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Mary Wood, a South Carolina teacher, was reported for teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates' 2015 nonfiction book, Between the World and Me, in her English AP Language class. The incident, which took place around six months ago, was recently made public after The Washington Post published a detailed article on what transpired during Mary Woods' lessons.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, 47, an American author and journalist, wrote the book as a letter to his son who was a teenager back then. The author penned his experience of living in America as a Black man as well as chronicled his general perception of the systemic racism faced by Black people in the United States.
Ta-Nehisi recapitulated American history in his book in an attempt to explain to his son how racial violence is woven into American culture. He also shared an autobiographical account of spending his youth in Baltimore, where he detailed his beliefs about the ways in which, according to him, educational and public institutions, as well as "the streets," endanger, discipline, threaten, and jeopardize to "disembody" Black people.
In the book, Ta-Nehisi Coates viewed white supremacy as an ineradicable force, something that Black Americans would never be able to evade or completely erase, but would always battle with.
Students complained Ta-Nehisi Coates' book made them feel ashamed to be Caucasian
Mary Wood could only take two classes on Ta-Nehisi Coates' book Between the World and Me, before South Carolina's Chapin High School's board forbade her to teach the author. Two students from the teacher's all-white class reported her to the school administrators.
One of the students reportedly complained that reading Ta-Nehisi's book felt like hate propaganda against white people, adding:
“I feel, to an extent, betrayed by Mrs. Woods. I feel like she has built up this idea of expanding our mind through the introduction of controversial topics all year just to try to subtly indoctrinate our class.”
The other student wrote to the school board:
“I understand in AP Lang we are learning to develop an argument and have evidence to support it, yet this topic is too heavy to discuss. I actually felt ashamed to be Caucasian.”
They also wrote in their complaint via email that along with the book, Mary Wood also played videos about systemic racism in the classroom. Once they notified the board that Wood was trying to discuss race in her lessons, the school board sent her a reprimand letter and placed a copy of it in her file as well.
Further, she was instructed by the school administration to continue teaching without discussing the racial issues with the students.
As per the Washington Post, Wood violated a state proviso that forbids educators to put their students through any psychological distress because of their gender or race.
Earlier in 2023, South Carolina passed a bill that required teachers to implement policies in educational institutions that respect the dignity and intellectual freedom of each student, educator, and staff member.
However, the bill also demands that teaching materials and instruction on the topics listed in this section have to comply with six principles pertaining to gender and race. These six principles state that:
- No race is essentially superior to another race.
- No person is essentially racist, oppressive, or sexist regardless of their gender and race.
- An individual’s race or gender does not inherently determine their moral character.
- On account of a person’s race or gender, they do not shoulder any personal responsibility for actions that had been committed by other representatives of the same gender or race in the past.
- An individual should not be given instructions of obligations to feel anguish, guilt, or other forms of psychological distress for the actions they played no part in and were rather committed by other representatives of the same gender or race in the past.
- A person should not go through discrimination or should be treated with adversity solely on the basis of their race or gender.
Following the incident, other teachers at Chapin High School called for Mary Wood to be fired as she broke the proviso by teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates' book. One of her coworkers expressed that she was confused that Wood still managed to keep the job. It was not disclosed whether Mary Wood’s job as a teacher at the school was threatened by the administration.
