Open minded?

Tonight was a crazy night in class. I had a group presentation in my multicultural education class over social class and how it affects education.

Wait, hold on. Let me start from the beginning.

We've been having these presentations for about 5 weeks now over debatable hot topics in education (sexuality, gender, religion, etc) and everyone has been pretty good about stating their opinion and listening to others.

EXCEPT this one guy.
We'll call him Bryan.
Because that is his name.

Bryan is from Jamaica. And even though he is living in the U.S., going to school in the U.S., and plans to stay in the U.S., he thinks Americans are awful and talks about how much better Jamaica is every chance he gets. Not only that, he has a thing against women and also identifies himself as a "strong black man". Everything that comes out of his mouth has to do with the fact that he is African America (Jamaican) and a man.

So anyway, tonight we walk into the room and he asks one of my partners if she has lived in the midwest her entire life. She says yes and he responds by saying, yea I can tell because you are so close-minded. Now, here's the thing. My group is the most open-minded group in the entire class. We have no idea where he is coming from and why he decided to tell "K" this right before we give our presentation. Needless to say, "K" is really offended by what has happened and is practically crying before we even begin our presentation.

So, we begin and things are going well. Our topic is not too controversial, so we think we're in the clear. Until we get to the second to last speaker. At this point, Bryan feels the need to voice his opinion about how "this is how it is in America, because there is not a social class issue in schools in any other country in the world". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Then he continues to tell us how we are completely wrong and how he and his brother got all A's in their studies even though his parents worked all the time.

That's not what we're saying dude!

So at one point Bryan is completely not listening to what the presenter is saying and finally the only male in the group speaks up and tells him to listen to what she is saying. After this, Bryan starts freaking out about what is going on I thought a fight was going to break out at this point.

After the presentation, Bryan has the nerve to come up to our male group member and tell him to never speak to him like that again because he is a man from Jamaica and deserves more respect. At this point, my groupmate is ready to punch Bryan and we manage to calm him down. Then, just as class is almost ready to end, Bryan addresses him again on the same issue, but in front of the entire class this time. The rest of my group and I decided we would walk our fellow group member out of the building because we feared that he would start a fight.

It was intense.

I have never been so angry at someone in my life for being so close-minded. The worst part is that he never listens to anything anyone else is saying and he truly believes that everyone else in the world is wrong. I just don't understand how he is going to stay in America and be that angry about what is going on in America. Also, I have no idea how he is going to be a teacher. I fear for any child that is forced to have him as a teacher.