Pink, Blue, or racist?

So in case this hasn’t come up… I have ADHD. You may be wondering why I’m bringing this to your attention in a blog that you probably thought had something to do with race. Well, my ADHD doesn’t really have anything to do with race, but it has a whole lot to do with the face that this blog entry from February and is being published in July. Needless to say, I have a tendency to start something, get distracted, and then forget that I didn’t finish it. The number of blogs I have in draft is obscene.

But back to the point… (and I’ll probably expand on the story later but right now I just need to publish so I can link back to it)… on this day in February my son refused to take a social studies quiz, alleging that the quiz was racist and that he was boycotting it. The teacher asked what he was going to do, and he held it up as if to tear it in half. She responded, “It’s your grade.”

And my boy let it rip.

It turns out that this was a segregation activity and the purpose was to see if the students would rebel against the unfair treatment of some of the class, as well as for them to experience how it felt to be treated that way and how difficult it was to stand up for themselves.  As they were entering the classroom, some students were given a quiz on pink paper and others received a blue paper. One was a portion of the 1965 Alabama Literacy Test that was given to Blacks during voter registration and the other was a much shorter and easier test that was given to Whites.

Apparently she’s had many students voice objection or refuse to take the quiz once they caught on that all things weren’t equal, but she’s never had a student actually rip up his test before. He was also the first student from that class that voiced an objection.

That’s my boy!