...ichat photo...

During final exams there is often very little to do as a teacher.  My students are silently filling in bubbles for 185 questions (that's right, I'm mean), and I am sitting at my desk.  I have cleaned up the counter, organized papers, decided I can't concentrate on planning for next semester...so I check to see if any other teachers are on ichat and as bored as I am.  Awhile after opening up ichat, I noticed my photo.  Of course the pictures are really tiny, so I couldn't see it very well, requiring a closer look.

It was definitely not me.  It was a picture of "Jamal."  (See the "my boyfriend" blog post below for a little more on him.)  I rarely go on ichat, so I have NO IDEA when this change occurred.  It was probably sometime in the past two weeks because in the picture he is wearing the headphones I keep in my room (confiscated from who knows what student sometime in the past) which I recently gave him access to when visiting after school.  Apparently I need to password protect some things on my computer.  So, after realizing I was being displayed as an African-American teenage boy, I decided to replace the picture.

When I made this interesting discovery, Jamal happened to be in my classroom, taking his exam.  After he finished, he made his way to my desk and sat in my chair.  (At this point I was so bored I had to walk around, therefore leaving my chair vacated.)  In order to keep him out of trouble, I returned to my desk to talk with him.  (Don't worry, we were quiet while the rest of the students finished.)

So, when and why did you change my ichat picture?

How did you find out?

Well, I was on ichat and I noticed that my picture wasn't actually me.

How did you know?

Well, I looked at the picture and thought:  I am not a black boy.

That is racism!

Ummm, sorry but you are black.  How is that racist?

I'm a black MAN!

Hmmm....Okay, we call that ageism.