Black students, white teachers: How this affects Seattle teens

A new study shows that, for young black students, having a teacher who looks likes them can have significant positive long-term effects. It increases the likelihood that students will finish high school and apply to a university.

But in Seattle Public Schools, even though almost half of the students are students of color, only about 1 out of 10 teachers are.

So when Hamda Hassan finally had her first young, black female teacher, her life changed. She finally had a role model who looked like her.

Hamda was 12 years old when she moved to America and attended a very white middle school. Her experience was isolating.

"I was basically standing out," she said. "It felt weird for me. Being different is good, but that's not how people see it."

When her family moved to South Seattle, she attended the more diverse South Shore Middle School. That's where Hamda started to become more aware of race. She learned stereotypes about people of color.

"In health class, whenever our teacher showed us videos of kids that do drugs in high school, most of the kids were African American or Latino," Hamda said.

"Somehow your people end up being the ones that are not doing good," she said. "They never try to show anything good that your people did.

"I began to think, maybe what they're saying is true. Maybe my people don't do good."

Then Hamda started high school at Franklin. She remembers seeing teachers of color in her first two years of high school, but she didn't see younger black women who looked like her.

Though she hadn't yet found a mentor, she felt that it was important for other students of color to see a young black woman in a leadership role. She joined a program where she mentored freshmen.

That's how she met Ms. Jones, a teacher who changed her life.

"I was helping freshmen, showing them around the school," she said. "We passed by her class, and I noticed she was a new teacher."

Hamda learned that Ms. Jones taught chemistry, a class she was going to take that year.

"There's this new brown-skinned, afro hair, energetic, smart, African-American female," Hamda said. "I finally can see what if feels like to have a teacher who looks like me."

Hamda switched her classes in order to have Ms. Jones, and she was glad she did.

"She taught me a lot, not only about chemistry, but about life," she said. "She made me believe in myself more."

"These teachers," she said. "I can use them as an example, and be like, 'I can do it. I can follow their lead and never give up.'"

When I talked to Yolanda Jones, I read her what Hamda had said about her.

"Wow," Ms. Jones said. "It makes everything, all the work I put in to get to where I am now, pretty worth it."

"That's why I decided to become a teacher," she said. "Looking out into the real world, black women are not represented."

Ms. Jones said it was "frustrating" to know that she was part of the only 9% of teachers in Seattle Public Schools who are teachers of color.

As one of the only black teachers, she understands the importance of teacher diversity.

"I want to be a role model," she said. "It sounds really cheesy to be like, 'I can change the world,' but kind of!"

"Who knows what a student like Hamda can go on to do," she said. "She can do anything she wants to, and feeling like I get to participate in that feels amazing."

Her conversations with Ms. Jones inspired Hamda to keep mentoring others. This time, she decided to mentor her younger brother, an incoming freshman at Franklin High School.

Hamda convinced her brother to join the cross country team. She knows that it's important for him to do well in his first year.

"I want him to see me as his role model," Hamda said. "I'm doing fine as a Muslim, black and a female.

"I want him to see that and say, 'Oh, if she can do it with all these challenges, I can do it too.'"

This story was created in KUOW's RadioActive Intro to Journalism Workshop for 15- to 18-year-olds at Jack Straw Cultural Center, with production support from Mary Heisey. Edited by Carol Smith.

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