Florida teacher caught on video saying she has a right to ‘dislike Blacks’
Tracey Brown was leading her social studies class when a Constitution lesson turned to talk of racial justice.
A teacher in Florida has been removed from her classroom after she made controversial comments during a virtual social studies lesson with students.
Tracey Brown, of Poinciana High School, was recorded on Microsoft Teams leading her class when a lesson about the Constitution turned to the topic of racial justice in America and the Black Lives Matter movement.
In part of the recorded discussion, Brown replies to a student, saying, “You’re implying that Black lives are more important than anyone else, and I have a problem with that.”
she has “as much right as anyone else to dislike Blacks for what happened to me.”
As their talk heats up, the teacher aggressively tells the student: “What you don’t know about me could fill a friggin’ swimming pool.”
Brown went on to share how “I was 16 years old, and I was attacked on a MARTA train by a gang — wearing bandannas, gang signs, language … of Blacks in Metro Atlanta! So I have as much right as anyone else to dislike Blacks for what happened to me.”
She then adds, “However, I am a little bit more educated than probably the average member of that gang put together, and I was raised that skin tone is nothing but pigment. It has nothing to do with what is on the inside.”
Brown has been removed from her classroom and is not working with children while the incident is being investigated.
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A local news site is reporting that students submitted the video through an online platform called “Let’s Talk” that was originally created for students and parents to submit school-related questions during the pandemic.
Poinciana High School has a large Black student population.
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Another teacher at the school, Tamika Lyles, who is also president of the Osceola County Democratic Black Caucus, said Brown’s words are concerning.
“This is a learning environment for our students, and we have to make sure we are able to maintain that learning environment for them and make sure it is one they can truly learn in and not one that we are inserting so much of our opinion in it ’til we tarnish the learning aspect,” Lyles told Spectrum News 13.
As of press time, Brown has not commented to any news outlets about her remarks.
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