Beaufort County teacher suspended after using explicit rap video for lesson on racism
An explicit rap video that offers two opposing views about race in America has sparked similarly polarizing reactions from Bluffton parents after it was recently played during a high school class lesson.
Meghan Clarke, a freshmen English teacher at May River High School, was placed on paid administrative leave Sept. 21 and 22 while administrators “reviewed” her decision to show the music video for the rap “I’m Not Racist” in class.
The music video — containing about 50 expletives, including 17 N-words — divided parents evenly into those who support Clarke’s teaching practices and those who do not.
After hearing about the lesson, five parents emailed the school’s principal to express their concerns about the appropriateness of the video, including one parent who went so far as to pull his daughters out of Clarke’s class.
On the other hand, five parents also emailed the school in support of Clarke, according to district spokesperson Jim Foster.
The principal and administrators investigated the incident while Clarke was on paid leave and found that the video was not suited for the classroom, Foster said.
“The basic idea behind the video was an interesting one — to have students examine how entire groups of people can be stereotyped — but the profanity was obviously not appropriate for a classroom,” he said.
After receiving criticism for showing the video in class, Clarke apologized to the principal, her students and her students’ parents, according to Foster.
“In the end, this is an outstanding young teacher who made a mistake in judgment,” Foster said.
‘A very uncomfortable conversation’
On first viewing, the video can be jarring.
Racial slurs and profanity are a common thread throughout the nearly seven-minute music video.
The video opens with a white man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat sitting across from a black man with dreadlocks.
Both men in the video, who lip-sync to rap artist Joyce Lucas’ lyrics, offer their starkly opposing views about race in America.
For the first three minutes, the white man rattles off sweeping stereotypes and misconceptions of black people — from relying on government assistance to wearing their pants too low to selling drugs for a living.
Yet, the first verse ends with the white man saying: “But there’s two sides to every story. I wish that I knew yours.”
When the camera shifts to the other side of the table, the black man offers his own take about racial issues in America, including his experiences with police brutality and institutional racism.
When the rap ends, the two men hug and a message appears on the screen that reads: “We were all human until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us.”
The video, which was released by Lucas in November 2017, went viral within days and has since garnered more than 90 million views on YouTube.
Lucas told CNN that the video was supposed to portray “a very uncomfortable conversation” about race, which most people try to avoid.
“These are suppressed feelings that both parties have but are afraid to express,” he told CNN.
Warning: the following video includes expletive language.
‘Realities we face in society’
Up until late last week, Thomas Schoenstra’s two daughters were students in Clarke’s freshmen advanced composition class.
The elective course focuses on preparing students for college-level academic writing by teaching them to use research materials as the basis for composing clear, cohesive and coherent arguments, according to the district’s 2018-19 high school course catalog.
Schoenstra said he first heard about the video after Clarke emailed parents Sept. 19 to explain her thoughts behind it and to apologize to anyone who found it offensive.
When he watched the video, Schoenstra said he was appalled.
“I’m not an idiot,” he said. “I know my kids hear (vulgar language), but it doesn’t belong in the classroom.”
Schoenstra said he believes the video “sends the wrong message about racism” because of how it portrays the white man with racist views as a supporter of President Donald J. Trump.
“Out of all the videos online, it amazes me that she couldn’t find one that was apolitical,” he said.
According to Schoenstra, students were then asked to write about their reactions to and thoughts about the video.
His daughter, he said, could not write what she truly felt because she didn’t feel comfortable due to the clear political bias portrayed in the video.
“I get the premise behind (the video) and I can appreciate what (the teacher) was trying to do,” Schoenstra said. “It’s just that particular video had so many things I don’t agree with.”
Schoenstra said he ultimately decided to move his daughters to a different English class after Clarke sent him a list of additional videos she planned to show throughout the semester, one of which was about birth control.
But not every parent agreed with Schoenstra’s point of view.
Emily Bierman, whose daughter is also in Clarke’s advanced composition class, said she applauded Clarke’s teaching style and called her “one of the best English teachers” her daughter has ever had.
“She’s passionate about the class she’s teaching, she’s clear in the messages she’s trying to convey and she’s encouraging very real conversations about the problems and issues (the students) have been facing since middle school,” Bierman said.
“She’s not just teaching from a textbook. She’s giving them real world situations.”
The creation of classroom lessons are at the discretion of the teacher running the class. Therefore, they are not required to get permission from the principal or other administrators before showing a video, according to Foster.
Schoenstra said he would like to see the school implement a policy that includes more oversight of classroom lesson plans.
“Neither the superintendent nor the principal could tell me the policy for approving these types of videos,” he said. “As a parent, that’s my biggest concern that I have no idea what’s happening in my children’s classes.”
In the email sent to parents the day after the video was shown, Clarke apologized if any parents took offense to the video and explained to parents she was using short videos as a way to talk about and “address the realities we face in society.”
“As a teacher, it would be an injustice to my students if I neglected very important issues that our youth will face in society,” Clarke wrote in the email.
Clarke told parents in the email that the class had previously discussed that, when not directed at someone, the use of profanity “does not always have to be deemed inappropriate when it is used to express emotion.”
But in a statement written to The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette on Friday, Clarke said, “Although profanity is infused in much of the entertainment consumed by today’s teens, that doesn’t make it acceptable for classroom viewing.”
“Our Advanced Composition class will continue to focus on various realities that students will face in their lives, and racial stereotyping is one of those realities. But I will take to heart what my parents are saying and be sensitive to their concerns in my lesson planning,” she continued.
This story was originally published September 28, 2018 at 6:40 PM.