While reading this and imaging what it would have been like were I in that professor's class and just how many epithets I could rattle off, it occurred to me that Black, female classmate of mine had been being called by an epithet as a nickname by classmates with no repercussions.
"Leroy
I think, at the time, I thought it was her father's name. That was something we did, although I don't think we started doing that until high school….
At any rate – there were never more than 5 Black kids in that class at that lab school where there was only one class per grade…
And I just realized that happened.
In the same school where, in 7th grade, the basketball coach, the PE coach (and maybe our grammar/history teacher) read Brer Rabbit in blackface.
At the private lab school….which I assume would have been considered progressive compared to the public schools.
Hm.
