Ms. R was known by all the students in our Creative Writing Class as someone who had racial prejudices. Professor Susan Kenney or any other class member, Black or White, could testify to this. For example, in one story Ms. R had written, "Leaving Home," she referred to characters as "White trash" because they were poor and White, and in the same story employed the highly charged racial epithet "nigger". The entire class, including the professor, expressed their concerns about her use of such language and the importance of proper contextualization.

       Ms. R claims that I vindictively wrote my story as payback for her use of the word "nigger." She wrote in her critique "I seriously thought you were trying to 'teach me a lesson' with this story, since I had obviously hurt you (and Randy) by using a word you were uncomfortable with." Even though our entire class engaged in the discussion of Ms. R's story, and many White students expressed anger toward, and frustration with Ms. R, she chose to target only Randy and me because of our race.

       While after reading Ms. R's story the classroom environment was intense, highly charged, and uncomfortable, and even though I could easily have interpreted Ms. R's use of the term nigger as racist, I did not. I did not feel racially harassed by Ms. R’s story, her use of questionable language, or by the class discussion about her story. I did, however, feel racially harassed by Ms. R's repeated accusations that I posed a physical threat to her life.

Part IV

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