No matter what the circumstances I simply refuse to get froggy with the inmates. I’m not sure whether it’s my years of service (18+) combined with my age (46+) or my limited physical ability to jump. I’m not sure what contributed to my suddenly bland, unemotional responses.
The other day, like most days at work, I had been accused of racism; this, after a short discussion. “We’re all prejudice against something,” I said.
“I knew you were racist,” Prisoner Johnson stated. He has "non-effective-time-management" down to an art form. I had told him, I don’t like lazy students. He stares out the window every day. Which came first the chicken or the egg? I’m not sure. I don't care. “You’re always writing tickets on us,” he added.
I shrugged my shoulders. In actuality, if you were to study the data, I probably do write more tickets on his particular race. Still—I have a job to do. I filled out an absence slip with the names of three students: one Black, one Hispanic, and one White. None of them had staff authorization to miss class, so I wrote each an “Out of Place” ticket, otherwise known as AWOL, over the fence, shoot center mass …
The next day, the Black and Hispanic sat in the back of the classroom giving me dirty looks while the white student made his rounds showing everyone the ticket I’d written on him. “I missed one day,” he said, “and that dirty son-of-a-bitch writes me up.”
I let him vent.
For ten minutes.
Then I spoke. “From now on,” I said, nodding toward the white guy, “I’m going to write him up because he’s the best advertisement I’ve got.”
Most of the students, including Prisoner Johnson, laughed.
7 comments:
The response to "we're all prejudiced" reminds me of a conversation I had with someone (not a prisoner, just an incredibly self-righteous teenager) years ago. I said, basically, the same thing, and she said "I'm not!" and then started talking, with great pride, as she often did, about the fact that she had black friends, even imitating the way they talked in a way that sounded straight out of Amos & Andy...
Mid-life crisis?
I was too young to have one in basic training in the air force. But yep, you sometimes feel as if you're in stir. A maggot in basic training does feel as if he's in stir for sure.
Heh. Then I got married. Oh no. Not another institution. :0
There's usually enough dumbasses in every group so you can get a good ethnic cross section.
You are discriminating in your (so-called) discrimination. ;)
JR-Good comeback to those idiots! I'm sure bitchin' helps them kill time while trying to seem important!
Beth, you are so right. The poor white guy thought he could get away with missing one day of class. And why not?--The teacher's as soft as Dairy Queen ice cream on a 90 degree day. Shame on him. Shame on him for trying to make me feel guilty. Shame on him for trying to identify with my color.
Bwah...Good one! It would be nice if they'd man up & take some responsibility for themselves of course, but if they did, they wouldn't be in your facility now, would they?
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