a touchy subject

I teach Special Ed. in a very diverse public school on Long Island.

Our unit is the 13 colonies. At the end of today's class (we were doing the southern colonies), I gave a short intro to our next lesson for thursday (they wont be in school tomorrow due to a field trip). The next lesson I'm doing is on the Middle Passage and slaves being brought to America.

One student (she's one of the big mouths in the class), says to me "You know your ancestors were slave owners right?" And I said "No, actually they weren't" She says "Yes- you're white. Your ancestors owned my ancestors".

I started to to explain that my ancestors were from Ireland and NOrway, and therefore did not even live in America when there were slaves. Then, the bell rang.

Here's the tough question- do I address this? On thursday the Speech/Language teacher is conducting the lesson. I'm teaching a lesson on friday on life under slavery (basically explaining what a slaves life is like).

Should I bring it? Wait until she brings it up again (if she does)? And if she does bring it up, how do I address it?

Thank you so much for any help. This is a somewhat difficult subject for me to address and I want to be careful what I say!

Re: a touchy subject

Yes, this is tough.

I would not bring it up BUT if she did I would use it as a "teachable moment" as they say....

I would touch on "stereotypes" and the fact that we cannot assume things about people based on what they look like.

I would explain your ancestors are from Europe and therefore it was not the case that you owned slaves.

Just an idea...GOOD LUCK

Message edited 11/17/2009 7:59:11 PM.

Re: a touchy subject

I agree about not bringing it up, but if it comes up again to make it a teachable moment - tie it into northern "slavery". Mention that it's highly unlikely that your family owned slaves in the south, since they didn't live there, but northern immigrants/lower class (including Irish) were treated just as poorly and sometimes worse than southern slaves (i.e. Lowell MA girls)

you could also tie it into the world wide slave trade. Only 5% of Africans forced into slavery came to the US.

If they are old enough, an application could also be about what happened to the little girl in NC. Why would an African-American sell a family member into slavery today? does it matter if they are AA or another race?