and trail her until midnight were all friendly and helpful, Ruth Hamstra said. who coached Emma Hamstra throughout the six weeks of filming and the film crew who would meet her at school at 8 a.m. It made her confront when kids bully her, why would she stand up for everyone but herself.” “She never responded when kids were yelling and calling her names, she never yelled back. ![]() “We were pleasantly proud of her,” Ruth Hamstra said. ![]() She said Emma would always stand up for other people but not herself before filming, but the experience in Shields’ classroom made her confront her fears when it came to others putting her down. Ruth Hamstra, Emma’s mother, said her daughter grew throughout the experience of filming the show. Her Facebook page was also marred by hate mail. ![]() Hamstra said after the talk in Shields’ classroom, students called her a racist in the hallways, and others would say, “Free Vicki!” as she walked by. Hamstra said she'd learned that Shields' class had been talking about her effort to rap on "Made." The invitation to come to the class followed Hamstra meeting privately with Shields. Pioneer High School teacher Vicki Shields speaks to Emma Hamstra during a discussion in her class on MTV's Made. “Pioneer administration is very much aware of this,” she said.Īttempts to reach Shields via email and with phone calls were unsuccessful Thursday morning. “There was clearly some undertones and you can see the kids taking their cues from her and looking at her.” “She was trying to show that Emma didn’t know her experience just like she (Shields) didn’t know her cousins’ experience in Detroit,” Margolis said. She said Pioneer principal Michael White is waiting to see the whole episode before talking to Shields about it. Her life goal, and the reason she wanted to be on Made, is to be an English teacher in an urban neighborhood and she thought translating her poetry skill to hip-hop music would help her connect to her future students.ĭistrict spokesperson Liz Margolis said administrators at Pioneer are aware of the clip and have met with Hamstra numerous times about the incident. Hamstra recently graduated from Pioneer and is attending the University of Massachusetts in the fall to play field hockey. "The camera woman stopped filming and stopped the conversation because she was so upset.” “Everyone in the class wanted to rally behind Vicki and it was definitely really uncomfortable. “I felt like there was a mob mentality in the classroom,” Hamstra said. She's also wondering how the entire experience will be portrayed on the show. Hamstra said the discussion escalated into a conversation about the role of race in rapping and whether Hamstra had a right to express herself through it. In a promotional clip for the show, Shields tells Emma Hamstra she can’t understand the issues of African Americans. She'd been invited to the class by Shields to discuss why Hamstra - a white teen - wanted to rap. The show follows Hamstra - a college-bound field hockey player, poet and feminist - as she becomes a rapper performing her own song on a stage in front of a crowd of about 2,000 people.Ī clip from the episode posted on MTV’s website shows Hamstra, 17, speaking to teacher Vicki Shields’ African American humanities class at Pioneer about wanting to become a rapper and being confronted by the teacher and students. Pioneer High School student Emma Hamstra went on MTV’s show Made to learn how to become a rapper, but the reality show also documents what the teen calls an attack by students and a teacher during a discussion that turned to race. Update: Teacher Vicki Shields says 'Made' distorted story on race Emma Hamstra speaks to Vicki Shields' African American Humanities class about her quest to become a rapper on the MTV show Made.
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