working. Not trying to look different?

Time passes. Another student walks by.

Look at her hair! Doesn’t she look different? She’s got long hair just like me!

Your hair is not long like her’s. It’s up to here. (Student puts her finger above her neck)

At this point almost all the girls are talking about their hair now.

Her hair is not long as mine…

Why are y’all talking? Listen, do your work….

I don’t know if the Harriet Tubman show that they saw today and this black History month education is breaking them or making them. They worry about their looks and how they are accepted while I worry about their grades. Each of them waited for me to help them instead of doing all of their homework on their own. Yet, had a lot of information on hair and skin.