Valerie Foushee - On race relations after desegregation in junior high school (clip)

Tracey Barrett (TB) : Right. So you, I mean, you sound like you changed schools a lot, in terms of school buildings and I’m assuming also the students you were in school with changed a lot too, how did that affect the way you viewed school, or do you think that it affected your education as a whole?

Valerie Foushee (VF): Well the students didn’t change except for the aspect of integration, so when I got to Lincoln in sixth grade and there were white children then it was, I think there was a, I mean for certain there was a different dynamic, but I don’t think I noticed it much because there were still so many of my friends. Again, I could walk from my house to Lincoln, and so I still had the same friends, I still associated with the same folk, there were just other folk in my class with whom I did not associate. And it didn’t for that first year, it didn’t mean anything. It didn’t have an impact until junior high, when I started going to Guy B. Phillips and there were so many more white students. And it was not a place that felt like our place. We had gone from being in a facility or in a system where you were part of a whole, and at Phillips it was like there were two parts, and you were only a part of your part and there was no real association with the other part. And so that was difficult for me, and I would imagine it was difficult for most, whether you were black or white, because neither was used to that.

TB: Right.

VF: But for us, it certainly was my first experience with racism in as much as people were willing to say “We don’t want you here.” You know, you go to the grocery store when you’re younger and you see white people, you see black people, they do their business and you do your business and never the twain did meet, but it wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t, I don’t think it was ‘separate but equal’ as we knew it, I think it was ‘separate but equal’ as we thought it should be, and so you did your bit and they did their bit. But when it became a situation whereby, where people were chosen, you were obviously not chosen. And so if you were in a class where there were only two of you or in some cases, in many cases with me, one of you, and it’s a matter of choosing partners, and nobody chooses you, and then the teacher chooses you for a group, and people don’t want to acknowledge that you’re a part of the group, then it has a huge impact. And if you can’t offer something to the group discussion then you are constantly aware that you are not a part of the group. Or if you raise your hand to ask a question and before the teacher can respond some student says, “Oh that’s dumb, everybody knows that,” it has a huge impact, because what it does is it stifles your learning process because you’re not going to continue to be referred to as stupid, or you’re not going to be, or want to be, the only one that’s asking a question because you don’t have an experience that relates to the subject matter. So having gone through that, after being a part, let me put it this way, when you’re in a classroom where you are one of several students who feel empowered to say whatever, if you’re not one of all of them- that was the difference for me coming out of a segregated situation where I was not made to feel ashamed for asking a question. If I asked a question that sounded a little silly then we all had a laugh--

TB: Right.

VF: And then somebody else would indicate that they didn’t know either, ok, but nobody felt ashamed because you asked a question. To go from that situation to one where, you know you’ve been told that you’re on the same level as these kids, and that’s why you’re in this class, but nobody’s nurturing, you know, and the teacher sometimes looks as if he or she feels that she or he does not know how to respond to you... I mean, it puts you in a situation where, for me, it was, I would wait until after class and ask my question. My teachers were always gracious. So you know it helped me to feel that they didn’t feel that I was dumb, but they understood, but I needed to underst- but I’m a kid!

TB: Right.

VF: And so I had a lot of help from teachers, to the point where it was not uncomfortable for me to be in a class because I wanted to learn all I could, because my mom and dad were at home saying, you know, “you’re going to get this, and you’re going to keep making A’s, because I don’t, we don’t accept C’s and D’s.” And so it was just what I needed to do.