16 Teachers Favor Rehiring Of Blacks First

In a láter to the Board ofEducation, 16 teachers requested that "in establishing priorities in re-hiring probationary I teachers . . .that every black teacher I should be re-hired first." "As white teachers." the letter said, I "we have spent much of our time and I money developing an understanding of I blackness within ourselves and with our I white and black students. "We've spent considerable time 1 ing out books about blacks and about I black history for ourselves and for our I students; we viewed the Humaneness I Report's position on racism as a hope I for a determined. insightful change. But I we feel that all of this is meaningless I if there are not black teachers in the I classrooms," they said. The teachers also said if the black I teachers are not present, "all we have I been saying is rhetoric and tokenism and I we must bejjudged by what we do andl say, not just by what we say. "The black child won't believe us. I every feeling he has toward the white I child's belief in the 'rightness of 1 world will be reaffirmed; and the white ness' will be once again reinforced," said the letter. "We, as white teachers, recognize the fact that many of the black teachers were hired in the last two years, but somehow feel that black teachers must have applied to Ann Arbor bef ore that block of time. This is not a time for us to slide backwards; we must deal with the steps of racial understanding we are going through." Nine of the teachers who signed the letter are probationary teachers.