RealTalk x Razor: “It Was Not a Position That Any of Us Wanted to Be in.”
Current Hopkins Student, Anonymous
The latest edition of the RealTalk x Razor collaboration comes from a current Hopkins Student.
“In the 2018-19 school year we had a speaker by the name of Jasiri X. Jasiri X is an African American rapper, activist, and public speaker. He had a way with words and a very engaging speech that resulted in a classic standing ovation. After each Assembly with a distinguished speaker, there is usually a Q&A session. In one of the Q&A sessions, there was a teacher who stood up and asked Jasiri X ‘How do you feel about the use of the word n----- in English classes?’ The teacher was a white man and he said the word with ease as he asked the question. There was a moment of murmuring and turning heads because you could feel the discomfort in the room. I felt the eyes staring at me as everyone waited for one of the few black people in the room to say something. I don’t know if they thought I was going to be mad or upset or anything of that nature. I sat there squirming in my seat and waiting for the session to end. This Q&A session was all the talk for weeks. To this day, as I am a current Hopkins student, people talk about this teacher and how they could not believe he said what he did. I ended up having this teacher at one point in my Hopkins career and I was nervous about what he might ask us to say or do in terms of literature in that class. Thankfully, Jasiri X was very professional about the situation and did not cause any fuss, but it was not a position that any of us wanted to be in. I am not sure whether or not the teacher apologized for using the word when he could have simply said ‘the n-word’.”
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