"Other People's Children"

(Connection) 

“They think they know it all, what’s best for everybody, for everybody’s children. They wont listen; white folks are going to do what they want to do anyway.” That quote made me think… wow, is this really what colored people think of us? After reading the article by Lisa Delpit, this article made me reflect back to my highschool history classes. My teachers use to refer back to times in history when blacks were mistreated. I really wasn’t fond of this article because I didn’t like the comments the blacks were making about white people. For example, in the first paragraph when the black special education teacher talked about what is an appropriate education for black children, he says “I’m tired of arguing with those white people, because they won’t listen.” They article helped me reflect back to when I was a student hearing these topics. In middle school and high school when these topics came up in my history class, I felt bad about the black kids because this is about their history. It must have felt discomforting for them to discuss these topics. My teachers never felt hesistate with covering this topic in class but I always felt uncomfortable with the thought that there were colored students in my class. When the discussion would take place, everyone voiced their opinion and shared how they felt against the mistreat of colored men. Especially since you never really hear about negative things being discussed about white peoples history during history class.