White Texas Teacher Caught on Video Telling Class His Race Is ‘Superior’
A Texas teacher has been put on administrative leave after videos of him telling his racially diverse class that he is “racist” and “ethnocentric” went viral on social media.
In one of the videos, the white teacher told his class, “Deep down in my heart I’m ethnocentric, which means I think my race is the superior one.”
The result is a back and forth between students and the teacher, with students repeatedly expressing shock.
“So white is better than all?” a Black student asked his teacher. The teacher then replied, “I think everybody thinks that. They’re just not honest about it.”
Another student asked, “So you said you are what? You are a racist?”
“I think everybody is a racist at that level,” the teacher said.
After two Black students respond by saying they’ve lost respect for the teacher, the teacher replies, “You should have more respect if I’m honest.”
The video is one of four recordings of the teacher’s conversation about race and racism with the students in a classroom at Bohls Middle School in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb. All four videos were posted to Instagram by the father of one of the students in the class. One video shows students asking questions about who gets to go to the bathroom based on race, and in another, a student asked, “So, you are a racist?” to which the teacher replied, “How many times do I gotta say it?”
“This shit is sad,” the father, a Texas-based music producer with 1.5 million followers, wrote in the now viral post. “In Austin Texas this hurts my heart to see this. I’m so angry.”
“I will stand up for my child and the other Black and Spanish kings and queens in this video,” said Southside, of 808 Mafia.
His son, whose Instagram handle is @babysizzle808 also posted one of the videos and said, “This still won’t change me… It’s just crazy this happened at my school to me and my friends. I’m glad my parents stay on me and taught me how to move in situations like this.”
The interactions also went viral on Twitter and Reddit. Filmmaker Tariq Nasheed posted one of the videos and tweeted, “This is the reason why we need reparations and an anti-Black racism hate crime bill.”
The Austin American-Statesman reported that the teacher is now on administrative leave. Neither Bohls Middle School principal Sharon Churchin nor Pflugerville Independent School District Superintendent Douglas Killian replied to a VICE News request for comment. But in a statement to other media Churchin and Killian said they’re aware of the incident and referred to it as an “inappropriate conversation.”
“This interaction does not align with our core beliefs as a district. The video of the conversation includes statements that we find wholly inappropriate,” the statement reads. “The advisory activity was inappropriate, inaccurate, and unacceptable. This type of interaction will not be tolerated in PfISD schools.”
Human resources for the school district is now investigating the incident.
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Anya Zoledziowski, Khareem Sudlow
