I was accused of calling a 19 year old senior student (who had been recruited to play basketball at the school in which I taught) boy. I had publicly chastised him in the the gym, before school, for not putting away the equipment he had gotten out. I got called in to see the assistant head. It had not happened, and I had the perfect story to prove myself. One of my friends is a black man from Alabama; we met in grad school. One day he called and I answered saying, "What's up boy?" I immediately realized what I had done and started to apologize. My friend said, "No need, you're not from Alabama, and I have seen you call your sons boy (My father did that to me), and you use it as a term of endearment." I told my boss that and handed him my friend's phone number. I said I certainly hadn't been endearing to that student. The boss declined making a call and sent me on my way with an apology. After school that day, one of my black students came into my classroom, leading a group of younger persons of color to thank me for standing up to the recruited BB player. That young woman went on to work in the Obama White House. Last time we met up, at a play, she insisted on a selfie, putting me between "President Obama" and "Joe."

Knew this but not the history