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Originally posted by Ideal08
*sigh* Ok, this wasn't about me. And I lightweight feel funny for feeling the way that I do, but it's how I feel.
Last week, the student body went to a play of sorts or something where students were performing. One of our girls placed first place in an essay contest. She read her essay; it was about one of the teachers here. In the essay, she told how she wanted "to be just like" the teacher when she grew up. The teacher is White.
Last night, we had our spring dance (yes, in the middle of the week, another story for another day). While at the dance, I overheard a student tell a different teacher that she wanted to be just like her when she grew up. This teacher is White as well.
I'm conflicted over this. Why are these young Black girls looking up to these White women? What are we (the Black women here) doing wrong? We are always talking about being positive role models for our youth, and here it is, they are looking up to these White women.  Why does this make me sad? And is there something wrong with me for feeling this way? On the one hand, I'm glad they have SOMEONE to look up to. On the other hand, it further reinforces the reasons I think we should have MORE Black teachers at an ALL BLACK school. HC we only have FOUR Black teachers out of about 20 total?
I don't know. What y'all think? Do I have some type of internal issues? Insecurities? Why don't our Black girls look up to us? And am I overreacting since it was only TWO girls who've said this? And neither of them are in my house. *sigh*
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i don't think that you are wrong in feeling the way you do. i believe if i were in your shoes i would have felt the same way. however, i think that perhaps you should take a step back and think that perhaps it was certain aspects of this teacher that this child is looking at. i think that since children are so straight forward and honest if this teacher was black an exhibited the same attributes as this white teacher, the child would have made the same comment. i remember wanting to be like some of my teachers, both black and white.
it is definitely a problem in our communities that there aren't enough men and women of color who are not teaching.
i think that you do have an issue and the issue is that you are looking at the bigger picture and have taken this child's comment and placed it in the larger context of our societal problems. those that didn't agree with you perhaps just felt that it was wonderful that a child is looking up to someone other than a basketball player, rap/hip-hop artist or the local thug.
perhaps what you are feeling can help you to make changes in your life or perhaps focus your mind on your upcoming activities/opportunities--i believe in another thread you are going to africa. perhaps you can take this experience and really make a difference in those whom you will be affecting.
relative to the larger issue of what 'we' are doing, i can say that we are not doing enough. one of the things that needs to change is perhaps the complacency that we have towards each other when 'we' are not taking care of business. personally i am dealing with an organization where they are not holding up to the ideals of the organization and seem to be focused on issues not related to direct community outreach. the membership is not happy but for a variety of reasons are not holding the leadership to task. we are so concerned with being among the who's who that we don't take care of other things that are important (ie: mentoring and community outreach). 'we' achieve a level of success and 'we' forget the people that helped us and the mechanisms that got us there.
i think that what 'we' need to do is open our eyes and move past personal gain within our civic organizations. i do feel that if we take time to see the bigger picture, things become so much clearer.