Student Humiliated by Mock Slave Auction at Ohio School

[homasse]

Student Humiliated by Mock Slave Auction at Ohio School

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According to The Root, 10-year old student Nikko Burton was humiliated by his teacher during a mock “slave auction” at Chapelfield Elementary in Ohio. Burton, one of two black students in the class, was chosen to be a “slave,” while other students role-played as “masters” who inspected the

Comments

[bantiarna]

This story is very interesting to me as my 7th grade History class did the same thing. We drew marbles out of a bag to see who were slaves and who were buyers. I was a slave. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate to us the emotional as well as physical damage of slavery. It certainly made an impression on me. However, we were NOT allowed to be touched. They would say things about us, that I was healthy but skinny, that another child was overweight and slow etc.
We did a lot of things like that in our class, our teacher said it was very important to put ourselves IN history, not to just read it from the books.

My son is in the 7th grade now, he sits in a seat all day long while the teachers read from the text books. All they do is memorize dates.

Clarifiying

[bantiarna]

I am not saying that this is the right thing to do. Only offering some commentary other than "OMG!" and "That sucks" I have no idea if a child in my class would have been able to opt out, noone asked to.

[bantiarna]

The article does not say the black kids were targeted, it doesn't say other than that the children were divided up, there were two black children in the class, one was put on each side. But once the boy became uncomfortable he should have been allowed to quit. Thats true with ANY school activity.

[tiger0range]

We did this at our 7th grade (or maybe 8th grade) history class as well. The teacher asked for volunteers and nobody wanted to be the slave for the longest time. Finally, I volunteered and then a couple of other kids did too in solidarity. People were so embarrassed about the inspection thing that they mostly gave awkward praises or such and tried to avoid anything controversial. The worst they could say about me was that I wore glasses.

I remember it well because a cute girl I liked felt up my biceps and said nice things about them and for a month afterwards I made muscles constantly at the bathroom mirror because I was so amazed and so proud.

[bellonia]

Ugh. That's gross anyways.

[imnotasquirrel]

Even without the touching aspect, it sounds like a recipe for disaster, especially if a kid who is sensitive about their body ends up being a slave. (And what tween/teen isn't?)

[wrestlingdog]

Yeah, that's the part that made me D:.

[zoram]

Exactly. If I had had to go up and be told in front of the class that I was fat, I would have never gone back again.

[lickety_split]

Right?? I'm sure being called fat and slow by their peers did LOADS for their self-esteem.