So….by Greg Furlich

So, I got called a racist. Worse yet, I was called a racist by one of my of my own staff members. This is hard to write because of the wide array of raw emotions this has me tapping into. I’m overly introspective as it is and something like this is all it takes for me to go down a rabbit hole. Among the things that raced through my mind after the initial shock wore off and indignation set in were things like: This person doesn’t know who I am. She doesn’t know who I’m friends with, who I have dated, how I was raised, where I went to school or who I hung out with. She doesn’t know my politics or where and how I worship. She knows almost nothing about me as a human being but feels it is okay to just drop that word without being able to justify it with any specific evidence. I was floored. Maybe I should feel fortunate that in my twenty-five years in the system and at fifty years old, this is the first time anyone, parent, teacher, student, friend or co-worker has used that word to my face to describe me, but I sure didn’t feel fortunate at the time. Now I’ve been in the system for almost twenty-five years, and I was experienced enough to notify my Employee Relations Specialist and document the event, but that’s the practical side, and I was still very much mired in the emotional side of my brain.

This is where I need to provide a little background. I’m sure the staff member who threw the word “racist” at me was feeling a little cornered. I have been documenting performance issues. I have called her out on more than one occasion on her treatment of children as well as her pedagogy. Maybe this was the only option she felt she had in the face of which I am sure she felt was unwarranted criticism. These aren’t issues I believe have anything to do with race, but I’m self-aware enough to understand that I can never know what it feels like to walk in her shoes.

I’m not one of those guys who feels racism in America has been confined to the dustbins of the past. I do believe the system that we currently live in benefits some while making it more difficult for people of color. That is something that we should all be interested in dismantling, even if that means getting called out (and it probably will).

The crux of the issue for me is simple. I believe good teachers (and doctors, lawyers, principals, etc.) come in all different races, genders, and ethnicities. Excellence is not bound by these any more than mediocrity is. My job, and it is a job I still love, is to fight for what’s right for kids. I know that sometimes that means I’m going to ruffle some feathers and even piss some people off. It may mean that occasionally I get yelled at or called the most unflattering of names. At the end of the day what’s most important to me is that I tried to do the right thing. As long as that’s the case, I’ll have to live with it and make my peace with the rest.