Category: BH&H

Today one group discussed the need for bilingual schools, but then the question was what would the second language be? We talked about how/who decides who belongs to the “dominant” culture? Why do we teach a whitewashed history to anyone… let alone to a diverse group of students? Our group asked, how do we close the racial, social, and community gaps?

Our conversations today reminded me of the Ebonics debate that began in Oakland, California in the 1990s. Before I first learned about the Ebonics debate, one of my mentor professors taught our class about the traditional West African language, dance, art and music. He helped us gain much needed background knowledge before he introduced the lesson. This was an example of culturally responsive teaching.

The connections between Ebonics and West African language are clear. Enslaved West Africans who were violently forced to migrate to the Americas were not allowed to speak their own languages, something we have learned in this course is a common tool of oppressors. This secrecy is key to how Ebonics was shaped. While much of the vocabulary of Standard American English and Ebonics are the same, the pronunciation, hand gestures, meaning of words, common phrases, and sentence structure of Ebonics is very different than Standard American English and instead shares similarities to languages spoken in Nigeria and Ghana (& others). When the Oakland School district acknowledged these differences and put in place a curriculum intended to “close the gap” and teach students Standard American English many people were extremely angry about it. For a quick history check out: The Linguistic Society of America.

Scholar Mary Ann Johnson writes about the ways in which schools shame children for speaking Ebonics even though it is language of their own families and neighborhoods. She writes that,”As a result, African American Ebonics speakers feel degraded and inadequate.” Culturally responsive teaching means doing everything we can to uplift students rather than shame them. The Ebonics debate, in many ways is still a debate. Some ask, why should we force students to speak Standard American English to begin with? How do we teach teachers to educate students in Standard American English without degrading Ebonics or the families who speak it? Do we take away from Black culture when we push students to speak Standard American English in schools? Like many great debates, there is not one clear answer… but if we could move past simply acknowledging a language towards truly understanding its roots, valuing, appreciating, and speaking it… how would our education system change?

I’m glad to have been able to spend so much time with this chapter of BH&H. It’s noted in the chapter that something like 90% of teachers are white, yet schools are growing increasingly diverse. It’s therefore hugely important that white teachers have an understanding of structural racism in our country. This is always a difficult lesson for whites to learn because a) we have no background experience informing us of oppression and b) after learning the lesson we have the unique privilege of being able to forget it. I’m sure most of the white students in this class have experienced the frustration involved in learning about institutional racism and white privilege, or in trying to get your parents and friends to come to the same realizations you’ve come to. Nobody wants to feel complicit in racism, and thus most whites want to deny its existence, or at the very least their involvement in it. Christine Sleeter, the author of this chapter, notes that even after approaching this topic with her students in a careful, tender way, she will still have students drop the course because they feel antagonized. She will also see students participate and seem to grasp the concept, only to go back to their prior misconceptions afterward. This is such a frustrating pattern, since white people who deny their privilege are only able to do so because their privilege allows them to. It seems almost laughable to have to approach this subject so tenderly with whites, but I do think it is necessary. People understand things through their own experiences, and if your experience doesn’t inform you that a thing exists then the concept of that thing can be difficult to grasp.

Anyway. This is all I’ve been able to think about all day.

My group discussed “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh. We were all white, as it happened, and I found it interesting that within our group there were different levels of familiarity with the concept of white privilege. In Peggy McIntosh’s article, she talks about how difficult white privilege is to see and engage with, if you happen to be white. Unless you pin it down, as she does by listing every aspect of her privilege, you’re apt to forget all about it. And you want to forget it, she argues, because it’s not a comfortable thing to think about; it throws everything about your own identity and accomplishments into question. Now, decades later, white privilege has become such a buzzword in academic and political circles that it’s easy to assume that we know what it means. I wonder, though, if we really do, or if we fool ourselves into thinking we’re fully aware of our privilege when all we’ve learned is how to use the word. What our group discussion taught me was that it’s still an uncomfortable, awkward thing to read McIntosh’s list and confront those privileges directly. Our group spent a lot of time on the question of dominance and guilt; if privilege was just a system for pushing one group up and another down, then what were we expected to do – what could we do – to even the balance?

I think the most important thing we can do is foster discussions between our students about white privilege. It’s common for people to push back at being told that they have white privilege. They often see the concept of white privilege as a way to place blame on them for something they have no control over. And sometimes it is even presented in that way, as an accusation leveled at an individual. I think it’s important to teach students that while white privilege does exist, it’s not a matter for individual blame or individual guilt. I think it’s important to give students plenty of chances to discuss the issue of white privilege in a diverse environment, so that they learn how to address it with nuance and understanding.

There was one more thing that I thought about, which is how rare it is for white people to find themselves in a situation in which their white privilege doesn’t work. It happened to me once, when I lived in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and was bullied for being the only white kid in my second-grade class. Although in theory I still had white privilege – I was rich by Marshallese standards, I would be going back to America eventually – I had no way to access that privilege. It was a currency that didn’t work in the country I was in. It was a tremendously disorienting experience, and I’ve never felt so powerless. And it made me realize how right McIntosh is about the invisibility of white privilege – for I never realized I had been living life with a safety net until that safety net suddenly wasn’t there.

Truth

I was tired today. I’ll admit it – the weekend and its big assignments had drained me of feeling. Yet – our shifting evolving group discussion throughout our 680 class today woke me up and got me running. It pulled what few threads of energy remained in my brain out for a firm strumming.

I feel I was really lucky to be in a group with Mischa and Jasmine today – they had such a strong opinion about the architecture of the racist white supremacy facing everyone in the world today. They had so much to say from the heart.

It was invigorating to talk with them how capitalist ideology and stratification seeps into the interactions of non-profits working for the good of the people – causing them to work against each other and claim autonomy. I felt humbled that we could talk about the issues of fighting upwards – making people aware of the challenges facing low class and minority peoples. How we got to discuss how important it is that we as a cadre are already talking about the macro concepts of culture, race, and discrimination.

We also got to discuss the challenges of buttering down the issues (as I fondly think of it). Its too easy to be a majority of race or privileged by race and high class and look at issues of those that are discriminated against and find something that makes their plight less valid. We can not look at an issue like preserving Tlin’git culture and language as something quantifiable. Culture is more important than its transferability and statistical benefits. We are all humans, and we deserve equity – the chance for all of us to succeed in our own way. Backwards buttering ideologies are what drive and protect ‘America’ and capitalism – a culture bent on preserving people in the roles of lesser, lower, and broken to keep a comfortable elite.

Humility

It was awesome to hear so many voices in the class truly striving to connect with the material we discussed today. Nothing about racism, sexism, and class-ism is easy. I feel proud being part of this cadre.

Thumbs up!