By admin 
A lesson on a work by renowned 20th-century African-American anthropologist is being challenged in a Midlands school district because it included racial slurs.
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A parent at Dutch Fork High School is challenging a lesson examining the work by author Zora Neale Hurston.
As part of the lesson, “my daughter was provided with a handout containing racial slurs, offensive stereotypes, and degrading classifications of African Americans,” the parent wrote in a formal challenge to the work. She cited a “categorized African Americans using derogatory color scales” and portrayals that reinforce “dangerous stereotypes of Black individuals.”
The parent’s challenge to the work will be taken up at Monday’s meeting of the Lexington-Richland 5 school board.
The complaint attaches material from Hurston’s 1928 essay “How It Feels To Be Colored Me,” an examination of the author’s experience moving between Black and white spaces in segregated Florida and its impact on her understanding of her racial identity.
It was included as part of a “close read exercise” assignment in a high school English class. Other worksheets included in the complaint reference Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo,’” a work based on Hurston’s interview with a man believed to be the last survivor of the “Middle Passage” bringing people from Africa to slavery in the Americas.
While Hurston’s work is an approved classroom resource, a subsequent letter from the district acknowledged in an in-class worksheet also included “Harlem Slanguage” terms from Hurston’s glossary of African-American slang of the period.
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“That particular piece did not go through the required review and approval process, which must be completed before any supplemental materials are introduced in the classroom,” the letter from the district’s HR director says.
“Regarding her decision to include the supplement, the teacher explained that Zora Neale Hurston was a Black anthropologist and a celebrated author of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s, which was being studied in the class. She further explained that her intention in including the ‘Harlem Slanguage’ transcript was to highlight Hurston’s work in capturing the richness and nuances of Black culture, and to underscore Hurston’s belief that this language is worthy of academic study.”
But the parent asks in the complaint for the offensive material to be removed, and for tighter controls on what material can be introduced in the future.
“My daughter expressed that she felt uncomfortable, confused, and disrespected, particularly because she had not previously been exposed to many of these terms,” the parent wrote. “She has been raised in an environment that promotes dignity, cultural pride, and respect; values that were directly undermined by this classroom experience.”
“Regardless of the historical context or authorship, the material as presented in this classroom was inappropriate, unapproved, and introduced without the necessary context or safeguards to support student understanding,” she said.
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