Alright, disclaimer first: I am not a teacher. I am a Mental Health Technician at a psych facility. I specialize in working with kids between 5 and 12 years old, traditional on the enhanced unit (low stimulus environment due to enhanced problems; MR, Autism, severe behavior, etc). I also spend an inordinate amount of time on the regular childrens unit and the youth enhanced (13-18 year olds that need low-stimulus environments). My job is more education based; I run groups, help with school work they are missing while at our facility, teach lessons, etc.
I work in a predominately african-american neighborhood; I'd estimate roughly 50-70% of my patients at any given time are african american. I bring this up to clarify a bit on a couple of the points that Ms. Lathan makes. Its been my experience that a large chunk of the problems faced by those of my coworkers who are not black boils down to two things her students mention:
“Only certain kids get sent out, for doing the same things white kids do, maybe just a little louder or bolder, so we get caught.”
“You talk to us like our moms and aunts; you expect us to do right, and if we don’t, you make us tell our parents what we’re not doing.”
The number of times I've had 4 and 5 year olds tell me on the day they get there that I hate them because I'm white and all white people hate black people is entirely too damn high. It also doesn't help that I'm a former member of the military who is originally from Upstate NY; I talk a little bit different from my Southern patients, white or black.
That being said, I have a decent reputation with outgoing patients, for the same reasons Ms Lathan mentioned she does; I keep my expectations high, I work with the kids, and don't just send them to someone else, I treat all of them with respect, don't play favorites, etc. Sure, there's still problems (I'm pretty sure there's a few parents/guardians of my kids who still only know me as "that cracker devil who punishes my kid"), but treating them like human beings seems to work just fine.