The Council on American Islamic Relations said the allegation was that the teacher had remarked, “I do not negotiate with terrorists,” when the Palestinian American student asked for a seat change.
Recent U.S. incidents involving children include the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas and the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois.
Other incidents include the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California and the shooting of three Palestinian American students in Vermont.
I mean, clearly it’s sometimes okay to call a kid a terrorist.
What if a highschool decides to do a stage production of The Hurt Locker, and one kid has to play a terrorist. Can the drama teacher call them “the terrorist” when blocking a scene?
What if a kid brings a gun to school and says, “I’m holding this school hostage as an act of terrorism!” Could a teacher refer to them as a terrorist then?
What if a kid’s first name is terrorist? Terrorist Jones they call him. Is a teacher not allowed to refer to them by their name?
It’s clearly okay to sometimes call a kid a terrorist. We’re just quibbling over when it’s okay to call a kid a terrorist.
Do you think one of those times is when a child wants to change seats?
Also, what child’s name is Terrorist? Be serious.
Dang, the closest I could find in the NYC white pages was “Terrarese,” which like, sounds pretty close, but not quite there, lol. Some people’s parents give out some wild names, lol. I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a Terrorist Jones out there somewhere. But you’re right, that was largely tongue-in-cheek (which isn’t a racial epithet against people with big cheeks, and I’m sorry if you happen to have big cheeks and feel insulted).
But, to answer your question, no. Again, if the kid was like, “Mrs Marples, can I change seats,” and the teacher responded with, “screw you, you little terrorist,” then that’s clearly wildly out of line. But there are reasonable times to use the phrase “I don’t negotiate with terrorists” that aren’t racially charged. If I say that to a buddy (ethnically white American) who’s being a dick, I’m not some raging racist who hates Arab people. I used a reasonably common phrase, in the zeitgeist, at a time where it made sense to do so. And I’m not saying that’s definitely what happened here. I’m saying it could be the case, and I’m willing to give reasonable doubt until I see an article that’s more than 3 sentences long with less detail than was in the headline.
Oh for fuck’s sake, you keep talking about saying this to a friend. Teachers and students are not friends. Teachers have power over students. Calling one of them a terrorist when they just want to change seats is so far beyond the pale. It’s not even a racism thing. If she had said “assholes” instead of "terrorists,* I am sure you would not approve. I have no idea why you are defending this teacher.
The issue with your counter example is that there’s plenty of times a teacher might use the word terrorist in a classroom. Any history lesson covering the past half century for example. There are precious few times a teacher should be actively swearing in a classroom, in any context.
But if it’s a power dynamic thing, I’d be equally fine saying “I don’t negotiate with terrorists” to a subordinate at work if they were being a particular kind of dick, same as I would with a buddy. Because it’s a normal phrase people say.
I would like you to find one other example of a teacher saying that to a student. Go for it.
I’ll do that as soon as you find me one example of a teacher saying "hey there buster brown, why don’t you sit down!”
You probably can’t, because it’s not news worthy, as this wouldn’t be 99.9% of the time. The only reason this is, is because the kid in question was one, Arab, and two, offended. If either hadn’t been true, none of us would have ever heard about it.
But I recall people using that phrase in highschool. I remember teachers using it. That was back in the Bush era, to be fair, but it was pretty normative. We didn’t really have any Arab population, so not much chance of anyone being offended though.
That is totally different and you know it.
I really, genuinely don’t. You may not believe it, but those feel equally charged to me.
But I think that’s at the crux of our disagreement. My lived experience is that that phrase is uncharged, and your lived experience is that it’s terribly charged. This is probably due to regional or cultural differences, and honestly, that’s fine.
We could debate who’s lived experience is the more generalized one. Who is more representative of the average American. But honestly, I don’t know that it matters.
And even if you found out that 95% of people think it’s uncharged (which I’m not saying is the case), it still wouldn’t make it feel any different for you I’m sure, as again, in your lived experience that phrase is tantamount to a slur.
But all that said, I appreciate the discussion about it. It’s always interesting to come across these things that, due to fluctuations in region or age or whatever, both seem so obviously true to each side, while being so polarizing.
And I know I see you around here a lot, and I generally agree with you on stuff. So like, I know you’re not an unreasonable person or whatever. I respect your opinion on the issue even. We just disagree this time.