Racism in the classroom
 

I've mentioned previously to some that one of my classes features a racist professor; Several students [i.e. 25 out of 40 students] have approached me to ask for help complaining.

I'm exploring all resources possible to get assistance to write this letter as clearly as possible; I'd appreciate anyone's input to making sure this letter is as serious as possible.



TO: Alvina Cassiani, Dean, Business School
CC: Ercole Perrone, Executive Director HSF
FROM: The class of BACC 100
DATE: March 4th, 2011
SUBJECT: Gina Fernandez

Good day to you. We hope this letter finds you well. We regret that we will be writing on such a negative topic this day. A number of situations have come up that have left the classroom feeling negative and instilled a feeling of fear in my classmates. We've decided to make the effort to reach out to you, to settle this issue.

Ms. Fernandez has made inappropriate and racist comments to the class. Her words in class have prompted an atmosphere of discomfort and hate. In the student handbook, we are told that Humber prides itself on being a respectful environment that is free from fear; her words have made students uncomfortable and further discouraged the attendance on the part of the students of Indian heritage, and any attempts at questioning or polite discussion is met with snappish or demeaning replies, in the vein of, “Well, you can think that, but you're wrong.” and “I don't have time for this.”

The most prominent of her racist remarks were directed at an Indian student with an accent [his accent was thick, but he was understandable to myself, seated at the far side of the room from him]: “I know you people normally talk like 'hurburburburburburburb', but in my class you need to speak slowly, clearly and in English.” [The noise in quotations was her opening her mouth, letting her tongue lol about in her mouth and making a cry similar to cartoonish depictions of Arabic individuals]

The students face was ashen and the class was mostly silent after this remark. Classes following have furthered our belief that Fernandez has a bias against foreign students. This discrimination is unfair, and some of the class has taken action before this letter; Jennifer Villa has withdrawn from the course this semester in personal protest to the mistreatment this class has received.

This is not conducive to learning; when students successfully understand and apply their knowledge of the materials, to be penalized by a professor's lack of organization.

Of a less dire issue are the following two issues:

- Fernandez is consistently late, between 10 to 15 minutes after class is scheduled to begin.

We are expected to arrive and attend classes regularly and punctually; we attend to learn and participate in class discussions, and paid a fee for this privilege. We are entitled to a professor who is punctual so that we may meet our educational goals, or that provides a justification or forewarning that she will be late. To date, Ms. Fernandez has offered no apologies nor explanation for her tardiness or absences. The class feels we have been deprived of opportunity and time to seek assistance and aid in subjects we do not understand.

- Fernandez is consistently unorganized and unable to maintain an organized teaching method.

It is difficult to learn from a professor who does not teach from a perspective of knowing the material; it is made more difficult when the professor assigns homework verbally only, or hidden from easy access or view. To cite example, The monopoly homework sheet, attached: It does not require us to purchase houses, but she became irate with our table when we did not. It also did not adequately explain all actions or how actions were to work.

She later assigned, verbally only, to take a 10% withdrawal from equity and cash from the business; this information was not updated on a handout, nor sent out over blackboard. The only reason several students learned of this was a discussion on blackboard where another student asked for definition.

In summary, we feel that Fernandez does not follow the standards that Humber College promotes:
“Unacceptable Behaviour refers to any disruptive, unreasonable or irresponsible action or inaction which interferes with learning, health and safety, the reasonable comfort of others, or which creates an atmosphere of fear. Such behaviours will not be tolerated in the learning environment. Members of the Humber College Community are entitled to expect certain rights to be recognized. In turn, all Members are accountable for their behaviour. Responsible behaviour on the part of all Members is fundamental and essential to ensure an effective learning environment.” [From the Humber College Employee Resources located at http://hrs.humber.ca/employee_resources/conduct.php]

we feel this situation can only be rectified by one of the following solutions:

1) Non-Penalized Academic Withdrawal with full refund for this course in this semester, retroactive to Jennifer Villa; Including the non-refundable fees charged.

2) An apology to the class from Gina Fernandez in which she demonstrates that she truly regrets her actions, as well as gratis re-enrolment for all students in BACC 100 over the summer.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this letter.


Sincerely,

The class of BACC 100

You mention other racist remarks/attitudes- list as many as you can in detail as you can. In matters like this you want on record as much as you can list. It will make your case much stronger if you have a list of detailed incidents.

In addition to Smarty's suggestion:

I would say include further specifics about this; make it clear what previous steps you guys have taken to make the administration aware of this and what their response was.

I'm also not sure whether it's a good idea to include the other complaints about her teaching, especially not as prominently as they are above. Like I would say the first thing to bring up is the racism; it's your strongest point and as you say, the major motivation for your bringing up these complaints.

The concerns about lateness and shitty teaching are, regrettably, the sort of thing an apathetic administration could easily brush off. You should zero right in on the racism and hammer away at it because it's much more unlikely for an administrator to treat that lightly.

It has been sometimes difficult to define which comments are racist and which are rude; she's consistently curt and rude with indian and students who profess membership in an islamic faith in particular. I'm not sure how to put this in, though. She also refuses to assist any student with a deep shade to their skin- an example from a test would be a student asking for help about whether Equity was increased on credit or debit. after sitting with his hand up and her staring at him for slightly more then 2 minutes, she sighed heavily and walked over. Heard his question, and replied fairly loudly "You'd think you'd have learned that in class. Pay attention next time." and walked away.

A few minutes later, I raised my hand and asked the same question regarding revenue. She came over immediately, and answered my question with a smile.

Edit @Fifth:
Emailed complaints to the department head have apparently been submitted with no reply; Or the student was told that 'sometimes terminology becomes difficult to understand across language barriers, and this was clearly meant in humor.' The biggest action taken was on the part of Ms. Villa, who resigned from the course.

I'm fairly confident in saying that just because "it was a joke", doesn't disregard it's potential to offend an individual.

[also @Me: Lolhypocrite, but trying not to do that shit anymore.]

Edit2 @Fifth:

Moving it around so that the racism complaint is at the top; I don't know if the arguement is strong enough to stand alone for a course withdrawal without the other points, though.

Edit3 @Fifth:
You know what, you're right. I'll make a seperate complaint about the tardiness and disorganization later, and deal with the racism upfront.

You mentioned email complaints not being replied. Do it in person, if you are not good in person get the strongest speaker amongst the complaints to go up. If the racism is difficult to define, it would be better to be able to speak about it rather than hodge-podge in a letter. Deliver the letter by hand then talk about it.
Also take one of the students who has been discriminated against- it's much harder to just dismiss a case with a human face.
I totally agree to focus on the racism.

I will be doing this in person, and taking with me David; or as she insists on calling him, "Dav-eed".

That's not a foreign name.... that's dedicated racism that is.

See I would state all of this in the letter, just so it's like, stated for the record that attempts have been made to address this previously.

Like, having the entire class co-sign a letter is a pretty major step, so it's a good idea to make it clear that you, being the very reasonable and considerate people you are, are taking this step because your previous attempts to communicate your objections and have this issue dealt with have been unsuccessful.

...I would also add, it looks like you're submitting this to the same head of the business school that you're saying people have previously contacted. Given that this person has so far been unresponsive, I would say, if there is anyone administratively higher up than this person - a dean / chancellor / whatever (I don't want to assume there is since your business school could be pretty autonomous from the rest of the school or whatever) - then CC that person in the letter and deliver a copy to them as well.

As a minor formal thing this bit

should be written as like

TO: Alvina Cassiani, business department head
CC: HSF news

and also make sure you're using whatever is Cassiani's specific formal title.

Back to the point about seeing if there's another administrative level above this person, IF that is the case I would say direct this letter to them before you go to the news about this issue. If there isn't then I would say you are making the right move by taking it to the newspaper.

I don't know that you need to take those parts out altogether, mind. The racism is what you should emphasize but there's probably a place in there somewhere for a statement of like, "in addition to [this teacher's] racial insensitivity, she has performed poorly and unprofessionally as a teacher.... consistently late for classes... poorly explained teaching methods etc. etc.

You know, if you can also get the comments recorded as well, that'd be pretty indeniable as well.

But anyway what I really should be saying is you and the rest of your class are pretty excellent for standing up for your classmates like this. Like I could tell you all day long about my opinions on effective letter writing but what really matters is that you're willing to step up and say that you're not willing to accept this which however you do it is 100% the right thing to do and brave as hell in a way I know I personally haven't ever had to be.

EDIT re: the below - yeah I mean I want to make it clear that anything I'm writing in this thread is just like, the best advice I can offer and just one person on the internet's opinion, you should abs. listen to other people at your university and I mean ultimately make your own judgment on what's best since it's you and your classmates who have to do this and make the statement you're gonna stand by.