I was trying to decide which European city to send one of my 11th grade Russian students who didn't have a designated place to go. As I alluded to a potential trip to Berlin, he immediately responded with a non-chalant, "I hate Germans."
Yeah, I know.
'Gasp!', you are thinking.
He had no idea how mean his statement was, how politically incorrect it was, how unfair it was, and how it meant that I was actually more inclined to send him to Berlin so he can confront his hatred.
However, he was 16 years old, from a wealthy and supposedly educated family, and was unabashedly stating his racism without any passion. I couldn't shame him into submission, and I couldn't even begin to get him to overcome it without understanding where it came from. But I knew that this was a moment of truth, and that I had in those few seconds of his attention, the most precious opportunity to insert some doubt into his mind. Let just a sliver of light shine through to his dungeon of racism. I did what I could, I reversed the roles, called up the concept of eternity, humankind, the arbitrariness of borders, the cycle of wars, and how they start…
Did I get through to him?
Only time will tell.
