Last week, in a seventh grade classroom at Apex Middle School in Apex, North Carolina, a black student and a white teacher found themselves struggling with American history.

And not in an afterschool tutoring session on the finer parts of James K. Polk’s very successful presidency sort of way.

But rather, in a America is/was built on the subjugation of people of color sort of way.

Apparently, this particular teacher’s seventh grade class was engaged in a juvenile exercise: one student was dancing around instead of doing the work the teacher had assigned.

Dayon Warren and another student, rather than ignoring their classmate’s silly possession by the ghost of Cab Calloway, chose to burst out laughing, further disrupting the class.

Their teacher didn’t like this one bit. Not one bit.

So what did he do?

Well, in a marked display of poor classroom management, he went over to Warren’s desk, and began berating him.

Because this is the 21st century, Warren’s classmates pulled out their phones, and recorded the whole thing on Snapchat.

Also because this is the 21st century, and our technology is only so good, the first part of the video that’s been released is heavily garbled — all you can hear is the teacher rebuking Warren soundly.

The audio clears up just in time to reveal a dramatic and racially insensitive turn of phrase issuing from the teacher’s mouth.

Perhaps responding to a protest made by Warren, the teacher can be heard saying, “Did I call you a ‘n*gger?’ No, I said you were being controlled by kids.”

The teacher, being a teacher — and an unwise one at that — went on to get racially pedantic, “That is exactly what happened to the slaves. They were controlled by their owners, you’re letting him control you and you’re the one who’s getting into trouble.”

You ‘d think this guy would’ve learned from the News N*gga. But no …

“This is coming from a Caucasian man to an African American student, and we’re already in a predominately white community, a predominately white school, so for him to use those words — it really hurt my feelings,” Warren’s mother, Ayona Wilson, told WNCN, her local CBS station.

In an interview with another station, ABC 11, Wilson expounded upon those hurt feelings, saying, that the language her son’s teacher used will “stick with my son forever.”

The teacher defended himself by saying that he wasn’t calling Warren a slave, but merely trying to use a potent analogy to make the young man examine his behavior.

“He could have used a better type of analogy; like a better word, to describe what I was doing, instead of calling me a slave,” Warren told WNCN.

The principal of Apex Middle school sent a letter home to parents assuring them that the incident is under investigation, and that “I want to make it clear that we have high expectations for behavior and policies addressing codes of ethics for the teachers in our building.”

That may be so, but for now, things seem to be working out not too shabbily for the teacher in question, who is currently on paid leave.

Dayon Warren

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