Brrriiinnnggg (school bell ringing), class is in session.
Good morning everyone, my name is Mr. Stieber (sounds like Bieber) and I will be your teacher today.
Across the country attacks on free speech continue. After Charlie Kirk was murdered, I watched for two days and observed. I saw HBCU’s go on lockdown due to racist threats made against Black students. I saw how MAGA blamed liberals, and blamed the LGBTQIA+ community all falsely for Charlie Kirk’s death. I saw how groups like Libs of Tik Tok, Corey DeAngelis, and Laura Loomer targeted educators who said anything critical about Charlie Kirk. I watched and observed as this unfolded, then, I decided to speak up. I spoke up because my mom, a former educator, and the people who I have always admired throughout history, would want me to speak up. I spoke up as an educator, as a parent and in this case most importantly as a white male. I posted on social media that “America is founded on violence, no one should be killed, Charlie Kirk said horrible things about people and that White cis males are the biggest threat to our country.” I didn’t say this in school. I said this at home and posted it online.
The part that really triggered the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board was, “White cis males are the biggest threat to our country”, they even pulled this quote for their article. As a white cis male myself who also studies and teaches history, I know it is people who look like me, White males, who have colonized, enslaved, Manifest Destined, Trail of Teared, Louisiana Purchased, Westward Expanded, Guadeloupe Hidalgo’ed, Chinese Excluded, Jim Crowed, Segregated, Interment Camped, Red Lined and Gentrified nearly every group of people in our country’s history.
This white male violence isn’t past tense. I see how too many white males have responded on the police force through police brutality. I see how political violence is white male associated, how school shooters are overwhelmingly white males. It is so clear that the Trump administration ordered the DOJ to remove studies confirming this.
Now the Tribune Editorial Board instead of, you know, paying attention to history, has decided to use their anonymity to write a hit piece implying that I and other educators cannot separate our personal time from our professional time. They suggest that if educators have political opinions that we can’t be a fair and impartial teachers. They even made a heap of false assumptions about what my classroom is like.
Okay Trib. Board, you called me an extremist, so I will do what a good teacher does and break this down for you. I’m “extremist” because for the last 19 years of my career I’ve worked to use my privilege and writings to speak up about school closings, lack of funding for our schools, police violence, losing students, housing students, and ways to improve our city for all. Extremist.
I’ve worked hard to get my master’s degree in urban education policy and to become a National Board Certified history teacher, which is the highest credential a teacher can achieve. Extremist.
I give students a space to process, talk through and debate history. Extremist.
I’ve helped kids gain their voice through poetry. I’ve helped students feel safe and seen while helping them achieve their goals of college and life success. Extremist.
Honestly, this isn’t about me and no credential or story of student success matters because it goes against the narrative, because this attack has a goal to silence educators. You see throughout history during times of authoritarianism, educators are always attacked early, scared into silence, fired, and threatened into submission. Why are they so concerned with us?
Teaching is an incredibly personal profession. We work to get to know the students to make them feel safe and seen, so we can challenge them to learn more. So when we are threatened our entire identities are attacked, not just our profession.
Spoiler – educators don’t live at school (like many of us thought when we were younger). We are people outside of school. We are part of the community, we are parents, we are members of congregations, and neighborhood clubs. We are respected by those who know us. As educators, we see how the world treats our students. We know that we aren’t just teaching our students in the classroom, we are teaching society about our students and their needs. We are morally compelled to advocate for our students while they are in our classroom,and as they grow into adult members of our society.
Educators love our students which is why we will fight like hell to keep them safe from ICE, the National Guard, or any other threat that comes their way. We may be full of bad jokes, grey hair, and bald heads, but we are also full of a strong desire to keep kids safe, educated and protected so that we will put ourselves on the line for them.
Charlie Kirk had a list of educators and professors he wanted fired because they used their free speech to critique society and government. Many of these educators experienced threats from his followers.
Did the Tribune Editorial Board speak about this? No.
Did the Tribune Editorial Board write about how HBCU’s were being threatened or the terrible things Charlie Kirk said about Black people?
No.
Did the Tribune Editorial Board write about how Stephen Miller recited and essentially plagiarized a speech by the Nazi Joseph Goebbell at the Charlie Kirk memorial?
No.
In the last few weeks I was attacked by the followers of Libs of Tik Tok, The Morning Answer, and Corey DeAngelis. People were calling for me to be fired, when Alder Ray Lopez called for me to be fired, when people were searching for where I lived online, when people were calling my school and harassing our school clerks, when people said horrible things about my partner and children. Did the Tribune Editorial Board say anything about that?
No, quite the opposite. They encouraged those flames, doubling down on the attacks and labelling ME the extremist.
The Tribune Editorial Board has the chance to use their power to explain what extremism really is and how dangerous it is. However, they want to attempt to make false equivalencies between actual white supremacist extremists and me, because I dared say white males are the biggest danger to our country.
Thankfully, this educator and educators across this country will not be bullied into silence.
We will not be silent as our students, their families, our families and our own children’s classmates are threatened.
We will speak up! And if that makes us extremist, then call me extremist number one, for fighting for our students. We will speak up and fight to protect our students and their families from being kidnapped by masked ICE agents, from being gunned down in the classroom, to having housing, so they are allowed to have a different opinion than the President.
Karen Lewis through the Chicago Teachers Union taught me how to fight and Stacy Davis Gates continues to show me that fighting for our students, families and city is what truly makes an educator. Teach in the classroom for our students and fight like hell outside of it, to make this word better for them. If this is “extremist”, then an extremist educator is what I aspire to be. I want to be an extremist educator like Ida. B Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, Audre Lourde, Howard Zinn, Fred Hampton and Sal Castro.
We are at the point in history right now where we can either be silent while bad things happen around us or speak up and advocate for change. If you speak up you will be attacked, but I know how I want my kids and grandkids to remember me one day, and it is not as a punk.
Instead of looking at what I’m saying and reflecting about the history of our country and our insane levels of violence, past and present, far too many white men are getting really, really white man enraged and angry that I, a fellow white man, dare say we have a problem.
Extra credit before you go: Which Editorial Board wished for a hurricane like Katrina to wipe out Black Chicago, you guessed it! This one!
Thanks class for a great day, see you tomorrow!
I Teach 