Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching
I stood as I have many times in front of the two tea dispensers at a chain sub sandwich shop. But this time, I was suddenly struck with the choice I always make—the “unsweet tea.”
I was born, raised, and have lived my entire life in the Deep South. My mother made tea that would rival pancake syrup and trained my sister and me in the meticulous ritual of steeping tea bags and then pouring the hot tea over a huge mound of processed sugar.
The tea pot was dedicated only to steeping tea, and the tea jar and the giant plastic sugar spoon were sacred as well.
Once I left home, my mother flirted with sun tea, but the syrup-sweet tea of my childhood later became my defining feature of what could rightfully call itself The South. When ordering tea, The South hands you sweetened ice tea; hot tea or tea without sugar are not even mentioned, or considered.
So with a great deal of shame, I must admit that only a week or so ago I was truck with the absurdity that is “unsweet tea,” which of course is just CONTINUE READING: Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching | radical eyes for equity