Racism, School, and Ms. Kerr
By Gina Gippner
n 1971, I lived in Carson, California. I was eight years old and just moved into the neighborhood. At that time in the United States in 1970, under federal court supervision, many school districts implemented mandatory busing plans to undo segregated schools. Now, being that I was so young, I had not been taught about racism. I never understood there were people who were divided by the color of their skin. As my first year of school proceeded, the majority of the Caucasian families moved away, and that left just a handful of us.
At first it was fine, but after time I started to notice something. The African American children began to hate me. I would walk down the hallway, and before I knew it, I would be thrown in the bathroom and beaten because of the color of my skin. I would be using the restroom, and the girls would pull my feet from underneath the bathroom door, and continue on… until there came a day when I no longer wanted to play, but just found a quiet place to hide. Each day I would have to learn a new way to walk home, and I would have to learn to run faster.
One day, my second grade teacher, Miss Kerr, was walking by the bathroom and heard me screaming for help. She ran in and rescued me. She too was an African American, and I’ve never forgotten her. She pulled the four girls off me, gave them a hug and told them that what they had been taught about the color of skin was only going to change if they changed. She proceeded to share that while slavery was not right, it also was not right for them to inflict pain and suffering on another person, because of the color of their skin. I loved her because she did not punish them for not understanding that what they were doing was wrong, but loved them enough to tell them “why” what they were doing was wrong. I was only eight, but old enough to understand what she was saying.
Unfortunately not everyone was able to hear her speech and when she realized that not everyone had the same views she did, she protected me. She put me in her after school choir class, and gave me a ride home every day after school. As we would drive home she would share with me the history of racism, and tell me to love and forgive others for their actions. “Gina, the only thing that will promote change is when a person decides to change. Run when you must… fight for what is right, but love unconditionally, because only love can change the world!”
I believe Miss Kerr is the one teacher who defined my life. She taught me more on our rides home together than I’ve ever learned in a classroom. I don’t know what happened to Miss Kerr, but I pray that she knows that within her lifetime she was a true teacher.
Onward!
Gina Woods & OwieBowWowie
Just Mom, Inc.
Home of "OwieBowWowie and Friends" 501(c)(3)
PO Box 6533
Thousand Oaks, CA. 91359