[Music]
[Applause]
several years ago I had a student named
David one day he was in my room not
during class just talking and he asked
me he said once dead do you ever say the
n-word now I want to be clear David is
black and he actually said the n-word
which I didn’t and I won’t but I want
you to have a picture of the scene
I shoot back indignant what David why
would you ask me that no but he won’t
let up he keeps at me and I’m getting
more and more upset and so he switches
tactics I have a soft spot for Kanye
West and those first couple of albums
and David knows this so he says all
right war instead let’s say you in your
car driving around all alone the windows
are up and you rapping along with Kanye
what you gonna do
I’m really uncomfortable here my face is
getting red my ears are getting pink I
just said no way David I just skipped
those lyrics which is most of the song
sometimes if it sounds ridiculous it was
anything but David was testing me he
wanted to know if I was trustworthy he
respected me enough to learn math but he
wanted to know more about me as a person
not as a teacher I get that you might be
feeling the same way right now am I
gonna trust this guy
I’ll get that – my name is Jo Armstead
I’ve been teaching math here I’m about
to enter my 13th year I spent all day
around young people I spend my time here
teaching and then I go home and I take
care of my four small children I love
both these jobs being a teacher and a
parent it’s mostly the same thing you’re
mostly trying to convince somebody to
see things your way and that personally
that person mostly ignores you there’s
one big difference for me here here at
Mae’s almost all of my students are
black I have a few Hispanic students but
something like 97% of our student body
is black but when I go home my children
like me and my wife they’re white
thinking about a quantum leap I want to
see for the future that’s easy it’s a
change I think about almost every day I
want to see a world where one of my
students could run into one of my
children out there in the streets of
Atlanta absent of this disease we call
racism a world where a younger black man
wouldn’t have to ask an older white guy
about the n-word a world where the color
of our skin would play no part in our
ability to trust one another
it’s ambitious I know maybe I should
have shot lower but you know what they
say about the best way to eat an
elephant you take it one bite at a time
let’s take a bite out of racism right
here sure it’s a big thing it’s a huge
thing and we got 10 minutes but the
elephant isn’t going anywhere until we
start to eat it why not now part two a
little bit of background I heard on a
podcast the other day that we don’t have
a race problem in America we have a
racism problem race differences in skin
tone and body features that’s not
problem racism though the belief that
some of those skins are inherently
better than others that’s the problem
and it’s a problem that’s led
historically and still leads presently
to so much pain so much suffering so
much inequity it seems like an
impossible problem but there’s good news
here we’re not trying to fix race we’re
not trying to wipe away the differences
that make us so interesting and diverse
rather we’re trying to fix the prejudice
the hatred the fear that some people
feel when they see those differences
race is a part of who we are there’s an
education writer her name is Lisa Delpit
she says if you don’t see color then you
don’t see people we’re not trying to
wash race away we’re just trying to
teach people how not to be afraid of
somebody that’s different
in 2008 like a lot of white people I
thought that America had taken its last
step towards ending the racism that has
haunted our shores
since that day over 500 years ago when
the Europeans landed here and stole land
from the native population Barack Obama
became president and though I voted for
him twice I’m omit to you right now I
never thought he was gonna win I never
thought so many white people could vote
for a black man push him over the line
to become the most powerful person in
the world but when he did win school
here was so good we didn’t do math we
watched speeches we looked at electoral
maps and we talked and we talked about
how we all felt there’s a political
cartoon from that day it is still on my
wall it’s the Lincoln Memorial and
Honest Abe is leaning out he’s got his
fist down Obama’s on the ground weaning
up their fist bumping they’re both
smiling it felt like we had fixed
something that day and you know what I
mean something that Lincoln started all
those years ago in 1863 something we
were gonna see the end of in 2008 fist
bumps the end of racism and then racism
didn’t end which probably came as a
surprise to exactly zero black people
some of the response to Obama in
Washington that’s just politics
yeah but the birthers the guys that
refused to believe this black man was
born in America made him produce to
birth certificates and still didn’t
believe him that’s not politics that’s
racism
and remember that congressmen shouting
out you lie in the middle of a speech he
shattered it twice
can you imagine something like that
happening to Bill Clinton or one of the
bushes and then Trayvon Martin is killed
and yeah his killer wasn’t white but the
message was clear clear black people you
better be careful and then Eric garner
is killed for not being polite to a
police officer he wasn’t careful Michael
Brown wasn’t careful and it’s 12 year
old Tamir rice is killed for carrying a
pellet gun while being black Walter
Scott Freddie gray Charleston and all
along the way you have white people on
TV saying this has nothing to do with
race that it’s about this or that or the
other but it’s not about race
twelve-year-old Tamir rice would have
been killed even if he was white it was
just an accident Trayvon Eric Michael
Walter Freddie they’re all accidents and
then Donald Trump the most famous
birther of all becomes president and it
was official Barack Obama was not going
to be able to heal our original sins of
slavery and oppression racism hadn’t
gone away system wasn’t going anywhere
now we have white people in the streets
marching carrying Confederate flags and
Nazi banners chanting out they want to
take our country back
we have white people refusing to grant
black athletes the right to peaceably
protest telling them that they should
just be grateful for all the money they
make him be quiet white people would
shear a black man on if he catches the
ball on the right part of a field
they’ll go crazy for him but they will
tear him apart if he tries to take a
knee use his power to protest the
mistreatment of a child like Samir rice
so here we are in the middle of all this
anger the severe this hatred we’re not
politicians or athletes
we’re not white supremacists we’re just
people regular people stuck in a world
where racism hasn’t ended what do we do
part three in my classroom a couple of
times a year I get called a racist by a
student you got to remember I’m the only
white person in my room every day all
day surrounded by hundreds of black and
brown faces so it probably makes sense
to a student when he or she feels that
I’m mistreating them to come back at me
with something like that when they’re
angry accused me of racism it used to be
that I would play with it I would say
something like you think I’d choose to
be surrounded by black people because
I’m racist you think I’ve come down here
every day for 13 years like some kind of
plot of the white man to take down the
black man like I’m a spy and that’ll get
a laugh and it would usually get a laugh
from the student that came at me in the
first place and for years that felt good
enough but last year well things just
felt tense and you know what I mean the
election was just going on and on and it
was coming up a couple of times a week
and students kept asking me who I was
going to vote for like it was a test of
my ability to be their teacher like
David and the n-word and no matter how
many times I said Clinton they kept
asking and so last year when a
frustrated student finally accused me of
racism
I knew that making a joke was the wrong
move Barack Obama was giving way to
Donald Trump and something about my
classroom had to change I’m never gonna
forget the first person who called me a
racist it was early in my career here in
May is over ten years ago I was having
so much trouble with a student I will
call Sean Sean wasn’t doing classwork he
wasn’t doing homework no kind of work he
was just talking and playing and we kept
lending heads and so finally one day
when I had to ask him three or four
times to take out his headphones and
work with this group on their assignment
as I was walking away muttered under his
breath barely loud enough for me to hear
and I freaked out I didn’t know what to
do I wasn’t nearly a good enough teacher
you had to handle something like this
and so I blessed her and I sputtered and
I kind of dinners stuttered and I said
that’s it we’re gonna go see the
principal
right looking back it’s a ridiculous
thing to take a child to the principal
for I can only imagine Sean now
following me down the hodges laughing
how much trouble was he going to get
into none he didn’t do anything wrong
he was wrong of course I do like black
people and he did get smart with me but
I should have been able to handle that
on my own the accusation of racism
though just pushed all these buttons and
I flipped out so I got him downstairs to
the principal I explained the situation
and he kept Shawn for me for the rest of
class I can just imagine him to watching
me as I walked out the door thinking to
himself really why I’m stead for what
because Shawn doesn’t trust you I never
did figure out how to teach Shawn I know
I lost a lot of respect that day I know
I should have said something like Shawn
I like black people plenty you driving
me crazy but that’s got nothing to do
with the color of your skin
now it’s time to do some math let’s get
down to business I didn’t say that
I pawned off my responsibility lost a
chance to earn Shawn’s trust
we never did figure out how to get along
and then years later I was thinking
about this story and I googled his name
and I saw a mugshot looking back at me
and then it wasn’t just about my story
my story of a bad year with a student it
was about his story and the part I
played in school having failed him and
had to stop myself from breaking down
and crying right there in the middle of
third period surrounded by students did
I put Shawn in jail no but did I do my
best my very best to help him stay out
also know that has a burden I have
carried with me every day then last year
when the election was pushing me towards
a moral honest way to engage with these
conversations a girl was leaving my room
was that in the class she was the last
one out and she turned set over her
shoulder offhandedly mr. warm stead
you’re the first white person I ever
trusted and at first I was like wow kind
of world is this that we live in that a
seventeen year old black girl can go her
whole life I never trust a white person
but you know the answer to that question
this is a world that pops with race pops
with racism it pops with an anger at our
first black president that was
unmistakably racist over half of my
students life had been spent with this
first black president in the public eye
under attack for a little more than the
color of his skin the color of her skin
how is somebody that looks like me not
supposed to appear untrustworthy to
somebody that looks like her and blame
her
or Sean or David for not trusting me off
the bat I get I consider it one of my
finest accomplishments here at Mays to
be the first white person that this girl
ever trusted I was no longer the man
that had failed Sean the strange magic
of intentionality and experience in time
it had changed me I was somebody worth
trusting now this is too big a
responsibility to go about making jokes
about racism anymore this is too big a
responsibility to do anything other than
respond with difficult honesty when
these hard questions happen yeah white
people have a long horrible history of
racism I’m sorry about that I’m sorry
for what some of us did and what some of
us still do tell me what I can do better
because I want to be somebody worth
trusting part for next steps David came
back to my room later on in the year he
was in my room every day for class but
he came back one day before class he had
a friend with him this time he said to
me didn’t even say hello wants that hey
let me use your deodorant
I had deodorant I ride my bicycle to
work and I keep a stick in my bag but
that’s the word stick not spray I told
him
I told him David I don’t have any spray
I don’t share stick deodorants sorry
ma’am but he wouldn’t take no for an
answer he was getting more and more
agitated so finally I had to get loud
with him I said something like David I
am NOT going to share my stick deodorant
with you and he got loud right back at
me why because I’m black because I’m
unclean you don’t want to share your
giotto with some unclean black man and
this time I didn’t flip out and this
time I didn’t make a joke
this time I looked him in the eyes made
a man and I said David it must be
serious for you to come at me with all
that racism stuff here you could use my
deodorant brother he took it he turned
to his friend he calm down instantly I
knew I’d get him with all that black man
stuff white people hate being called
racist turns back to me
thanks mom’s dead you are right after
all and then he burst out laughing his
friend burst out laughing I realize I’ve
been played and I burst out laughing
and it was so glorious for a moment or
so there in my classroom sitting with a
16 year old boy who had finally learned
to trust me we were all right after all
I’ve got to believe that David would
have trusted me either way even if I’d
held my ground on the deodorant
it was stick right but it was a chance
for me to get to show him that I trusted
him too and that’s gotta mean something
for trust a matter it’s got to work both
ways and we’ve got to learn to trust
each other I don’t know when it happened
for David and I but it happened strange
magic we don’t have a race problem in
America we have a racism problem white
people go out share your deodorant with
someone even if it’s stick
learn how to be somebody worse worth
trusting
black people give us a chance or two or
three talk to us laugh build bridges
sometimes even those quantum leaps have
to start with those smallest of steps
that’s the only way we’re gonna be able
to eat this elephant we call racism one
bite at a time
thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
several years ago I had a student named
David one day he was in my room not
during class just talking and he asked
me he said once dead do you ever say the
n-word now I want to be clear David is
black and he actually said the n-word
which I didn’t and I won’t but I want
you to have a picture of the scene
I shoot back indignant what David why
would you ask me that no but he won’t
let up he keeps at me and I’m getting
more and more upset and so he switches
tactics I have a soft spot for Kanye
West and those first couple of albums
and David knows this so he says all
right war instead let’s say you in your
car driving around all alone the windows
are up and you rapping along with Kanye
what you gonna do
I’m really uncomfortable here my face is
getting red my ears are getting pink I
just said no way David I just skipped
those lyrics which is most of the song
sometimes if it sounds ridiculous it was
anything but David was testing me he
wanted to know if I was trustworthy he
respected me enough to learn math but he
wanted to know more about me as a person
not as a teacher I get that you might be
feeling the same way right now am I
gonna trust this guy
I’ll get that – my name is Jo Armstead
I’ve been teaching math here I’m about
to enter my 13th year I spent all day
around young people I spend my time here
teaching and then I go home and I take
care of my four small children I love
both these jobs being a teacher and a
parent it’s mostly the same thing you’re
mostly trying to convince somebody to
see things your way and that personally
that person mostly ignores you there’s
one big difference for me here here at
Mae’s almost all of my students are
black I have a few Hispanic students but
something like 97% of our student body
is black but when I go home my children
like me and my wife they’re white
thinking about a quantum leap I want to
see for the future that’s easy it’s a
change I think about almost every day I
want to see a world where one of my
students could run into one of my
children out there in the streets of
Atlanta absent of this disease we call
racism a world where a younger black man
wouldn’t have to ask an older white guy
about the n-word a world where the color
of our skin would play no part in our
ability to trust one another
it’s ambitious I know maybe I should
have shot lower but you know what they
say about the best way to eat an
elephant you take it one bite at a time
let’s take a bite out of racism right
here sure it’s a big thing it’s a huge
thing and we got 10 minutes but the
elephant isn’t going anywhere until we
start to eat it why not now part two a
little bit of background I heard on a
podcast the other day that we don’t have
a race problem in America we have a
racism problem race differences in skin
tone and body features that’s not
problem racism though the belief that
some of those skins are inherently
better than others that’s the problem
and it’s a problem that’s led
historically and still leads presently
to so much pain so much suffering so
much inequity it seems like an
impossible problem but there’s good news
here we’re not trying to fix race we’re
not trying to wipe away the differences
that make us so interesting and diverse
rather we’re trying to fix the prejudice
the hatred the fear that some people
feel when they see those differences
race is a part of who we are there’s an
education writer her name is Lisa Delpit
she says if you don’t see color then you
don’t see people we’re not trying to
wash race away we’re just trying to
teach people how not to be afraid of
somebody that’s different
in 2008 like a lot of white people I
thought that America had taken its last
step towards ending the racism that has
haunted our shores
since that day over 500 years ago when
the Europeans landed here and stole land
from the native population Barack Obama
became president and though I voted for
him twice I’m omit to you right now I
never thought he was gonna win I never
thought so many white people could vote
for a black man push him over the line
to become the most powerful person in
the world but when he did win school
here was so good we didn’t do math we
watched speeches we looked at electoral
maps and we talked and we talked about
how we all felt there’s a political
cartoon from that day it is still on my
wall it’s the Lincoln Memorial and
Honest Abe is leaning out he’s got his
fist down Obama’s on the ground weaning
up their fist bumping they’re both
smiling it felt like we had fixed
something that day and you know what I
mean something that Lincoln started all
those years ago in 1863 something we
were gonna see the end of in 2008 fist
bumps the end of racism and then racism
didn’t end which probably came as a
surprise to exactly zero black people
some of the response to Obama in
Washington that’s just politics
yeah but the birthers the guys that
refused to believe this black man was
born in America made him produce to
birth certificates and still didn’t
believe him that’s not politics that’s
racism
and remember that congressmen shouting
out you lie in the middle of a speech he
shattered it twice
can you imagine something like that
happening to Bill Clinton or one of the
bushes and then Trayvon Martin is killed
and yeah his killer wasn’t white but the
message was clear clear black people you
better be careful and then Eric garner
is killed for not being polite to a
police officer he wasn’t careful Michael
Brown wasn’t careful and it’s 12 year
old Tamir rice is killed for carrying a
pellet gun while being black Walter
Scott Freddie gray Charleston and all
along the way you have white people on
TV saying this has nothing to do with
race that it’s about this or that or the
other but it’s not about race
twelve-year-old Tamir rice would have
been killed even if he was white it was
just an accident Trayvon Eric Michael
Walter Freddie they’re all accidents and
then Donald Trump the most famous
birther of all becomes president and it
was official Barack Obama was not going
to be able to heal our original sins of
slavery and oppression racism hadn’t
gone away system wasn’t going anywhere
now we have white people in the streets
marching carrying Confederate flags and
Nazi banners chanting out they want to
take our country back
we have white people refusing to grant
black athletes the right to peaceably
protest telling them that they should
just be grateful for all the money they
make him be quiet white people would
shear a black man on if he catches the
ball on the right part of a field
they’ll go crazy for him but they will
tear him apart if he tries to take a
knee use his power to protest the
mistreatment of a child like Samir rice
so here we are in the middle of all this
anger the severe this hatred we’re not
politicians or athletes
we’re not white supremacists we’re just
people regular people stuck in a world
where racism hasn’t ended what do we do
part three in my classroom a couple of
times a year I get called a racist by a
student you got to remember I’m the only
white person in my room every day all
day surrounded by hundreds of black and
brown faces so it probably makes sense
to a student when he or she feels that
I’m mistreating them to come back at me
with something like that when they’re
angry accused me of racism it used to be
that I would play with it I would say
something like you think I’d choose to
be surrounded by black people because
I’m racist you think I’ve come down here
every day for 13 years like some kind of
plot of the white man to take down the
black man like I’m a spy and that’ll get
a laugh and it would usually get a laugh
from the student that came at me in the
first place and for years that felt good
enough but last year well things just
felt tense and you know what I mean the
election was just going on and on and it
was coming up a couple of times a week
and students kept asking me who I was
going to vote for like it was a test of
my ability to be their teacher like
David and the n-word and no matter how
many times I said Clinton they kept
asking and so last year when a
frustrated student finally accused me of
racism
I knew that making a joke was the wrong
move Barack Obama was giving way to
Donald Trump and something about my
classroom had to change I’m never gonna
forget the first person who called me a
racist it was early in my career here in
May is over ten years ago I was having
so much trouble with a student I will
call Sean Sean wasn’t doing classwork he
wasn’t doing homework no kind of work he
was just talking and playing and we kept
lending heads and so finally one day
when I had to ask him three or four
times to take out his headphones and
work with this group on their assignment
as I was walking away muttered under his
breath barely loud enough for me to hear
and I freaked out I didn’t know what to
do I wasn’t nearly a good enough teacher
you had to handle something like this
and so I blessed her and I sputtered and
I kind of dinners stuttered and I said
that’s it we’re gonna go see the
principal
right looking back it’s a ridiculous
thing to take a child to the principal
for I can only imagine Sean now
following me down the hodges laughing
how much trouble was he going to get
into none he didn’t do anything wrong
he was wrong of course I do like black
people and he did get smart with me but
I should have been able to handle that
on my own the accusation of racism
though just pushed all these buttons and
I flipped out so I got him downstairs to
the principal I explained the situation
and he kept Shawn for me for the rest of
class I can just imagine him to watching
me as I walked out the door thinking to
himself really why I’m stead for what
because Shawn doesn’t trust you I never
did figure out how to teach Shawn I know
I lost a lot of respect that day I know
I should have said something like Shawn
I like black people plenty you driving
me crazy but that’s got nothing to do
with the color of your skin
now it’s time to do some math let’s get
down to business I didn’t say that
I pawned off my responsibility lost a
chance to earn Shawn’s trust
we never did figure out how to get along
and then years later I was thinking
about this story and I googled his name
and I saw a mugshot looking back at me
and then it wasn’t just about my story
my story of a bad year with a student it
was about his story and the part I
played in school having failed him and
had to stop myself from breaking down
and crying right there in the middle of
third period surrounded by students did
I put Shawn in jail no but did I do my
best my very best to help him stay out
also know that has a burden I have
carried with me every day then last year
when the election was pushing me towards
a moral honest way to engage with these
conversations a girl was leaving my room
was that in the class she was the last
one out and she turned set over her
shoulder offhandedly mr. warm stead
you’re the first white person I ever
trusted and at first I was like wow kind
of world is this that we live in that a
seventeen year old black girl can go her
whole life I never trust a white person
but you know the answer to that question
this is a world that pops with race pops
with racism it pops with an anger at our
first black president that was
unmistakably racist over half of my
students life had been spent with this
first black president in the public eye
under attack for a little more than the
color of his skin the color of her skin
how is somebody that looks like me not
supposed to appear untrustworthy to
somebody that looks like her and blame
her
or Sean or David for not trusting me off
the bat I get I consider it one of my
finest accomplishments here at Mays to
be the first white person that this girl
ever trusted I was no longer the man
that had failed Sean the strange magic
of intentionality and experience in time
it had changed me I was somebody worth
trusting now this is too big a
responsibility to go about making jokes
about racism anymore this is too big a
responsibility to do anything other than
respond with difficult honesty when
these hard questions happen yeah white
people have a long horrible history of
racism I’m sorry about that I’m sorry
for what some of us did and what some of
us still do tell me what I can do better
because I want to be somebody worth
trusting part for next steps David came
back to my room later on in the year he
was in my room every day for class but
he came back one day before class he had
a friend with him this time he said to
me didn’t even say hello wants that hey
let me use your deodorant
I had deodorant I ride my bicycle to
work and I keep a stick in my bag but
that’s the word stick not spray I told
him
I told him David I don’t have any spray
I don’t share stick deodorants sorry
ma’am but he wouldn’t take no for an
answer he was getting more and more
agitated so finally I had to get loud
with him I said something like David I
am NOT going to share my stick deodorant
with you and he got loud right back at
me why because I’m black because I’m
unclean you don’t want to share your
giotto with some unclean black man and
this time I didn’t flip out and this
time I didn’t make a joke
this time I looked him in the eyes made
a man and I said David it must be
serious for you to come at me with all
that racism stuff here you could use my
deodorant brother he took it he turned
to his friend he calm down instantly I
knew I’d get him with all that black man
stuff white people hate being called
racist turns back to me
thanks mom’s dead you are right after
all and then he burst out laughing his
friend burst out laughing I realize I’ve
been played and I burst out laughing
and it was so glorious for a moment or
so there in my classroom sitting with a
16 year old boy who had finally learned
to trust me we were all right after all
I’ve got to believe that David would
have trusted me either way even if I’d
held my ground on the deodorant
it was stick right but it was a chance
for me to get to show him that I trusted
him too and that’s gotta mean something
for trust a matter it’s got to work both
ways and we’ve got to learn to trust
each other I don’t know when it happened
for David and I but it happened strange
magic we don’t have a race problem in
America we have a racism problem white
people go out share your deodorant with
someone even if it’s stick
learn how to be somebody worse worth
trusting
black people give us a chance or two or
three talk to us laugh build bridges
sometimes even those quantum leaps have
to start with those smallest of steps
that’s the only way we’re gonna be able
to eat this elephant we call racism one
bite at a time
thank you
[Applause]
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