Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom

Black and brown children in America’s schools are routinely subjected to demeaning treatment by teachers, according to this alarming exposé from sociologist Ray (The Making of a Teenage Service Class). In 2017, Ray embedded in a fourth grade classroom in Las Vegas, intending to study the effects of budget cuts. Instead, her observations became focused on how teachers were humiliating and mocking students on a regular basis. This “slow violence” stemmed, according to Ray, from a dehumanizing indifference to Black and brown students’ unique situations and needs. Examples include Nagli, a “talkative and enthusiastic” Black student whose baby brother died, sending her into a spiral of grief completely ignored by her teachers; Reggie, another devoted Black student, who was treated by teachers like a “predator” after they caught him looking at pornographic photos on his iPad; and Miguel, a “distracted” Latino student whom teachers kept incorrectly calling autistic. Each student was subjected to mockery and beratement from teachers rather than any sustained attempt to connect or correct. The mostly white teachers range from one who expressed a desire for a “white history month” to others who seem genuinely “tolerant” but still, in Ray’s unsettling assessment, don’t seem to perceive students of color as “full humans.” This adds to the chorus of provocative recent studies positing that majority-white environments negatively impact students of color. (Aug.)