Is She Serious?!

Today in my AP History class, we were talking about the 1950s and the economy and all that good stuff about American history. Then we started getting into the topic of whites migrating to the suburbs and the blacks and other minorities moving to the inner cities, and our topic went astray. My teacher, whose name I will not mention, started to rant about people not being able to keep the front of their homes well-kept and neighbors complaining about their values going down. And of course it was still pertaining to what we were talking about in history, but she had mentioned black stereotypes and why whites complained about blacks moving into their communities. She said that it was a stereotype that blacks could not keep their homes clean and that's why many of the whites complained about them moving into a house in their neighborhoods. But she also said that whites could not keep their homes nice-looking either, and said that her neighborhood would send letters to that family complaining about it.

So we started to go more into that topic, discussing the exterior images of homes and apartments in poor communities and I said that even if the homes on the outside do not look nice, that doesn't mean that the inside looks crappy as well. She said that may be true but they should still try and pretty their porches. Later into the conversation, she said that families that own homes should make their house look nice, and if they can't then they should not own a home and rent an apartment. How can you tell someone that they shouldn't keep their house and rent an apartment, if they cannot keep its appearance nice? You can't and she seemed to be sprouting nonsense because even though some families cannot make the image better does not mean that they can't keep a house. My mother couldn't keep the appearance of our house up and make it better, but she made sure that her children had a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs, and kept the electric and hot water on. She doesn't get it because she grew up with two parents, in a more affluent community, and she didn't have to experience half the stuff that many less-fortunate families did. She's speaking from ignorance and she needs to shut her mouth because she has no idea what she's talking about.