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The dominant narrative dispelled in many films and mass media is a fear of the urban student of Color (Kellner, 1995; Leonardo & Hunter, 2007). Dominant narra- tives indicate that as innocent, well-intentioned White women enter urban schools, ridden with gangs, promiscuity, and drugs, they themselves become victims of the illness of urbanity that plagues People of Color and in doing so, they become White martyrs/messiahs for taking on the risk of contaminating their inherent purity (Vera & Gordan, 2003a). According to this account, the fears are real for White teachers who are willing to sacrifice themselves in the battle to humanize savage students who cuss at them, disrespect their presence, and cannot even read.
And as this narrative of White saviority (a form of benevolence) persists in the recounts of countless films, newscasts, and textbooks, society cries and empathizes with the heroic action of weeping White teachers. Because as society watches tears of anguish roll down the clean White cheek of this harmless White teacher, it can barely survive witnessing how these White knights painfully tolerate the daily aggressive attacks of urban students of Color. Plainly stated, society falls to its knees when White women cry because their pain is felt, similar to how observers of Michelangelo's pieta sculpture1 can- not help but pity over the grief of the White Madonna clutching to the her lifeless son, Jesus Christ. Their pain becomes real. Their pain is deemed humanized by society's mere engagement of sympathy.
This narrative is indoctrinated in the minds of my countless White teacher candi- dates. Each semester my White teacher candidates enroll in our urban-focused teacher preparation program ready to sacrifice and give back to disadvantaged students of Color to change the injustices that pervade urban schools. They are prepared to roll their sleeves up and help close the achievement gaps for urban students of Color knowing that it is not fair that suburban schools have more resources, better buildings, and more qualified teachers. This is similar to how Ricky Lee Allen (2002) relates Neo, the White protagonist in the movie The Matrix, to the Chosen One who will "fight the racist Whites" (p. 120). Essentially, my White teacher candidates become the heroic liberal warriors who will save students of Color...