What is racism/racist? (continued)

A few weeks ago Micheal started a thread asking the rest of us to think (and post) about our definitions of racism and how race functions in U.S. society. Since his post is especially pertinent to this week's topics, I encourage you to scroll down to it, read the comments that have already been made, and add one of your own. Further, you might think/write about how racism/white privilege/the culture of power have impacted the development of cities (the Hilfiker piece, "Building the Ghetto," should be of help), and how they continue to affect kids and teachers in urban schools.

While we question parenting, parents surely question us.

As I was doing my weekly reading of PostSecret.com I came across this interesting secret and e-mailed comment.  The picture is the posted "secret." Here is the e-mailed response to this particular secret: 

-----Email Message-----

Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 10:52 AM

Subject: To the teacher

Our children are our lives and we're in your classroom because we know how little some of you really care about them and about us.  Our little secret? We don't trust you with our children unless we're keeping an eye on you.

In class, we have been reading literature and commenting on how at fault parents can be for their children's lack of education/their actions.  Sometimes we, although teaching is a powerful profession, some teachers may come off as omniscient in all aspects of a child's life and there for may do what is "best" for that child.  However, how are we to judge what is best for a child we are not with every minute of the day.  Parents are just as skeptical of teachers as teachers can be of parents.  Is this a viable concern? Do parents have a right to question teachers and keep a watchful eye on them?  Why aren't teachers trusted? Do you think this opinion differs from urban to suburban school?  Do you think the quality of teachers in urban schools are not up to par?  What if this was your child?  What can WE do to change this?

I know this post does not have entirely an urban education tone, however I was intrigued by this "secret" and was wondering what others thought.  Plus, we have been talking so much about race, I kind of wanted to go another way. But if you think race matters here...post away...I am interested.

Also, side note...someone brought up in class a few weeks ago that we do all this talking, but what are WE going to do? Anyone have any ideas?

Urban Schools Film Festival

Since we didn't really have time to discuss each film in depth in class last week, I thought some of you might have additional comments or analysis you'd like to share on the blog. What I'm particularly interested in is how you think your film's narrative contributes to popular conceptions -- or misconceptions -- about urban schools, teachers, students, and families. Beyond whether or not the film is entertaining or inspiring, what is it saying about city schools, and about what the kids in those schools need? Do you agree or disagree with that message, and why?



One way to think about it might be: If we were going to design urban school reform based on the stories and messages conveyed in these films, what would we do? What do they seem to be saying are the "answers" to the challenges of city schools? And do you agree?

Good news for Tasia!

Tasia emailed this weekend to let me know that she has successfully jumped through all the necessary hoops to do her student teaching this semester, and she will begin tomorrow -- yes, tomorrow -- in Decatur. The only downside (for me at least) is that she won't be able to continue in C&I 232 with us. We'll miss you, Tasia, but I'm sure your classmates join me in wishing you well as you take this important next step in your teaching journey.

Are parents to blame for student failure?

Just as urban students are often depicted through a deficit perspective (a focus on what's "wrong" with them, what they lack, etc.), so are their parents. As Katia Goldfarb explained in her article "Who is included in the urban family?", policymakers and even educators often blame the struggles of low-income families on the parents' supposed "moral poverty" rather than on systemic or institutional factors such as racism, poverty, lack of jobs and affordable housing, etc.

To read one example of such thinking, check out this article by Paul White, long-time teacher at an alternative high school in Los Angeles and author of the book White's Rules (which is mentioned in the intro to CKCS). White maintains that the cause of failure among African American male students is simple: bad parents.

What do you think of White's opinions/analysis? And what do you think of the concept of "moral poverty" as it relates to poor/African American/immigrant parents?

Ethnicity?

Okay so I know this is off topic but I have noticed something throughout some peoples comments on posts. America has had this huge debate on what to call certain races. It has changed so many times through history that I am confused especially when people still say two different things. Do you want to be call Black or African American? Do you prefer to be called White or Caucasion? What about Latino or Hispanic? I feel that we are all humans and that we all live in the same country so we are all Americans but Im just curious as to what you prefer, or at least what you feel that you are. I call myself White not Caucasian, just White. So please tell me what your thoughts are on this whole situation.

Juvenile (In)Justice

We'll view the rest of "Juvies" this week, but since we didn't get much time to discuss Part 1 in class, I thought we might begin the conversation on the blog. Here are a couple questions to consider, but feel free to discuss other related themes or issues as well. I'd particularly like to hear about connections you made between the film, the articles we read for last week, and Alex's talk.

1) Should we respond the same way when a 15-year-old commits a murder as we do when a 35-year-old does? Why or why not?

2) What were your feelings about the expression "You do the crime, you do the time," before watching the film? Is the film making you re-think your views, or not? Is the idea of "mandatory minimum" sentences a good one?

3) Michael Meade says in the film, "Youth are a reflection of the symptoms of the culture. A culture whose youth are committing increasingly vile crimes is a culture that has become increasingly vile." What is he saying? And do you agree?

4) How does all this impact the education system -- and, in particular, schools in our nation's cities?

Alex

Megan emailed me yesterday about writing Alex a thank-you letter for coming to speak to our class. I said I thought it was a great idea, and that I'd open it up to the rest of you as well. So, if you'd like to send Alex a card/note/letter thanking him for his visit, please bring it to class this week and I'll make sure he gets them all.

Also, here are a couple photos from 1990-1991 -- one of Alex, and one of him and some of his classmates (and me -- the tall one with the Jerry Seinfeld hairdo) in our tiny coat-closet-converted-into-a-classroom.

We're rolling now...I hope

I'm not going to post any new questions or topics this week because we have several great threads (see below) that have been started in the past few days. Thanks to Tanika, Michael, and Sharli for the thoughtful posts -- now let's hear what some of the rest of you think on one or more of these issues.

A Girl Like Me

First off, I want to applaud Kiri Davis for making such a remarkable film. I think that message behind this film is just what we need in today's society. We need to redefine our standards of beauty. I think that beauty should no longer be defined as: the more Anglo Saxon features one has the more beautiful a person is. This film made me remember some of my own childhood experiences. I was constantly told that beauty meant having light skin, longer hair and a small nose. I have none of these features. I was told that having "nappy hair" was ugly. When I was three years old, my mother gave me a chemical relaxer to straighten my hair. I guess my natural hair was not beautiful enough. A lot of times the idea that we must have long, straight hair has been ingraved in the minds of young Black girls. We are told to believe that our only hope of being beautiful is to have long, straight hair. In elementary school, I was constantly made fun of because of my skin color. My classmates as well as some of my family members would call me names like Dark Chocolate, Blackie, Midnight. I was always reminded that I was the darkest one in my family. I was especially compared to my twin sister who is lighter than me. My paternal grandmother often referred to us as the light one and the dark one. Once when I was in seventh grade, my mother tried to get me to bleach my skin. She tried to rub that bleaching cream on my skin. My response to her was why do you always try to change me? Why can't you accept me for who I am?
I was also ridiculed the size of my nose. Everyday in school I was always called some of the most hurtful names because of my nose, which is something that I have absolutely no control over. To this day some of my family members remind me of just how big my nose is.

I like this documentary "A Girl Like Me" because it challenges us to redifine beauty and appreaciate the different complexions, hair textures, and nose shapes within the Black community. This documentary encourages us to defy current standards of beauty and create our own.

Minimizing Accomplishments

After reading Chapter 5 of the first section of CKCS I thought of some instances in my own childhood that relate to what the writer experienced. On page 35 of that chapter, Samson Davis mentions that when he recieved a good grade he told his friends that he cheated, thereby minimizing his accomplishments. Davis raises an interesting point "Kids who did well in school were considered nerds. I wanted to be cool. And more than anything, I wanted to fit in."

In my own elementary years, me and my twin sister were constantly picked on because we recieved good grades. We were told that we "acted white" because we chose to read books instead of walk around the blocks. By definition, since we did well in school, we were considered nerds.
Like Davis, we had a longing to be "cool." We tried to fit in with the other kids by hanging out until late at night instead of doing our homework. At one point in sixth grade we even formed a clique and were accused by the principal of forming a gang. In the end, I, and I think my sister, realized that doing well in school was much more important than trying to be cool.
The whole point of me mentioning this is to say that telling kids that they are "acting white" when they pursue academic endevours sends the message to them that only white kids can learn. They have no place in an academic setting and they should reliquish all hope of doing so. I think that this idea of education equaling whiteness has its roots in slavery. In those days, slaves could not be educated. Those that risked their lives to learn in a sense were "acting white" because only white people had the legal right to learn. I think that we are still enslaved by the idea that we as a black community cannot learn. I know plenty of former classmates who were academically talented and in the gifted program with my sister and I. They had all the potential in the world, but instead of staying in enriched classes, they chose to stay with their peers in regular classes in order to stay "cool."
I think that this idea is very damaging to the psyche of young African American children. Instead of being praised for their accomplishments they are ostracized and told to act "Black."
My questions are these: Why can't Black be equated with intelligence? Why must we stay captives of intellectual ignorance? Why can't we be rewarded for doing well in school instead of being ostracized?

What is racism/ist?

This has been bugging me since our second class meeting. We sat around and talked about diversity in the classroom (which was a major topic of the small group discussion I was a part of) and our group talked about diversity as encompassing not only different races of people but also people of different backgrounds, lifestyles, experiences, etc. It made me stop and go "hmmm."

Now let me stop and preface this. In a few weeks we will read an excerpt from a book titled "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Classroom" by Beverly Daniel Tatum. The article we are reading is titled "Defining Racism," which sets out to do just that. The article presents an alternative definition of racism that isn't grounded with hatred, as we typically see it. I thought it would be worthwhile for us to have a forum and discuss what we believe racism is and how it functions in our society. Because my view of racism is so closely aligned with Tatum, I will withhold my views and wait to see if other people comment.

Back to the class discussion. Earlier in the week of this class I had been thinking about the concept of reverse discrimination. I believe it is a racist concept, one that is invented by the white Culture of Power to suppress or hold back people of more color. Take for example affirmative action, which is often argued to be an example of reverse discrimination. While it is controversial on both sides of the fence, is it really discrimination against white people? Are white people as a whole really losing jobs, becoming unemployed because preference is given to people of more color? Is the scale of inequality tipping and causing white people to become the majority of the undereducated, under-supported, under-represented underclass? I would say that isn't the case, yet it is labeled by some whites as reverse discrimination. Why could that possibly be but to keep the system in status quo, to protect the rights and opportunity white people get based on the color of their skin. Protecting the racism of our society.

So in our small group discussion we re-defined diversity. Shouldn't be a problem, all we did was change a definition and people do that all the time. But is it not a way to change a definition so that we can claim we have something we don't? Does it not in some way perpetuate the system of white opportunity that true racial diversity would hypothetically counteract?

I'm getting a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. This definition of diversity is neither diverse nor racially sensitive. Discuss.

Identity Crisis - "Is it okay to just be me?"

The video "A Girl Like Me" showed how students suffer an identity crisis and that society and the media makes it worse. [For example the typical talked about stereotypes are; boys are better at math than girls, lighter skin is better than dark skin (typically appears in African or Hispanic media), blonds are dumb or ditzy, Asian students are smart.] I know that I need and plan to use Multicultural Education as part of the academic lesson, but as a Chemistry teacher I wonder how I will encourage self discovery while teaching the periodic table. (My initial response would be to introduce them to other societies and cultures, which they don't usually have interactions with to teach them that the world is bigger than their back yard but I am still unsure of how to integrate that into a lesson.) I am use to society looking at me and placing me in a specific category, however, I am tired of trying to prove I don't fit in just one box and explaining why. I know most students are probably just as tired and so they quit trying to define themselves, and they allow society to define them. My fear is that they will pigeon hole their potential by trying to fit in a predestined category based on geography, skin color, economic background, and/or gender etc... (Fulfilling the stereotype) and pass it on to their children, therefore; creating a never ending circle.

Besides trying to educate students in a specific subject in our classroom, how do we help them find themselves and help them understand that they don't need to fit perfectly in a specific category, and show them how they actually do fit in?