Do you think it's racist to drop a class bc a teacher has a thick accent? (1 Viewer)

[Mangoey]

I can't find the post anymore, but a while ago someone on my social media posted screenshots from a large class group chat where people were talking about, complaining, and making a little fun of the teachers accent.

The poster said that they were uncomfortable with the things that were being said and people in the comments launched into a discussion on whether or not what happened was really racist.

So what do you think?​

 

[Willow]

Which accent was it?

 

[Willow]

You know it reminds me of my French Canadian and my Swiss German teacher who had a really funny accent

 

[Mangoey]

Which accent was it?

I'm honestly not sure, the post never gave those details

 

[Willow]

I'm honestly not sure, the post never gave those details

No worries 😉

 

[Abeamus]

Well I feel like the title and the post are asking two different questions

As far as the title goes I feel like if you are genuinely having a hard time understanding the teacher then you're going to have trouble learning and in that case it might be better to take another class.

For the post itself well I don't know if you could call it racist exactly as some ways of speaking can trip people up like i've been told I talk too fast sometimes however I would say that it's at least a rude thing to do as most people just happen to end up speaking the way that they speak.

 

[Mangoey]

Well I feel like the title and the post are asking two different questions

As far as the title goes I feel like if you are genuinely having a hard time understanding the teacher then you're going to have trouble learning and in that case it might be better to take another class.

For the post itself well I don't know if you could call it racist exactly as some ways of speaking can trip people up like i've been told I talk too fast sometimes however I would say that it's at least a rude thing to do as most people just happen to end up speaking the way that they speak.

Yeah I was trying to make the title shorter, but I didn't know how to do that if I wanted to get the whole point across

I agree with you though, I don't think either instance would really be racist, it might've been a bit careless to talk about someone's accent in this manner? But overall I think with the dynamic that exists here and the student paying lots of money to learn, it's a justified complaint.

 

[lexus]

I don't think it's racist if you drop a class when you can't understand a teacher. I've had a few teachers with (kind of) thick accents so it made it more difficult to learn.

The only time I see it as racist is when you mock their accent, or if you simply discriminate them just because of their race

 

[raymondchouku]

Making fun of an accent is poor form. But is it really racist. All accents regardless of region will be mocked. I've heard British and Australian accents mocked millions of times.

As for dropping a class... Well I haven't done it even though my Algebra teachers' accent was pretty thick. But if you really can't understand the person then I'd consider if I'd need to understand them, because in many classes I could easily deduce what they are saying from what is in the book and what is in their PowerPoint. A lot of professors just re-state what is in their PowerPoints.

edit: Another professor I had taught directly from the book. Meaning he would open the book and flip through and discuss key points

 

[kinnie]

I mean if they genuinely cannot understand and it’s causing them to struggle with keeping up, then I think it’s fair to say no it’s not. But blatantly mocking another human being for their accent and complaining about it, then yes I would say that’s pretty messed up.