Langston Hughes Poem Controversy: Virginia Student Asked to Read in a ‘Blacker’ Fashion

Sometimes it just takes one incident to remind us how far culture has come (and how far it has yet to go) in regards to racial sensitivity, and one ninth-grade student in Fairfax’s experience reading the Langston Hughes poem “Ballad of the Landlord” aloud in class is an incident that falls into the latter category, alas.

The allegations of racial insensitivity on the part of a teacher in the Fairfax school district are troubling, and student Jordan Shumate (who is black) says that he was reciting the Langston Hughes poem in class when a teacher identified by the Washington Post as Marilyn Bart made an offensive request. Shumate told the paper:

“She told me, ‘Blacker, Jordan… c’mon, blacker. I thought you were black.’”

Wait, what? That cannot be right, can it? A student who witnessed the Langston Hughes poem reading and racial discrimination backed Shumate up and further, Shumate says Bart allegedly followed up the racist remarks with a Mammy-style impersonation of her own:

“She sounded like a maid in the 1960s… She read the poem like a slave, basically.”

The paper goes on to say that the frustrated high-schooler finally asked his teacher whether she believed that all black people spoke like that, and that Bart then admonished him for speaking out of turn and dismissed him to his seat. Shumate says that it is not the first time he has been subject to such stereotypes in Bart’s classroom, and that earlier in the year during a discussion on stereotypes, Bart asked him to explain the cultural significance of grape soda to the class.

Shumate seems to have a very reasoned reaction to what appears to be some institutionalized racist treatment, however- he tells the Post:

“I do know the stereotypes… but she could change the questions so I’m not like the king of black people.”

Do you think that the teacher should be fired or disciplined over her Langston Hughes poem request?