A #UniversityOfTennessee student went off on her sociology professor after the answer to a question about African American families during slavery gets marked wrong on a test. Kayla Reneé Parker challenged the teacher, but things quickly got out of hand and resulted in the teacher losing her job. She later blogged about what happened after the ordeal.
The test question was,”Historical research on African-American families during slavery shows that:” and Parker marked C which read “black family bonds were destroyed by the abuses of slave owners, who regularly sold off family members to other slave owners.” The answer, according to the professor, was D which read “most slave families were headed by two parents.”
After grades were posted, Parker told her professor to do more research on the subject, because she said she was concerned about “how my history is being portrayed in class.” The suggestion only caused the two to argue through emails and in the hallways until the teacher invited Parker to present her own findings about the subject to the class. Unfortunately things only continued to escalate which resulted in the teacher being fired back in April.
“Had the question been as is and I had received a response that proved to me she was listening, and she was trying to hear, and she would do some additional research, research that didn’t come from textbooks in the 1960s and 70s, I would’ve been totally satisfied,” Parker tells WATE. “College is a place for you to discuss issues you agree with and disagree with,” Parker said later adding, “I will always want to speak truths to power if it brings this kind of outcome.”
The student who is set to graduate this December had some last words for the unnamed professor. “I wanted to have one final thing to say to her and it was that I forgive you for taking my focus last semester,” says Parker. “I don’t forgive you though for being willfully ignorant while teaching students because it’s incredibly irresponsible.” Bloop!
In today’s episode of Who’s Got White Privilege, it is being reported that although the professor was fired back in April, she is being paid through to the end of her contract which ends in July.
TSR STAFF: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on Instagram & @tallyohhh on Twitter!
Source: http://wate.com/2017/06/07/university-of-tennessee-student-blogs-about-disagreement-with-professor/
