Unfiltered Story #263281

(I am white, and I work in a school whose students are mostly African American and Latino. For Black History Month, we are reading a book about the Underground Railroad. In third grade, they haven’t studied much about slavery yet, so many of them are only just now learning how horrendous it was. Student #1, who is African American, has been looking very thoughtful while we read, and when we pause to discuss he asks me a question.)

Student #1: “If we lived back then, would you punch me in the face?”

Me: *desperately running through all the potential ramifications of what I could possibly say to inspire critical discussion of historical revisionism while also keeping in mind that they are literally nine years old*

Me: “Well… if I was raised that way, I might be very mad at you. But I would not punch you in the face.”

Student #1: “That’s good. I wouldn’t punch you in the face either.”