I think the theme of the readings this week is: The power of culture and the roll the dominant culture plays in perpetuating the current systems that are in place.
Having never really defined culture before, I never really thought about the power it has. These readings helped me see what power I’ve had and some of the privileges I’ve never noticed before. The oppression seems minor or invisible as the system works for me. But it doest work for everyone and its my duty as a teacher to give students what they need succeed as best they can in a world that isn’t fair for all students yet.
Today we utilized a technique of texted-based reading incorporating a follow up exercise “The final word” where a round robin discussion took place amongst small groups focused on short sections Beyond Heroes and Holidays (BH&H). Each of the group members would identify the most significant or impactful segments of the reading section and relay to the group their thoughts and reasoning for bring said points to the discussion. After each group concluded their own discussion a class wide discussion would then take place. The goal: To reach a deeper understanding of the text through these discussions.
I found this exercise and discussion to meet that goal. Others in the group interpreted some passages differently than I did or were able to illuminate the importance of material that initially did not register with me. The major point of our section, Affirmation, Solidarity and Critique: Moving Beyond Tolerance in Education were the call to take the Monocultural education institution and transition them into a multicultural environment to creates access for all students to be successful. It is a call to elevate the current condition to what is outlined as a lofty but an achievable goal. Within our discussion group we felt that one key to implementation of this is to foster an urgent sense to think critically. Development of this skill is paramount for the success of a student, to ensure they are able to navigate coursework and their daily lives at a higher level. We discussed challenging to status quo and the power distribution as themes that run throughout this texts respective chapters. We also discussed the what ifs of a culturally responsive curriculum and the potential pitfalls for exclusion of some students while celebrating some other. All in all I believe the objectives of the exercise were met and we all took more away form a post reading discussion than simply reading alone.
Yesterday I talked about a This American Life podcast, Tell Me I’m Fat, but the buzzer went off and I did not really explain how it related to our topic of teaching white people about racism. I felt uncomfortable talking about this podcast because I felt like it might be offensive to some people but, I also felt like the story really illustrated how blind we can be to the effects of prejudice and racism.
We see the world through our own personal filter, which is colored by our limited background and experiences. After Elna lost weight it was like she was able to experience a completely different reality. She was suddenly able to step into this parallel universe where doors that were usually closed to her were now open. People that ignored or criticized her now openly embraced her.
Similarly, White people have no clue that there really is this parallel universe where the rules that govern their life –the social constructs that allow for their upward mobility and smile favorably upon them- do not apply.
I listened to another podcast about what it takes to change people’s minds on controversial subjects like same sex marriage or abortion. What they found was that going door-to-door inundating people with information did not work at all. What really got people to change their minds was an open dialogue. The canvasser would ask a person about their opinion on abortion or same sex marriage and then they would listen- not passing judgment or trying to counter with statistics or reason, but instead asking probing questions, encouraging the person to explore and actually articulate their own thinking. The responses they got were overwhelming. Most of the people that they engaged in this way had changed their minds by the end of the conversation. And even months later, had not gone back to their old opinions.
So how do we teach white people about racism? We need to get them to articulate their thinking. Going through this metacognitive process is not an easy task. It takes a lot of time and patience. But as teachers, we can find ways to start these conversations within our classrooms and our communities. We just need to be wary of complacency. As many of our classmates mentioned in their presentations, if you get to a point where you think you’re done, you’ve got a problem.
Although I was not able to attend class, I thought as though I could still share my thoughts from the reading. I found the book to be not only incredibly interesting, but also something that was a bit of a surprise. I was not surprised by the information necessarily, but by how large of a problem it has become.
We as educators, need to be more activists in the classroom I feel as though we are not doing enough to include all cultures, especially those around us in the classroom. For example, I thought as though when I was in school here in Juneau, I did not learn nearly as much as I could have about the Tlingit and Haida traditions and overall culture. This is something that I wish I would have had more in my life. I also noticed that when I was in Boston I took a native american history class and I was astounded to hear about how little a lot of my classmates knew much about native american culture, besides what was seen in the movies. This is something however, that I also realized meant that I had more experience with it and the different cultures, then others. So it is definitely I feel a problem. The issue though, is to make sure not to single out a student publicly and make them feel like an outsider, especially after hearing what some of the students shared with us in class before.
The classroom should be inclusive to all, and it should also be a place where everyone can feel comfortable, and learn from each other about each others culture. The teacher should be the activist in this realm, and not a bystander. Language is also something that can have a large impact on the classroom because it can either help, or hurt the environment depending on the language being used. It can create more of a safe place if words like “friends” or “partners” are used instead of words such as “students” or “kids”.
I also enjoyed the section on the “advanced” classes that exist. Just as Professor Lunda and others explained, there is definitely a gap within the classes through what kids, (white, black, native american) are in what classes. This is a systemic failure and one that obviously as anyone would agree must be changed. A large part of this may be the because of the involvement within the parental structure between the teachers and doing more to help out kids who may need special requirements such as having club meetings during lunch, instead of after school. Overall I thought that this reading was compelling and frightening at the same time. I enjoyed it and I found it to something that is imperative to read for all educators. The only way to help change a problem is to address it and learn more about it, and that is what we are doing every day in this class.
There are so many things people living in their dominate culture don’t usually worry about as much as others from a subdominant culture do, such as: having an encounter by law enforcement, what to tell their kids to do in the event of an encounter with the law, getting followed by someone in a store, getting arrested, if so will their peers be on a jury, having access to healthcare, having access to good food, getting stopped because they are wearing a hoodie, having store rep. insist you don’t have enough money to buy a certain item, having people avoid you, eating certain foods in public, cultural name causing your resume to be tossed in the bin, not getting hired, getting fired.
I spent a lot of time as a musician in Nashville and thus a lot of time eating beans and rice. I was broke and needed some money so I took a job on a painting crew of 3 people. There were two white guys and an African-American. We all worked equally as hard. The African-American fellow was a pleasant man to work with. He didn’t have a car but was always on time. He didn’t have quite as much experience as the rest of the crew but made up for it in work ethic. A week after I joined he got canned. This situation spelled it out for me clearly. He didn’t have a car or the experience because he couldn’t hold a job that would afford him both of those. As soon as a white man walked on the job site looking for a job he or someone of his color would be the first to go. This happens frequently in the South and elsewhere across the country. Privilege is invisible to those who are not watching and most of us in the dominant culture don’t have eyes big enough to see. Some don’t want to see.
As BH&H suggests to combat this we need to be positive about our own racial identity, have ongoing “self-examination and increased interpersonal effectiveness in multicultural” and having a “living commitment to anti-racist activity”. While I don’t think race exists racism does and we need to be active in combating it. I believe it starts through the path of knowledge as knowledge is power…
“It is uncomfortable”… began the last group on their presentation of the chapter, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh, “but we have to do it.” The group, of four white females, went on to acknowledge their privilege.
In the chapter Mclntoch states, “I have noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged.” Replace the word ‘men’ with white people and ‘women’ with non-white people and the statement is true to the nature of white privilege.
Although Mclntoch’s article may be known as groundbreaking, it is important to keep in mind that Mclntoch was not the first person to write about white privilege. She was however, the first white person to do so.
Before presenting, we got the opportunity to discuss small sections of our Beyond Heroes and Holidays text using a formula called “Save the Last Word for Me.” Each person presented, each person reflected and there was space for silence, for thoughts, and for growth.. each of us bringing different perspectives to the table. There were times when I could taste a lack of knowledge, understanding and perspective at the tip of my tongue as I spoke. I listened and thought of my students from last year. Did I leave them silence to ponder on? Did I give them their 3 minutes without interruption?
For a week straight I wrote on my hand in permanent marker:
Every student- the most important person in the world
But did I really allow for each of their voices to be heard?
Later, I overhear a conversation about the term “institutionalized racism.” Does institutionalized racism infer that there is such a thing as non-institutionalized racism? Might I venture to draw parallels to the term “consensual sex” as if there is such a thing as non-consensual sex (rape)? Similar but different? I stay up late thinking (as I often do)..thinking about the words that I use, what they infer.
I stay up even later researching.
A quick google search comes up with the following:
Screen Shot 2016-06-21
Earlier in the day, at the Alaska State Museum I read:
“I_____, a native born Alaska Indian, solemnly swear that I do now and for all time renounce all tribal customs and relationships, or so help me god.”
…written on a certificate of Citizenship because Alaska Natives were excluded from citizenship until 1924! In 1945 Alaska Native groups succeeded in passing Alaska’s first anti-discrimination law.
It is only 60 years later, and I just read from a google search that white privilege is a “joke.” This is no joke. I am not laughing. The lack of awareness is frightening. Seared to my mind are Ernestine Hayes‘s memories of herself as a little girl in a world where she felt “timid and alone”and the white music teacher with heels and red lips. I jot down in my notebook: I want this for no child. No student, future, past or present.
I am chilled right to the spine at the thought Ernestine’s childhood music teacher. What do I do to ensure that no student of mine ever feels as though they do not belong? I decide to make a list of everything I must do.
No two lists… the other list will include everything that could make a student feel as though I do not believe in them, so that I will never forget what not to do.
I spend another two days deciding if I should post this or not. Do I even know what I am talking about? I decided to go ahead; sometimes things need to feel dangerous.
What I really enjoyed about reading Beyond Heroes and Holidays was its direct approach in stating that multicultural education is anti-racist education. My group focused on reading the section on anti-racist education, covering the three gaps observed in the education system:
1. Academic gaps due to racism
2. Individual and Social gaps
3. Community gaps.
Our group identified potential solutions by what the teachers can do (technique/professionally) and what the various systems can do (institutional/system), discussing the core issues observed at the inter-personal level (classroom dynamics, teacher-child relations) and at the systemic level (curriculum, community resources).
For example, some of the skills and techniques that a teacher can work towards incorporating into their teaching is trauma-informed teaching, or having projects reflect place-based learning. Our group spoke about how if we were to look at a snapshot of high school classrooms across the United States, they may all look very similar, despite being in different regions. We also talked about how teachers have the ability to redefine classroom relationships, by addressing the students as ‘friends,’ or ‘my partners,’ as opposed to calling them ‘kids,’ or ‘children.’
Systemically, our group spoke about addressing the issue of track-based curricula (‘AP’, ‘Pre-college’, ‘Advanced’), and how to redefine what it means to be ‘Advanced.’ We also addressed the importance of community and parental involvement, and the importance of closing the gaps between the culture within schools and the culture outside of schools, which is widely perceived to be separate. Beyond Heroes and Holidays described a teacher who went out into nearby neighborhoods with their students, looking at graffiti/street-art, and bringing that into a lesson plan in the classrooms.
Some of the questions raised:
– If schools and classrooms reflect a subsection of the local community, how would you want, as a teacher, to have your classes reflect that? (For example, if a tourist/outsider wanted to visit your classroom instead of a museum as a source of knowledge about the local community)
– For parents, by trying to cater to the needs of your own offspring (which, of course, most parents do at any level), are you also aware of how that may indirectly take away access for others?
– How to we redefine classroom dynamics/relationships, and the curriculum content?
– If teachers conduct parent/teacher conferences in their own classrooms, is there already a power & control dynamic in place? Should these meetings happen at a local community center?
