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A teacher in North Georgia may lose her job after asking four of her students to wear Ku Klux Klan outfits as part of a class project. The black students at her school were upset to see the costumes and complained to the administration.
Catherine Ariemma, an award-winning teacher who teaches advanced U.S. history and film education, could be either suspended or fired for the incident and has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation.
Ariemma teaches in Lumpkin County and has been there for six years. The rural county is 75 miles north of Atlanta. She told the Associated Press that she was trying to cover an important and sensitive topic, but admits that she made a mistake.
"It was poor judgment on my part in allowing them to film at school," Ariemma said. "... That was a hard lesson learned."
She said that the class has 15 students of multiple races, but no African Americans. The goal of the project was to trace the history of racism in America. Five students agreed to take on the subject as part of their class project.
"The kids brought the sheets in, they had SpongeBob party hats underneath to make it shaped like a cone," Ariemma said. "They cut out the eyes, so they could see."
Ariemma led the students through the cafeteria to another location, where the scene was to be shot. She was later approached by another teacher.
"That's when I heard there were a couple of students who were upset," she said.
One of the students described his reaction to seeing hooded students walking through the cafeteria:
"I got mad and stood up and I tried to go handle it," he told a local TV station. A black parent went to the school to complain that night.
When I read about the teacher who asked her students to dress as Klansmen, my first question was, "What was her point?" In many cases, our reactions to certain racial stimuli are quick and Pavlovian, in which we respond without asking appropriate questions. We can't quickly assume that Ariemma is a racist just because she used poor judgment.
But a deeper issue to be brought forth (which I discuss with Lola Adesioye in the audio clip below) is whether the teacher would have done the same thing with Jewish students, re-enacting the Holocaust, or with other students, re-enacting the tragedies of 9/11.
The point here is that there are some cases in which the humanity of black people is not respected in the same way as other ethnic groups. We can make jokes about slavery, act out traumatic experiences or behave as though it should simply be forgotten, while equally abhorrent tragedies among other ethnic groups are only considered for the most solemn and respectful discussions. In other words, this incident (similar to the teacher in North Carolina who told his black students to pick cotton while white students watched) reminds us that there are times when the feelings of black students are not as readily considered as the feelings of others.
The teacher should not be fired, but she should certainly be disciplined and educated on why her behavior was inconsiderate. It's okay to mistakenly hurt someone's feelings, as long as you are willing to understand why they were so negatively affected. The segment I did with Adesioye is below. Enjoy!
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book .'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. 
Comments: (136)
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By: Kee on 5/25/2010 12:53PM
Saddened by this....what a trifling move!
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By: G REDD on 5/26/2010 3:19PM
TRIFILING HAS GOT TO BE THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR. THIS IS A TRUE DEPICTION OF PURE INSANITY ON THE PART OF SOMEONE INTRUSTED WITH THE EDUCATION OF OUR YOUTH AND FUTURE LEADESRS. YET, THERE IS SOME GOOD THAT CAN COME OUT OF THIS.THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENTS THAT WERE AFFECTED BY THIS CAN SUE FOR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, LIKE THE YOUNG MAN THAT SAID HE WAS TRAUMATIZED WHEN HE WAS TAKEN TO THE SLAVERY MUSEUM. HIT THEM IN THE POCKETBOOK WHERE IT REALLY HURTS AND THEY WILL MORE CAREFUL IN THE FUTURE. THE TEACHER SHOULD BE MANDATED TO TAKE SENSITIVITY CLASSES AT HER OWN EXPENSE!!!!!
BE SAFE, BE WELL, BE A BLESSING, AND BE BLESSED!!
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By: bed5d0e on 5/25/2010 12:58PM
Now-a-days it seems like the teachers are dumber them the students.
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By: john on 5/26/2010 8:55AM
By: bed5d0e on 5/25/2010 12:58PMHighest Ranked Now-a-days it seems like the teachers are dumber them the students.
>>> o.k. first off, I am a black man born in the late 1950s. I witnessed the kkk, etc. This teacher did nothing wrong. She showed an element that was needed to be shown about our past. I don't know why many people like you exist in trying to protect our kids from knowing another part of our history. You remind me of the people displaying domestic violence issues today as a purely male abuser/female victim issue, while completely ignoring and deliberately blocking all efforts to show the domestic violence against males by females. Even law enforcement, t.v. and radio stations allow such one-sidedness--where all should be addressing violence against an innocent person/s as the target, not the innocent males who has a right to self-defense rather than be a victim of a violent female. So, allow a comprehensive look at discrimination and violence regardless of who the evil person;s maybe. This teacher did nothing wrong at all.
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By: nicole on 5/26/2010 10:23AM
@John... I personally dont think it is a big deal, but it was inappropiate...No way around it. It isnt so much people try to protect the kids from the past because we know what the KKK is. Allowing that kid to dress up as KKK was dangerous. It could have caused a fight or something.The story could have gone like... 'fight broke out in school,student badly hurt'...It was inappropiate for high school. That KKK thing could have gone a lot worse. It was not a good decision on the teacher's part. What's wrong with pictures?
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By: Juana on 5/26/2010 5:21PM
@John.....apparently you didn't read the article and did not hear her last statement. First of all there were NO blacks in her class. This means that they really don't know what racism is feels like. Dressing as a KKK to those students only proved that they probably wished that they lived during that time. For the students that were of another nationality, they probably didn't feel anything because their families never had to deal with it. So exactly what were they trying to prove? She said that they should have filmed this on their own time and not at school. This means that she continues to approve of their decision to dress as Klansman. I think the idea was probably hers and not the students. Read before you blog John.
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By: THE 13TH JUROR on 6/01/2010 10:01PM
LOL!!! TELL THE TRUTH AND SHAME THE DEVIL!!
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By: GONNA ALWAYS HAVE MY SAY on 5/25/2010 11:02PM
THIS STUPID RACIST B*TCH KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THE F*CK SHE WAS DOING, AND SHE IS ONLY SORRY BECAUSE HER BIGOT ASS GOT CAUGHT,I GUARANTEE YOU! I HOPE SHE GETS FIRED POINT-BLANK!! WHAT NERVE! SHE EVEN HAD THE BALLS TO CRY, LIKE FOR WHAT?? W T F??? AS FAR AS FOR THE RACIST STUDENTS WHO DRESSED AS KKK KLANSMEN SCUM...THEY SHOULD ALL BE EXSPELLED!!
E-RACISM.... "IF YOU ARE NOT APART OF THE RACISM SOLUTION, THEN YOU CERTAINLY APART OF THE RACISM PROBLEM"!
ETERNAL LOVE AND BROTHERHOOD TO ALL!
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By: linda on 6/11/2010 2:38PM
I have spent my lifetime feeling frustrated that the truth of the past is ignored and how many people are aware of the atrocities..Not only for the blacks but the American Indian.. The saddest thing is that many whites, of which I am one, cannot relate to how powerfully damaging, tragic and generationally affecting the horrors they experienced..Being close to these families, I have grown to understand how much more they suffered than I ever realized before. It helps, like watching a movie, when you see something in your face, like what these students were doing. IT HELPS THEM get the IMPORTANCE of the message much more broadly and significantly..Just reading the stories often have a smaller affect..It is critical that we ALL get the message..For ALL of humanity..That is why there exists the HOLOCAUST museum, and movies, and theater, and reactments...to make an IMPACT..
I am all for enlightening and transforming and learning..to provide more protection and awareness for all races. We need more of what this teacher did..not less. Knowledge brings understanding, which brings change ...I am sad you see it otherwise
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By: Danie on 5/25/2010 2:47PM
WTH was she thinking? Any white person should know that those actions would upset all black students. How would they feel if the black panthers commited the same crimes against white people that the kkk commited against the black race? And then years later continuing to committ the same crimes and continuing to spit hate out their mouths. yes the kkk is part of history but what alot of white people dont want to believe is it is still vary much alive. i feel she should be fired. Why are there no black students in these advanced classes?
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