by Jerry Farber, 1969

Students are niggers. When you get that straight, our schools begin to make sense. It's more
important, though, to understand hy they're niggers. I! e !ollo that "uestion seriously
enough, it ill lead up past the #one o! academic bullshit, here dedicated teachers pass their
knoledge on to a ne generation, and into the nitty$gritty o! human needs and hangups. %nd
!rom there e can go on to consider hether it might e&er be possible !or students to come up
!rom sla&ery.
First, let's see hat's happening no. 'et's look at the role students play in hat e like to call
education. %t (al State '.%., here I teach, the students ha&e separate and une"ual dining
!acilities. I! I take them into the !aculty dining room, my colleagues get uncom!ortable, as
though there ere a bad smell. I! I eat in the student ca!eteria, I become knon as the
educational e"ui&alent o! a niggerlo&er. In at least one building there are e&en rest rooms
hich students may not use. %t (al State, also, there is an unritten la barring student$
!aculty lo&emaking. Fortunately, this anti$miscegenation la, like its Southern counterpart, is
not 1)) percent e!!ecti&e.
Students at (al State are politically disen!ranchised. *hey are in an academic 'ondes
(ounty. +ost o! them can &ote in national elections $$ their a&erage age is about ,6 $$ but they
ha&e no &oice in the decisions hich a!!ect their academic li&es. *he students are, it is true,
alloed to ha&e a toy go&ernment run !or the most part by -ncle *oms and concerned
principally ith tri&ia. *he !aculty and administrations decide hat courses ill be o!!ered.
the students get to choose their on /omecoming 0ueen. 1ccasionally hen student leaders
get uppity and rebellious, they're either ignored, put o!! ith tri&ial concessions, or
maneu&ered e2pertly out o! position.
% student at (al State is e2pected to kno his place. /e calls a !aculty member 3Sir3 or
34octor3 or 35ro!essor3 $$ and he smiles and shu!!les some as he stands outside the pro!essor's
o!!ice aiting !or permission to enter. *he !aculty tell him hat courses to take 6In my
department, 7nglish, e&en electi&es ha&e to be appro&ed by a !aculty member8. they tell him
hat to read, hat to rite, and !re"uently, here to set the margins on his typeriter. *hey
tell him hat's true and hat isn't. Some teachers insist that they encourage dissent but they're
almost alays 9i&ing and e&ery student knos it. *ell the man hat he ants to hear or he'll
!ail your ass out o! the course.
When a teacher says 39ump3, students 9ump. I kno o! one pro!essor ho re!used to take up
class time !or e2ams and re"uired students to sho up !or tests at 6:;) in the morning. %nd
they did, by <od= %nother, at e2am time, pro&ides anser cards to be !illed out $$ each one
enclosed in a paper bag ith a hole cut in the top to see through. Students stick their riting
hands in the bags hile taking the test. *he teacher isn't a pro&o. I ish he ere. /e does it to
pre&ent cheating. %nother colleague once caught a student reading during one o! his lectures
and thre her book against the all. Still another lectures his students into a stupor and then
screams at them in a rage hen they !all asleep.
Just last eek during the !irst meeting o! a class, one girl got up to lea&e a!ter about 1)
minutes had gone by. *he teacher rushed o&er, grabbed her by the arm, saying, 3*his class is
>1* dismissed=3 and led her back to her seat. 1n the same day another teacher began by
in!orming his class that he does not like beards, moustaches, long hair on boys, capri pants on
girls, and ill not tolerate any o! that in his class. *he class, incidentally, consisted mostly o!
high school teachers.
7&en more discouraging than this master$sla&e approach to education is the !act that the
students take it. *hey ha&en't gone through tel&e years o! public school !or nothing. *hey'&e
learned one thing and perhaps only one thing during those tel&e years. *hey'&e !orgotten
their algebra. *hey'&e gron to !ear and resent literature. *hey rite like they'&e been
lobotomi#ed. ?ut, Jesus, can they !ollo orders= Freshmen come up to me ith an essay and
ask i! I ant it !olded, and hether their name should be in the upper right hand corner. %nd I
ant to cry and kiss them and caress their poor tortured heads.
Students don't ask that orders make sense. *hey'&e gi&en up e2pecting things to make sense
long be!ore they lea&e elementary school. *hings are true because the teacher says they're
true. %t a &ery early age e all learn to accept 3to truths,3 as did certain medie&al
churchmen. 1utside class, things are true to your tongue, your !ingers, your stomach, your
heart. Inside class things are true by reason o! authority. %nd that's 9ust !ine because you don't
care anyay. +iss Wiedemeyer tells you a noun is a person, place or thing. So let it be. @ou
don't gi&e a rat's ass. she doesn't gi&e a rat's ass.
*he important thing is to please her. ?ack in kindergarten, you !ound out that teachers only
lo&e children ho stand in nice straight lines. %nd that's here it's been at e&er since. >othing
changes e2cept to get orse. School becomes more and more ob&iously a prison. 'ast year I
spoke to a student assembly at +anual %rts /igh School and then couldn't get out o! the
goddamn school. I mean there as >1 W%@ 1-*. 'ocked doors. /igh !ences. 1ne o! the
inmates as trying to make it o&er a !ence hen he sa me coming and !ro#e in panic. For a
moment I e2pected sirens, a rattle o! bullets, and him claing the !ence.
*hen there's the in!amous 3code o! dress.3 In some high schools, i! your skirt looks too short
you ha&e to kneel be!ore the principal in a brie! allegory o! !ellatio. I! the hem doesn't reach
the !loor, you go home to change hile he, presumably, 9acks o!!. ?oys in high school can't be
too sloppy and they can't e&en be too sharp. @ou'd think the school board ould ha&e been
delighted to see all the black kids trooping to school in pointy shoes, suits, ties, and stingy
brims. -h$uh. *hey're too &isible.
What school amounts to, then, !or hite and black alike, is a 1,$year course in ho to be
sla&es. What else could e2plain hat I see in a !reshman classA *hey'&e got that sla&e
mentality: obliging and ingratiating on the sur!ace but hostile and resistant underneath.
%s do black sla&es, students &ary in their aareness o! hat's going on. Some recogni#e their
on put$on !or hat it is and e&en let their rebellion break through to the sur!ace no and
then. 1thers $$ including most o! the 3good students3 $$ ha&e been more deeply brain ashed.
*hey sallo the bullshit ith greedy mouths. *hey honest$to$<od belie&e in grades, in busy
ork, in <eneral 7ducation re"uirements. *hey're like those old grey$headed house niggers
you can still !ind in the South ho don't see hat all the !uss is about because +r. (harlie
3treats us real good.3
(ollege entrance re"uirements tend to !a&or the *oms and screen out the rebels. >ot entirely,
o! course. Some students at (al State '.%. are e2pert con artists ho kno per!ectly ell
hat's happening. *hey ant the degree or the ,$S and spend their years on the old plantation
alternately laughing and cursing as they play the game. I! their egos are strong enough, they
cheat a lot. %nd, o! course, e&en the *oms are angry don deep somehere. ?ut it comes out
in passi&e rather than acti&e aggression. *hey're une2plainably thick$itted and sub9ect to
!re"uent spells o! la#iness. *hey misread simple "uestions. *hey spent their night
mechanically outlining history chapters hile meticulously !ailing to comprehend a ord o!
hat's in !ront o! them.
*he saddest cases among both black sla&es and student sla&es are the ones ho ha&e so
thoroughly inter9ected their masters' &alues that their anger is all turned inard. %t (al State
these are the kids !or hom e&ery lo grade is torture, ho stammer and shake hen they
speak to a pro!essor, ho go through an emotional crisis e&ery time they're called upon during
class. @ou can recogni#e them easily at !inals time. *heir !aces are !estooned ith !resh
pimples. their boels boil audibly across the room. I! there really is a 'ast Judgment, then the
parents and teachers ho created these recks are going to burn in hell.
So students are niggers. It's time to !ind out hy, and to do this e ha&e to take a long look at
+r. (harlie.
*he teachers I kno best are college pro!essors. 1utside the classroom and taken as a group,
their most striking characteristic is timidity. *hey're short on balls. Just look at their orking
conditions. %t a time hen e&en migrant orkers ha&e begun to !ight and in, most college
pro!essors are still a!raid to make more than a token e!!ort to impro&e their piti!ul economic
status. In (ali!ornia state colleges, the !aculties are screed regularly and &igorously by the
<o&ernor and 'egislature and yet they still on't o!!er any solid resistance. *hey lie !lat on
their stomachs ith their pants don, mumbling catch phrases like 3pro!essional dignity3 and
3meaning!ul dialogue3.
5ro!essors ere no di!!erent hen I as an undergraduate at -('% during the +c(arthy era.
it as like a cattle stampede as they rushed to cop out. %nd in more recent years, I !ound that
my being arrested in demonstrations brought !rom my colleagues not so much appro&al or
condemnation as open$mouthed astonishment. 3@ou could lose your 9ob=3
>o, o! course, there's the Bietnamese ar. It gets some opposition !rom a !e teachers.
Some support it. ?ut a &ast number o! pro!essors ho kno per!ectly ell hat's happening,
are copping out again. %nd in the high schools, you can !orget it. Stillness reigns.
I'm not sure hy teachers are so chickenshit. It could be that academic training itsel! !orces a
split beteen thought and action. It might also be that the tenured security o! a teaching 9ob
attracts timid persons and, !urthermore, that teaching, like police ork, pulls in persons ho
are unsure o! themsel&es and need eapons and the other e2ternal trappings o! authority.
%t any rate teachers %C7 short on balls. %nd as Judy 7isenstein as elo"uently pointed out, the
classroom o!!ers an arti!icial and protected en&ironment in hich they can e2ercise their ill
to poer. @our neighbors may dri&e a better car. gas station attendants may intimidate you.
your i!e may dominate you. the State 'egislature may shit on you. but in the classroom, by
<14, students do hat you say $$ or else. *he grade is a hell o! a eapon. It may not rest on
your hip, potent and rigid like a cop's gun, but in the long run it's more poer!ul. %t your
personal him $$ any time you choose $$ you can keep ;D students up !or nights and ha&e the
pleasure o! seeing them alk into the classroom pasty$ !aced and red$eyed carrying a shea! o!
typeritten pages, ith title page, +'% !ootnotes and margins set at 1D and 91.
*he general timidity hich causes teachers to make niggers o! their students usually included
a more speci!ic !ear $$ !ear o! the students themsel&es. %!ter all, students are di!!erent, 9ust like
black people. @ou stand e2posed in !ront o! them, knoing that their interest, their &alues and
their language are di!!erent !rom yours. *o make matters orse, you may suspect that you
yoursel! are not the most engaging o! persons. What then can protect you !rom their ridicule
and scornA Cespect !or authority. *hat's hat. It's the policeman's gun again. *he hite
bana's pith helmet. So you !launt that authority. @ou ither hispers ith a murderous
glance. @ou crush ob9ectors ith erudition and hea&y irony. %nd orst o! all, you make your
on attainments seem not accessible but aesomely remote. @ou conceal your massi&e
ignorance $$ and parade a slender learning.
*he teacher's !ear is mi2ed ith an understandable need to be admired and to !eel superior $$ a
need hich also makes him cling to his 3hite supremacy.3 Ideally, a teacher should minimi#e
the distance beteen himsel! and his students. /e should encourage them not to need him $$
e&entually or e&en immediately. ?ut this is rarely the case. *eachers make themsel&es high
priests o! arcane mysteries. *hey become masters o! mumbo$9umbo. 7&en a more or less
conscientious teacher may be torn beteen the need to gi&e and the need to hold back,
beteen the desire to !ree his students and the desire to hold them in bondage to him. I can
!ind no other e2planation that accounts !or the ay my on sub9ect, literature, hich ought to
be a source o! 9oy, solace and enlightenment, o!ten becomes in the classroom nothing more
than a source o! an2iety $$ at best an arena !or e2pertise, a ledger book !or the ego. 'iterature
teachers, o!ten a!raid to 9oin a real union, nonetheless may practice the orst kind o! trade$
unionism in the classroom. they do to literature hat ?eckmesser does to song in Wagner's
3+eistersinger.3 *he a&oed purpose o! 7nglish departments is to teach literature. too o!ten
their real !unction is to kill it.
Finally, there's the darkest reason o! all !or the master$sla&e approach to education. *he less
trained and the less sociali#ed a person is, the more he constitutes a se2ual threat and the more
he ill be sub9ugated by institutions, such as penitentiaries and schools. +any o! us are aare
by no o! the se2ual neurosis hich makes hite men so !ear!ul o! integrated schools and
neighborhoods, and hich make the castration o! >egroes a deeply entrenched Southern
!olkay. We should recogni#e a similar pattern in education. *here is a kind o! castration that
goes on in schools. It begins be!ore school years ith parents' !irst encroachments on their
children's !ree unashamed se2uality and continues right up to the day hen they hand you
your doctoral diploma ith a bleeding, shri&eled pair o! testicles stapled to the parchment. It's
not that se2uality has no place in the classroom. @ou'll !ind it there but only in certain
per&erted and &itiated !orms.
/o does se2 sho up in schoolA First o! all, there's the sadomasochistic relationship beteen
teachers and students. *hat's plenty se2ual, although the price o! en9oying it is to be unaare
o! hat's happening. In alks the teacher in his I&y 'eague e"ui&alent o! a motorcycle 9acket.
In alks the teacher $$ a kind o! intellectual rough trade $$ and !logs his students ith grades,
tests, sarcasm and snotty superiority until their &ery brains are bleeding. In Sinburne's
7ngland, the hipped school boy !re"uently gre up to be a !lagelant. With us the per&ersion
is intellectual but it's no less per&erse.
Se2 also shos up in the classroom as academic sub9ect matter $$ saniti#ed and abstracted,
thoroughly di&orced !rom !eeling. @ou get 3se2 education3 no in both high school and
college classes: e&eryone determined not to be embarrassed, to be &ery up to date, &ery
contempo. *hese are the classes !or hich se2, as Fei!!er puts it, 3can be a beauti!ul thing i!
properly administered.3 %nd then, o! course there's still another depressing mani!estation o!
se2 in the class room: the 3o!!$color3 teacher ho keeps his class aake ith sniggering
se2ual allusions, obscene titters and academic innuendo. *he se2uality he pur&eys, it must be
admitted, is at least better than none at all.
What's missing, !rom kindergarten to graduate school, is honest recognition o! hat's actually
happening $$ turned$on aareness o! hairy goodies underneath the pettipants, the chinos and
the !lannels. It's not that se2 needs to be pushed in school. se2 is push enough. ?ut e should
let it be , here it is and like it is. I don't insist that ladies in 9unior high school lo&ingly caress
their students' cocks. hoe&er, it is reasonable to ask that the ladies don't, by e2ample and
stricture, teach their students to pretend that those cocks aren't there. %s things stand no,
students are psychically castrated or spayed $$ and !or the &ery same reason that black men are
castrated in <eorgia: because they're a threat.
So you can add se2ual repression to the list o! causes, along ith &anity, !ear, and ill to
poer, that turn the teacher into +r. (harlie. @ou might also ant to keep in mind that he as
a nigger once himsel! and has ne&er really gotten o&er it. %nd there are more causes, some o!
hich are better described in sociological than in psychological terms. Work them out, it's not
hard. ?ut in the meantime hat e'&e got on our hands is a hole lot o! niggers. %nd hat
makes this particularly grim is that the student has less chance than the black man o! getting
out o! his bag. ?ecause the student doesn't e&en kno he's in it. *hat, more or less, is hat's
happening in higher education. %nd the results are staggering.
For one thing damn little education takes place in the schools. /o could itA @ou can't
educate sla&es. you can only train them. 1r, to use an e&en uglier and more timely ord, you
can only program them.
I like to !olk dance. 'ike other no&ices, I'&e gone to the Intersection or to the +useum and
laid out good money in order to learn ho to dance. >o grades, no prere"uisites, no separate
dining rooms. they 9ust turn you on to dancing. *hat's education. >o look at hat happens in
college. % !riend o! mine, +ilt, recently !inished a !olk dance class. For his !inal, he had to
learn things like this: 3*he Irish are knon !or their it and imagination, "ualities re!lected in
their dances, hich include the 9ig, the reel and the hornpipe.3 %nd then the teacher graded
him, %, ?, (, 4, or F hile he danced in !ront o! her. *hat's not education. *hat's not e&en
training. *hat's an abomination on the !ace o! the earth. It's especially ironic because +ilt took
that dance class trying to get out o! the academic rut. /e took cra!ts !or the same reason.
<reat, rightA <et your hands in some clayA +ake somethingA *hen the teacher announced a
,)$ page term paper ould be re"uired $$ ith !ootnotes.
%t my school e e&en grade people on ho they read poetry. *hat's like grading people on
ho they !uck. ?ut e do it. In !act, <od help me, I do it. I'm the (ommandant o! 7nglish
;,;. Simon 'egree on the poetry plantation. 3*ote that iamb= 'i!t that Spondee=3 7&en to
discuss a good poem in that en&ironment is potentially dangerous because the &ery classroom
is contaminated. %s hard as I may try to turn students on to poetry, I kno that the desks, the
tests, the I?+ cards, their on attitudes toards school, and my on residue o! -('%
method are turning them o!!.
%nother result o! student sla&ery is e"ually serious. Students don't get emancipated hen they
graduate. %s a matter o! !act, e don't let them graduate until they'&e demonstrated their
illingness $$ o&er 16 years $$ to remain sla&es. %nd !or important 9obs, like teaching, e
make them go through more years 9ust to make sure. What I'm getting at is that e're all more
or less niggers and sla&es, teachers and student alike. *his is a !act you might ant to start
ith in trying to understand ider social phenomena, say, politics, in our country and in other
countries.
7ducational oppression is trickier to !ight than racial oppression. I! you're a black rebel, they
can't e2ile you. they either ha&e to intimidate you or kill you. ?ut in high school or college
they can 9ust bounce you out o! the !old. %nd they do. Cebel students and renegade !aculty
members get smothered or shot don ith de&astating accuracy. 1thers get tired o! !ighting
and &oluntarily lea&e the system. *his may be a mistake though. 4ropping out o! college !or a
rebel is a little like going >orth !or a >egro. @ou can't really get aay !rom it so you might as
ell stay and raise hell.
/o do you raise hellA *hat's a hole other article. ?ut 9ust !or a start, hy not stay ith the
analogyA What ha&e black people doneA *hey ha&e, !irst o! all, !aced the !act o! their sla&ery.
*hey'&e stopped kidding themsel&es about an e&entual reard in that <reat Watermelon 5atch
in the sky. *hey'&e organi#ed. they're decided to get !reedom no, and they'&e started taking
it.
Students, like black people, ha&e immense unused poer. *hey could, theoretically, insist on
participating in their on education. *hey could make academic !reedom bilateral. *hey could
teach their teachers to thri&e on lo&e and admiration, rather than !ear and respect, and to lay
don their eapons. Students could disco&er community. %nd they could learn to dance by
dancing on the I?+ cards. *hey could make coloring books out o! the catalogs and they could
put the grading system in a museum. *hey could ra#e one set o! alls and let li!e come
bloing into the classroom. *hey could ra#e another set o! alls and let education !lo out
and !lood the streets. *hey could turn the classroom into here it's at $$ a 3!ield o! action3 as
5eter +arin describes it. %nd belie&e it or not, they could study eagerly and learn prodigiously
!or the best o! all possible reasons $$ their on reasons.
*hey could. *heoretically. *hey ha&e the poer. ?ut only in a &ery !e places, like ?erkeley,
ha&e they e&en begun to think about using it. For students, as !or black people, the hardest
battle isn't ith +r. (harlie, It's ith hat +r (harlie has done to your mind.
(reated and coded by ryEan 6at8 ryEan 6dot8 org.
'ast updated: +on +ay 1F ,;:)9:D; 199F