Teacher Caught on Video Saying Slaves Weren’t Whipped

She also said the N-word is wrongly defined

A Florida school district is is under fire after videos surfaced of a teacher making claims that white people didn’t whip slaves and that the n-word “just means ignorant,” according to reports in International Business Times

and Complex.

A student—who appears to be named Hector—posted three TikTok videos of a discussion in his by AP Government class at Island Coast High School in Cape Coral, Florida. In the first video, another student can be heard describing how slaves were whipped by white slave owners. The teacher is then heard responding, “They wouldn’t do that to slaves.”

Hector, who has the camera on him, says, “How do you know that? Were you there?” He gets no response and asks again. “Like, how do you know?” The teacher then threatens to kick Hector out, saying he wants to have an ”honest conversation” with the class. “That’s what I want. That’s what we’re here in AP for,” he says.

In the second video, the teacher asks the class what the N-word means. One student says, “ignorant.” The teacher agrees with that answer and says, “The N-word just means ignorant. It doesn’t have any other meaning in any other vocabulary other than you are a stupid person. You are ignorant. You are not well read. You are not well educated. That’s what it means.”

In the final video, the teacher and other students discuss the meaning of hate speech and what qualifies as such.

Following backlash from the viral videos, the Lee County school district took to Twitter to let the public know that the situation is “currently under investigation.”

Aisha K. Staggers

Aisha K. Staggers, M.F.A., Managing Editor for Sister 2 Sister and News Onyx. Not just a writer, I am also a literary agent, political analyst, culture critic and Prince historian. Weekly appearances on the Dr. Vibe Show feed my soul. The Hill, Paper Magazine, MTV News, HuffPost, Blavity, AfroPunk, Atlanta Blackstar, The New York Review of Books, are just a few of the places where you can find my work.