Stupidity in Education

Teacher fired for saying "negro" in Spanish class

Fired for word 'negro'? A Bronx teacher has filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired for using the word 'negro' in class. 'Negro' is the Spanish word for the color black.

One of the first lessons one learns in English class is that context is everything. The same holds true in Spanish.

Take the case of Petrona Smith. She says in a lawsuit that she was fired from teaching at Bronx PS 211 in March 2012 after a seventh-grader reported that she'd used the "N" word, according to The New York Post.

'Negro.'

Smith doesn't deny using the word. But she argues that everyone uses it, when speaking Spanish. She was teaching the Spanish words for different colors, and the color "black" in Spanish is "negro." She also taught the junior high school students, in this bilingual school, that the Spanish term for black people is "moreno." And by the way, Smith, who is from the West Indies, is black.

I'm old enough that I remember when negro was the polite word for nxxxxxs, blacks, African-'mericans, or whatever word it is we're supposed to be  using today, in the few cases that we're permitted to mention race, ethnicity or continent of origin, or whatever it is.

If I recall correctly, the Spanish word "negro" is pronounced a little more like "nay-grow" and less like the American word "knee-grow," but that distinction may not be clear when spoken by a West Indian black "African American West Indian" to a Bronx speaking audience.

I guess they get the education their parents deserve by tolerating this insanity.