Monday, January 28, 2008
Nice White Lady
O. K., so the problems with educating urban kids is deeper than the heroe scenario of all they need is a nice white lady. I, however take exception that as a nice white lady educator like myself am somehow now discounted from any future success by the prejudicial critique of these films. Reverse discrimination? Why do we constantly judge one another and thwart each others efforts to help. I say don't look at anything as the whole picture, yet if it uplifts and encourages people to get in there and try to affect a positive effect then don't through the baby out with the bathwater, promote more support. What I also think is the flip side to critique's of these films is for other ethnicicities to stand up and say,"Yeah, I need to get educated and get in there and show how I've made it work for myself and I can show others the path. Well o.k. whatever will work then but, I don't care for the slam on me either.
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2 comments:
I understand what you mean. We can go to a school in serious need, teach the best we can, make changes, etc. After all the hard work we get stereotyped. Its pretty heartbreaking from the "Nice White Lady" point of view. I have to disagree with you a little though. I don't think its necessarily reverse racisim. If the white teacher is in a primarily African American or Hispanic school, its not racism so much as an extreme difference in backgrounds. No matter how good of a teacher the nice white lady is, she will never be able to fully understand the way life is for her students. I don't think that the stereotype is entirely about skin color; its not that she is white but rather she is an outsider. I see your point and I agree but I do think that there is more to it than just a "nice white lady" stereotype.
I have to agree with Jen because the video was showing just how ridiculous it is to believe that an individual (not necessarily a white lady)can come in and make that much of a change in such small amounts of time with students they can not relate to. The im not even sure the stereotype of the teacher was as important as the stereotypes that all the minority students had in the video. Even though it was ment to be funny it was showing how many different problems one class can have and how a teacher who may or may not have gone through any of it just come in and changes everything so easily. In the real world things are not that simple and the small obsticals the teacher does face are very minor and take much more efort and time to help fix. Problems that the students have are larger than life and true they may want some one to care, but honestly the issues willnot disappear that easily.
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