Hillary Swank as the "nice white lady" of Freedom Writers.

Nice White Lady

From: Robin Amer
Length: 07:43

In their comedy skit "Nice White Lady," the ever edgy Mad TV pokes fun at movies like Stand and Deliver, Freedom Writers, and Dangerous Minds, in which hero teachers single-handedly save troubled urban youth from...themselves. In this piece, educator and radical Bill Ayers explains why he loves this skit, even though it makes him cringe. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Nice White Lady
From: Robin Amer

Freedom_writers_small Bill Ayers is best known for the years he spent as a member of the American terrorist group the Weather Underground. But in later years he became an educator, teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago and publishing several books on education.

Ayers has written extensively on the depiction of schools in film, especially films like Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, and To Sir With Love. In these films, heroic, idealistic teachers parachute into troubled urban schools to save rebellious students from themselves.

Ayers objects to such portrayals, arguing that teachers are not there to save, merely to educate, and that parents in poor communities recognize the value of education and arguing otherwise is a cheap shot. Because of his beliefs, he delighted at "Nice White Lady," Mad TV's parody of education films, claiming that the show had captured in a comedy skit what he had been trying to say for years.

In this piece, Ayers explains why he loves the skit, even as it makes him cringe, and makes a counter argument about what students in America's urban schools really need to succeed.

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Piece Description

Bill Ayers is best known for the years he spent as a member of the American terrorist group the Weather Underground. But in later years he became an educator, teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago and publishing several books on education.

Ayers has written extensively on the depiction of schools in film, especially films like Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, and To Sir With Love. In these films, heroic, idealistic teachers parachute into troubled urban schools to save rebellious students from themselves.

Ayers objects to such portrayals, arguing that teachers are not there to save, merely to educate, and that parents in poor communities recognize the value of education and arguing otherwise is a cheap shot. Because of his beliefs, he delighted at "Nice White Lady," Mad TV's parody of education films, claiming that the show had captured in a comedy skit what he had been trying to say for years.

In this piece, Ayers explains why he loves the skit, even as it makes him cringe, and makes a counter argument about what students in America's urban schools really need to succeed.