First, even though our syllabus and readings will have us concentrate on particular aspects at a time, let's aim for awareness of intersectionality (interlocking structures in society and what that means for how we are raced, classed, abled, and gendered simultaneously). Just like People Like Us taught us, status and social class is never about just one of these nodes. So what do we learn not just about race but also gender from watching and being fans of major league sports, for example?
Second, remember (or maybe know explicitly for the first time) that race does not have a biological base. It is a social and cultural construct. As just one small example, consider how race is defined in two diametrically opposed ways for different political purposes in the United States. People are considered (and often consider themselves) to be African American if they have one drop of African blood in their ancestry (hypogenetics). And, at the same time, legal codes calculate Native American status through blood quantum (if you are 1/16th Cherokee and you partner with an Anglo, your children would then be 1/32nd), necessitating diminished status over time. These completely contradictory relations of race and rights are both codified into law into this country. We utter race so often and use racial categories that it's easy to forget that we are actively raced all the time. To the same point, people are not racial minorities and majorities free floating - they are racially - active process.
Consider that, let us have a much better conversation about race than trying to figure out if a single person is racist. Check out what is now almost a classic video from Jay Smooth on this (below). This is a society based, in part, on race and class stratifications. So, how would that not be in all of our consciousness to greater and lesser extents? Our better question is what shape it's taking and how to work with it, dismantle it, open it up, whatever we think is wise action, particularly in schooling.
So what do you think of race in America? Bring up whatever you like here, respond to each others' discussion questions, maybe share the first time you remember being made aware of your race.
I was born in Bolivia, one of the only countries in Latin America with a majority indigenous population. I was aware at a young age that I was part of the country’s white elite. My paternal grandfather was an activist for indigenous campesino groups and often brought me along on his trips to the Andes Mountains (where many of these groups lived). My grandfather’s activism was widely criticized by the rest of the white elite and even by members of my family. I remember that one of my aunts spanked me because I was speaking Quechua (one of the indigenous languages) and she told me that Quechua was only for “dirty indians.”
ReplyDeleteI then moved to the United States, where I no longer was part of the white elite but now a person of color. I was not fully cognizant of this until middle school but I had many experiences where I had to confront my new racial identity in this society. When I was in second grade, my white teacher asked me to do a presentation on Cinco de Mayo. She told me to bring in a few traditional Mexican dishes. I remember being utterly confused as to why I was the only one in my class who had to do a project on Mexico. I now know that this white teacher saw me as a young Latina girl and thought that I was an expert on all Latino culture. As Kunjufu writes, it is important for the teacher to understand the culture of the students and to not assume that students are experts on their race or culture.
I had a similar experience to you, Renee. Race became a stronger defining factor of who I was when I moved to the States from Mexico. In Mexico, I formed part of the "elite" class, the lighter skinned affluent class. My school was made up of "people like me", so I was never victimized for my race, my skin color, or my origins. Because of this, I was very unaware of my race. I knew I was Mexican, but I didn't think it made me different than anyone else I knew. Even when I look back at the way I viewed myself in relation to the indigenous people in Mexico, I don't think I thought they were different from me because of their skin color or the way they spoke. I think it had more to do with the fact that we lived in separate worlds. I was being raised to study and eventually raise a family of my own. They were being raised to work hard to survive. I couldn't see that it was race that separated us; I must have thought it was poverty, which I now realize is strongly connected to the fact that they are indigenous.
DeleteAnyways, when I moved to Wellesley, MA in 2002 my racial perception of myself changed. I was now different than my classmates. The day I was really hit by this reality was when my social studies teacher asked all white students to raise their hands. I raised my hand, I guess because I had a similar light skin color to my white friends, or maybe because I was still in the mentality that I had to form part of the dominant group, as I had in Mexico. The teacher approached me and lowered my hand. I was surprised that I was being told I wasn't like most of the students in my class. This was a different feeling. Luckily, I never felt I was treated differently because I was Mexican. If anything, I was asked question after question about what Mexico was like, "Do they have a king there?", "Did you ride to school by donkey?" (no to both of these by the way). I must have been very naive or indifferent because I didn't really mind the silly stereotypes my classmates had of me. While I did have that momentary "race shock", it didn't affect me as much as it should have. I had friends and I was happy, even when knowing that in the overall social schema of things, I was not part of the elite anymore.
Let's talk about you and me. Let's talk about all the good things. And the bad things that may be.
ReplyDeleteI think I became aware of my race during elementary school. The first February we were shown a film on Martin Luther King (first or second grade), I was reduced to a blubbering mess. While I do not remember this first instance, my mother does; and apparently each subsequent year during the annual screening of MLK's story, I was put in the library in order to avoid another hysteric episode of white guilt. In fifth grade, perhaps because the teacher was new, or the school thought I had matured, I stayed with my class and watched the movie, (well part of it). I remember holding it together the best I could. A few minutes before the inevitable assassination, I couldn't take anymore. I ran to the back of my classroom where I remember sinking to my knees, my face to the wall, hoping my classmates wouldn't notice as a shook trying to stifle my sobs. My teacher, obviously alarmed, ran over to see what was wrong. She didn't understand why I was upset, and said something along the lines of, "but the bad part hasn't even happened yet." At that point I could no longer suppress my tears. In my eyes, "the bad part" had in fact already happened, maybe not in the movie, but in real life, and that was so much worse. All I could think was, "It's not fair." I was then put in the library for the remainder of the film. I think this is when I really began to understand the implications of race in America. To my fifth grade self, Martin Luther King was murdered because he was black and because he was standing up for the rights of black people. (I think thats all "they" really want us to know).
I now understand the Civil Rights Movement in depth, and that MLK was not assassinated while challenging racial inequality, but rather economic inequality for all races. In 1968 MLK and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized the Poor People's Campaign, in April of the same year he was shot and killed. I do not find this to be a coincidence. You can't have the rich without the poor. Then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, took responsibility for investigating King's death, (this is a man whom has previously said, "Martin Luther King is the most notorious liar in the country." The same man who later said, the Black Panther Party is “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country").
We get one month a year, the shortest month, to learn specifically about black history, (which is a huge issue in and among itself). I love MLK but there are so, so many other important, influential black leaders in our country's, and the worlds, past. Why is there so much attention paid to MLK? Moreover, why is the primary black leader we choose to focus on murdered? Is it because it generates sadness, which is a less disruptive/empowering emotion than anger? We revere him for evoking social change, yet, on some level, is MLK a latent warning of the consequences of fighting "the man," "the system?" If the FBI was to be traced to his assassination, would that change his coverage in our curriculums (example, how many of us learned about Fred Hampton)?
I remember becoming aware of race when I was young, probably around five years of age. My grandparents grew up and still live on a farm outside of a small town in southern Sweden. Sweden was, and in part still is, a very homogenous country. My grandparents were having a discussion about how awful it was that immigrants were coming in from Eastern Europe and how they were ruining the country. A lot of Swedes agree with them even today. They also referred to African Americans in a less than positive light. I do have to defend them as they have never met anyone of color and do not know anything different. It is interesting traveling between the States and Sweden where you have such different groupings of people-one being a melting pot with people of every background and the other dominated by blondes.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I love Jay Smooth...the way he explains how to confront people who make "racist" comments without actually calling them "racist" is something that have has never occurred to me. As Jay explained, engaging in a conversation with someone about what they "did" or said is much easier to speak of instead of pointing fingers at them by calling them a racist. I also connect this to people who make comments about or towards homosexuals. In the past I have said to these people, "You're homophobic" (with maybe some !&@*%$ words added in there). If my blood doesn't boil too high maybe next time I can explain to them what they said and how it sounded and how maybe they could change what they say next time...
ReplyDeleteTo the topic of when the first time I noticed my race: I think it might have been when I entered Boston Latin Academy in the 7th grade. I went to a small Catholic elementary school in East Boston with less than a dozen non-whites. My first exposure to a truly diversified education system was at BLA. I walked in that building and was in awe of the variety of skin colors. Even though I had never experienced a diverse group of races in my schooling until then, I had experienced it in my everyday life from growing up in the inner city. I was nervous about entering such a large school (7th-12th grade), but I immediately clicked with all of my peers, regardless of skin color, and enjoyed the remainder of my time at BLA (until I left in 9th grade and headed to East Boston High because I hated taking Latin, but that's a whole other story for another day).
Rather than discuss my first awareness of race and racial difference, I'd like to talk about my first awareness of race as an entirely constructed social category. It's hard for me to pinpoint a moment when I became aware of my own race and the race of others because its so ever present to us from birth. However, I'm keenly aware of the moment I understood that a person's was not biological, but socially constructed. Throughout middle and high school, I had a very rudimentary understanding of race, largely because I came from a very heterogeneous background where race wasn't really talked about. While I always recognized that discriminating against someone or treating them differently based on their race was wrong, I didn't necessarily think about the implications of dividing people into racial categories in the first place. I thought your race was something that you were born, not something that society assigned to you, and I didn't understand at a young age that a person's race could change based on their context. It wasn't until I watched a documentary about the "one-drop rule" and learned about the different ways that being "black" or "white" or a variety of other racial categories have undergone change and revision for various social and political purposes that I realized that race was an entirely socially constructed category. I used to conflate race and ethnicity, but now I think I have a firmer understanding of the difference between the two-- one being a social constructed hierarchy of categories to divide and oppress people, the other a source of pride, history and identity.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree, however I would add that race too can be a source of pride, history and identity, especially in the case of Black People whose ancestors came to the United States via the middle passage. This history stripped many African -descended people of knowledge and connection with their specific ethnic group. Instead, the social construction of slavery, primarily, gave way to a shared pride, history & identity, or culture, of blackness.
DeleteThis reality leads to more complications about Race as a social construct, for instance why Black Pride (important) is an entirely different phenomenon than White Pride (unproductive). I would love to hear more ideas about this, but my best explanation is that race is not only a social construct, but a highly nonsensical one- and at this point in the game it is impossible to try to make sense of something that didn't make any sense to begin with..
Julie-- I definitely agree with you that race too can be a source of pride and identity, especially given the society that we live in now and the history that informs it. I guess I was just trying to distinguish that, as you said, it is a "nonsensical" social construct and did not necessarily ORIGINATE as a productive way to talk about difference, identity, history, etc.
DeleteI personally find it helpful through my time learning about these issues to keep ethnicity and race as separate, distinct categories in my head, although I know in real, lived reality that the lines between these categories can be non-existent or more blurred. I just try to keep them separate mentally to continually remind myself of the carefully socially constructed nature of race as a way to categorize people, an institution that varies across time and place.
Hope that helps clarify my point of view!
I enjoyed watching the video and how Jay Smooth really differentiated between the what they did and who are they are conversation. I think that break down between the two is so crucial to having a successful conversation about race. Often when faced with a controversial issue or a heated topic people come on too strong in order to defend their opinion which has the exact opposite effect than the one they were looking for. I like how he says that we need to make people accountable for their actions because that is the fact of the situation. This is what they said, there is no arguing that. The more personal opinion we add to the conversation the less validity the argument has.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the comment above that said race is not biological. I have never heard it worded like this and it makes a lot of sense. I had always thought your race was something biological; however, after reading the explanation of the different generations I feel differently. Someone's race does not deplete over time. An African-American child is African-American if he chooses to identify with that race. It does not matter if he is 1/8, 3rd generation African- American. Race is not biological it is something we as humans use to find our own self identity.
Jaclyn Demary
This is somewhat tangential, but I was struck at the end of the video, after most of his important points were made, by his short metaphor about when someone takes a wallet. "I don't care bout what you are, I care about what you did." What he cares about is getting the wallet back, not WHO that person is. Jay Smooth brings up an excellent point about making productive change by addressing what someone DID. I think this approach could do alot to ameliorate the current incarceration catastrophe, a phenomenon central to the race issue- and therefore achievement gap/debt, that defines our country. Our society is quick to write off someone as a "criminal," therefore, someone who should face civil and employment sanctions, if not a total loss of civil rights, long after the consequences of their mis-step have been undone. I am excited to hear Laurent and Naysha talk about Restorative Justice, because it is an approach that offers an alternative to typical punishments for offenders, and instead asks what do the victims, community and offender NEED in order to move on from the injustice that occurred.
ReplyDelete