What We're Up Against

"Ms. Cannon, how old are you?"

"Twenty-three."

"Man, if I was twenty-three, I wouldn't be teaching. I'd be living it up. What are you doing teaching?"

"Because then I get to see your face make expressions like that one."

"I'd be living it up. I wouldn't be a teacher and I wouldn't be teaching Indian kids."

"Wait. Why wouldn't you be teaching Indian kids?"

"Because we're dumb, man."

It's not a unique conversation. But it's the internalized negative stereotypes that we work to prove wrong.