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Racist comments from a male senior, what should we do?
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Replies to: Racist comments from a male senior, what should we do?
@cobrat Yes. It seems like it. My daughter has higher GPA than some of the nominees but she's not involved in a lot of school academic teams like the academic decathlon, Science or Math competition. She didn't have extra time after engaging in her sports all year long. That's why she will be the Scholar Athlete of the Year instead according to a list posted on the IB counselor's office (someone saw and told D). This kid has some influence in school according to other kids in school. Parents are influential in a way, I guess.
It was stated right at the beginning that the young man was admitted to Pomona, one of the colleges with the smartest student bodies in the country. Now we hear that he may be valedictorian/student of the year.
He has said, in front of witnesses, to a US citizen of a non-white ethnicity, that she should be removed from the country because of her ethnicity. Um, the definition of a racist statement.
To those people who say "it might have been a joke", "it's just an opinion", "it's just ignorant because it's not possible/would hurt the economy" or tell the young woman to come back with a really sassy statement such as "I will remember this when you come to me looking for a job" I can only say "Really?!?"
Even if al this were true, it remains a racist joke, a racist opinion, a racist political plan, a racist comment telling another person she should be _removed_. You can't laugh, discuss, debate, educate, make sassy comments any more once you are _removed_. Try a bit of sassiness to the official deporting you.
No matter how small the chances of that happening in the US are: developed countries, some of them democracies, have moved to deportation of citizens/legal residents and illegal residents of minority ethnicities before. And the fact that it hurt their economies did not matter. Rational thought, education, human decency does not matter when racist politics gain traction.
The kid clearly has been in academic rivalry with the OPs daughter for a while. He'd probably love the have the OPs daughter removed from what he probably considers a race he must win at all cost. A bit of racism thrown in to put her down clearly comes in under all's fair here. And why should the OPs daughter no be offended if a young man deliberately tries to put her down like this?
If she wants to accept his apology, that's her right. It's also her right to report this to the school authorities because it probably will have offended some code of conduct. She may not want to deal with the fallout if the young man loses some of his awards, though. But agree with others: she is an adult, too, it's her choice. But just because it might be the smarter thing to let it go dos not change the racist nastiness displayed by this adult.
I interpret his statement as an anti-immigrant and not a racist statement.
She is a US citizen. The US is her country. What would her "own country" be based on other than that she is of (presumably) Chinese ethnicity and place of birth?
This young man has expressed his own hope that she should be deported.
Is it likely that's going to happen? No. But not totally out of the realm of historical precedent (internment for Japanese Americans was not deportation, but bad enough. Ethnic Europeans were not interned BTW).
Was he serious? Probably not.
Why does that make his statement any less racist?
In reading the posts by OP, it's clear she and daughter have a rivalry with this other student. Both students compete for the same awards, both are in a top group of students. I'm sure every word out of her daughter's mouth is not perfect either. OP knows a lot about this students (applied ED2 to Pomona as an athletic recruit, claims to be Hispanic for some awards but doesn't like being Hispanic?). The remark was not an isolated comment.
This just seems like schoolyard drama to me. In a few weeks daughter never has to see this boy again.
No doubt this boy's comment was an insult. Does one insensitive comment, even if based on one's ancestry rise to the level of determining he is a racist? Some here say yes, but I say we have too little info to intelligently judge. Even so, a high school kid having racist beliefs isn't illegal. Robert Byrd was a long-time U.S. Senator. Woodrow Wilson was a 2 term President.
Let's remember too, that sometimes when a person is looking for an insult, they go at what they perceive as a "weak point". A person overweight, is likely to have weight as a target, or a kid with glasses is called 4 eyes(I was), nothing new there, but fortunately I'm not a special snowflake.
I think like some others, this is schoolyard drama and should get the proper attention, which in my mind is next to nothing. Insults can occur with a racial overtone or not, and we must all remember we do not have a right not to be offended. As some newscasters are now pointing out, our freedom to speak here in the U.S. includes even speech we don't agree with.
Has this high school girl even insulted another? Has she ever said someone was too fat? Too skinny? Bad complexion? Bleached hair? If someone "in power" like an H.R. director the girl wanted to be hired by said this- then yes I would be concerned. But not by some high school boy's insult.
There's no hatred between the two and it's purely his belief that got to his head. He said he feels terrible about hurting my daughter's feeling because she's a good friend to him. My forgiving daughter already forgave him but it probably won't change his point of view as a big picture.
Likewise if someone made the comment about books "from her own country" I would not have been insulted either. I would just assume that the teacher was not aware of where my D was born.
P.S. This guys has very little friends and my daughter probably is his only female friend. So I doubt he would have too much opportunity to offend people. He does it in social science class but you get to voice your own opinion, don't you?