#teaching while black

This idea that a teacher need not learn about Asian bodies because having their presence in a classroom is enough becomes fraught with problems. Two white female students once even visited my office to inform me, given their history of having taught many African American Students, that Elaine Richardson (and myself since I upheld Richardson's position) did not fully understand how much better schools are for black people now and, as such, Richardson and I were distorting the truth. These two women even claimed to relate better (than Richardson and me) to African Americans given their Italian and Irish backgrounds, since they, after all, have experienced the same discriminations as blacks

A year and a half later and Levy’s office is now decked out in posters of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Biggie while his desks are filled with Logic installed computers, MIDI pads, and keyboards with a corner complete with a mic, Beats headphones, and sound buffers. He now has a fully functioning studio in place so any and all students (not just members of the after-school club) can come spit whatever lyrics they need to, instead of sitting down in a traditional counseling setting that makes many young people feel uncomfortable. As Levy puts it, “The studio has become a culturally sensitive space for the school community to come write and record tracks about various emotional struggles they face. It has become an emotional outlet, a sort of space for healing, that they often do not have within schools.”