This week's readings were interesting and eyeopening. I have read McIntosh's "White Privilege" before and after reading it now for the second time it still made me realize some of the privileges they I never knew I had. On the other hand, i have seen some of these privileges first hand. I never really noticed them until I started dating my boyfriend, who is Dominican, three years ago. I instantly saw how people looked at us differently when we were together and some even treated us differently. When I first read McIntosh's article I instantly connected with "19. If a traffic cop pulls me over or...I can be sure that I haven't been singled out because of my race." I identified with this because when I was first dating my boyfriend we were pulled over by police and my boyfriend was asked to step out of the car, while I was allowed to stay in the car and I was the one driving. After searching him and questioning him, they apologized and said that "he looked like someone they were searching for". that was honestly my first real encounter with racial profiling and the first time I really noticed how people treat you differently based on your race. Since then I see it everywhere and I think my awareness of this and understanding of it will help me be a better teacher.
I found Hollin's "Relating Ethnic and Racial Identity Development to Teaching" very interesting and agreed with many of her views. I agree that teacher that is comfortable with their own ethnic identity are better equipped to teach students from different backgrounds. If you are uncomfortable with your own ethnicity it could make you uncomfortable in the classroom, especially if there are students from many different backgrounds. Also if the teacher is comfortable with their ethnicity they become a role model for their students. I believe that I am comfortable with my ethnicity and I am also educated about other cultures and comfortable in two cultures other than my own and I think that this will be helpful in my classroom. I think it is important for teachers to not only be comfortable with their own ethnicity but others too and be educated about them.
I agree with Gay's view that students need to be shown positive representations of their culture not negative ones. If students always read or see negative things about their race they are going to feel poorly about themselves and may even value themselves less. Just like the example Gay used, where students read about African American's being put down and called derogatory terms and the others students started using these terms. Students copy what they read, hear, and see. If they read about a certain race as being criminals or second class citizens they are going to start thinking that way and that just creates stereotypes and negative self images. Teachers need to find ways to educate students about their ethnicity and other students backgrounds in a positive light. This will help build students' confidence and feeling of self worth.
That is really awful that the police asked your boyfriend to step out of the car. I would like to think that we are kind of past the ages of racial profiling, but it is clear from your experiences that we are unfortunately not. I think it will be part of our jobs as teachers to not only help our students get past racial profiling, but to set a good example for them.
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting that a personal experience opened your eyes to a serious problem like that. What was your boyfriends reaction? Did he seem used to that type of treatment or did it open hsi eyes to new problems as well? I personally have never witnessed anything like that so McIntosh's article was the the first thing to make me really consider the reality of my privelege. Until reading the article, my privilege is something I would have acknowleged if asked but I never really examined what it means to me, and what it means to those that are not white. Reading the list made me consider aspects of my life that race impacts that I never would have thought of before.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think it was a little brief and I wish it was presented in the form of an actual essay rather than conference notes it certainly had an impact. It is odd that someones conference notes could drastically change the way I think about race.