In the great american tradition of Point / Counterpoint™, FIPS' new Dick vs. Pussy feature aims to bring our valued readers both sides of hot-topic issues.
Today on Dick vs. Pussy, we'll discuss the Case of the Infamous N-Word Teacher!
Last Tuesday, as John Jay staff and administrators gathered at La Bagel Delight, their daily gossip all revolved around one thing: The allegations that a John Jay Middle School teacher used a racial slur while disciplining a class of seventh and eighth graders. Discuss!
DICK:
From Park Slope to Manhattan, thousands of liberals undoubtedly blasted this teacher in their casual water-cooler conversations. Nice; we're ready for another internet-enabled Michael Richards lynching!
Can I just say one thing before the proceedings begin?
When white people are alone, and we walk past John Jay High School and see the hundreds of scary minority kids outside, we either cross to the other side of the street or raise our eyebrows at one another. Same thing happens on a subway car when 25 minority kids get on and start making tons of noise: White people roll their eyes and make secret comments like "oh great, here comes Hip-Hop High."
You know it's true.
How quickly we turn on those who don't cross to the other side; who instead build their lives on stepping in and educating these communities.
The accused teacher is a white person who is one of many New York heroes. She's teaching these kids for a tiny salary and putting up with god knows what - and then the instant there's an ALLEGATION that she used the N-word, everyone in New York wants to see her head on a platter.
First of all - there's no proof she used the N word. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I'm not enough of a hero to have ever taught in the New York City public school system, but I know a lot of people who have - I'm sure you do as well. We've all heard some real horror stories, including threats made that if the teacher calls the principal on a misbehaving student, the student will scream rape, cry racism, etc.
The kids might be telling the truth - especially because all the kids seem to be saying the same thing. But we have to know for sure, especially before we destroy a hero's career and blacklist them for life.
Finally, is there any chance at all that as a society, we can look at a person's actions instead of their words? IF the teacher fucked up and said the N word, is their any chance that we can look beyond that - discipline her, sure, but does it have to be a lynching that ends her career? Can we not take into account that above all, this person is a fucking hero who gets up to go to work every morning trying to educate these extremely difficult high-school students?
Doesn't that count for anything?
PUSSY:
It counts for a lot, Dick. I'm not discounting the heroism of our community's teachers by any means - but a "slip" of this magnitude isn't something from which her class would be able to recover.
Imagine their being asked to respect, look up to, and obey someone who has betrayed the community's trust in this fashion?
The capacity to even say the N-word out loud, let alone to a room full of children - HER children - children she's been entrusted with the safety of - is not something that can be taken lightly.
We are trying to set an example for these kids (and by the way, I'm utterly stunned at your characterization of them as "scary" - this attitude is absolutely part of the problem). In order to set an example for these underprivileged (not scary) kids, it's crucial that we demand the highest possible standards from their educators.
What sort of example does it set for our children, if there are no repercussions for a woman that has degraded them in the basest and most hurtful way possible?
I might add that the teacher's behavior with reporters does not work in her favor either - screaming at the media, cursing in anger - to reporters - hardly speaks well for her character.
I may be white, but I can tell you as a parent with 3 kids in the New York City Public School System - this cursing, yelling teacher - white OR black - does not sound like the kind of woman I'd want to leave my children in the care of.
Erica | 
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