Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend by Ben Philippe

Author:Ben Philippe [Philippe, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 2021-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Guy—Emphasis on Guy

Nina and Morgan were only the first two. My world has become filled with Black women over the years. Friends of friends, neighbors, cousins, fellow authors, and even coworkers. Philosophically, these all amount to the same thing: sisters. I feel something loose in my chest when I spot them. Their existence and successes soothe something in me I can’t quite pinpoint. Teaching at a privileged and liberal college only exacerbates that.

I’M TWENTY-NINE and let me be clear, 97 percent of my students are truly phenomenal human beings—be it in-progress or fully baked. I don’t want to underplay that vast majority. The challenges of teaching them are interesting and the rewards immense. There are so many permutations of this career path, in which I walked out halfway through the very first workshop I ever taught in 2016 never to look back, so trust me when I say that this 97 percent is a blessing. I will never stop learning from college campuses.

. . . Three percent of them are, however, Karens in the making. There are no managers to summon yet, but professors and staff whose incompetence is baffling to them at eighteen years of age. They scoff and roll their eyes when displeased. You are their favorite professor until you say something they don’t want to hear or hold them accountable, which reverts you to the gardener’s assistant, messing up the shrubbery. My work inbox is a boxful of receipts of their privilege, at the intersection of adulthood and full-service nannies and tutors:

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