Teacher mocks Native American culture in attempt to teach math lesson

[Iliena]

I don't know. Dressing up like an ethnic caricature is rarely either attributable to an excess of energy, nor remedied via medication.

It looked like a manic episode from the vid, whatever the reason behind it she needs to calm the fuck down if she wants to carry on teaching!

[Endus]

Ok so....

Both native Americans and The Norse people where victims of the colonial powers of their time.
While the Native Americans had to deal with the Christian Europeans, so did the Norse.
Both cultures where stripped of their creed and beliefs, through violence and force.

Not remotely comparable.

Nor was it "colonialism" when it came to Scandinavia. At all. That's just wildly incorrect.

Both had a rich history with many customs, where much has been lost, some of it has been kept, and the descendants of
both cultures are still practicing many of the customs.

Vikings haven't existed for a thousand years.

First Nations people are still around.

Heck, even you Endus, are probably practicing some Nordic custom that are millennia old.
Even talking the Germanic tongue that the English adopted.

Not where English came from. English pulls major influences from early Celtic languages, Norse from Norse invaders of the UK, Germanic from the Angles and Saxons, Latin from the Romans, and French from the, well, French. And that catches us up to Old English. Except for the Celts, those were all invading groups. This was not cultural appropriation, it was the English being assimilated into the regimes of their conquerors.

This is what I meant by you not having a goddamned clue what the frick you're talking about.

But here in Scandinavia, the grave mounds are still tall. The customs that have been done for thousands of
years, surviving inquisition and Christian threats, are still being practiced.
We still have our religion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Norway

75% Christian. A smattering of other world faiths. A couple percent of Humanists. About 19% that aren't religiously affiliated.

Unless by "your own religion" you were referring to the Church of Norway (Christian) or some other smaller Christian sect, then you're talking about people who fall into the 0.05% of the population who practice "other religions and life stances".

In short, you're pushing complete nonsense.

If the history channel makes a whole show with hipster looking vikings, falsifying the history and customs,
playing on the stereotypes of vikings and Norse people, is that worse than a kid dressing up as a native American and doing a rain dance across the floor?

No.

Because vikings haven't existed for a thousand years.

Whereas the First Nations practices being appropriated are modern practices, and you're being racist.

This is an obvious distinction unless you're pushing a racist agenda.

[Dacia Ultan]

It looked like a manic episode from the vid, whatever the reason behind it she needs to calm the fuck down if she wants to carry on teaching!

It didn't look like a "manic episode" to me (and I've witnessed those); it looked like a performance. And even if a manic episode was involved: that neither explains nor justifies dressing up like an ethnic caricature.

[Elegiac]

Seeing as English is a form of Scandinavian and Germanic, who is appropriating who right now? Not to mention you use our gods names to name the days of the week :P

You can just admit you don't know what cultural appropriation is, you know, if you honestly can't see the difference between taking cultural symbols as cosmetic abstraction (i.e. wearing a feather headdress without understanding its context, using Kanji or Greek script as cool symbols entirely divorced from their meanings) versus acculturation and assimilation (the use of Germanic names for days of the week which are themselves calques of the Romance names, the use of the English language given it's a lingua franca largely imposed by imperialism, etc.)

Also: still no systemic component, still not racism. First Nations people are still around, and still suffering the results of past and continued systemic oppression and erasure. That is why it is not appropriate for people to nick their symbols and strip them of all cultural context to teach a silly mnemonic.

[Zeth Hawkins]

Perhaps I should have gotten into teaching. Getting paid to dance around like that sounds like a fun way to spend the day.

- - - Updated - - -

So..this is racism as well?

Apt response. Either every culture can be mocked, or none can. (Though I would say the man in your image elicits more of an admiration toward Vikings than mockery)

[Elegiac]

Apt response. Either every culture can be mocked, or none can.

ITT: "I don't understand that some cultures are the subject of oppression and erasure while others are not."

Then again, y'all seem to think bigotry is just a function of being mean.

[Zeth Hawkins]

It's amazing that a math teacher can, at no impetus and for no reason whatsoever, just engage in a racist caricature of Native Americans, and people will actively defend it. Just...amazing.

How did I not realize this was a math class? Assumed it was history-related. Makes the whole thing even more bizarre

[Cthulhu 2020]

Perhaps I should have gotten into teaching. Getting paid to dance around like that sounds like a fun way to spend the day.

If you think teachers get paid all that much you must have a pretty shitty job with shitty pay to want to get into teaching.

Then again, I suppose conservatives never can pass up an opportunity to take a jab at teachers getting paid to pretty much do one of the most important and underpaid jobs in the nation.

[XDurionX]

I'm blown away this made if off of social media and into the news, or that people are losing their minds over this.

This some stupid, cringe shit and I'm not gonna defend it, but at the same time...she's trying to get the kids engaged (and failing) and it doesn't seem like she's some malicious racist. Just a bit of an idiot math teacher who went overboard and didn't fully engage her brain.

Put her on leave and give her a serious talking to and maybe some additional training, have her apologize to the students when she comes back. Call it a day. If it becomes a repeat problem sure, do more, but this seems like the internet is salivating for enemies to attack to feel morally superior to.

Pretty much my stance as well. Yes it's stupid and insensitive to the max, but i don't support this witch hunt either. Give her the chance to see why she did wrong.

[Iliena]

It didn't look like a "manic episode" to me (and I've witnessed those); it looked like a performance. And even if a manic episode was involved: that neither explains nor justifies dressing up like an ethnic caricature.

I'm not going to argue with you, but just to be clear... so you expect all potential nut jobs and idiots to fall under your predefined metric's and if they don't its obviously for malicious reasons?

[Rozz]

This is closed. Discussion is all over the place, the main topic is forbidden, and the poll is inappropriate.