Class+07+-+Mar+9

=** Class 7 **= **Class Notes** :

Where does culture, or should culture, come into teaching/ the classroom?
When do people become aware of race? Why?

Video- "A girl like me" Why do these black children feel ugly and bad being black? Dr. Love suggest it is a result of "chatter". We hear people's beliefs and values through everyday chatter, and we repeat it, and thus it becomes our own beliefs and values.
 * Black girls, age 18, talk about how they don't know their heritage. How they feel ugly in dark skin and with kinky hair. They grew up wanting to look like Barbie.
 * "When people come to America they are stripped of their culture", and since they don't really know where they came from they succumb to the American culture.
 * Experiment with black children around the age of 3 and 4. In front of the child were two baby dolls, one black and the other white. They were asked the following: "Which doll do like to play with?" 15 out of 21 kids chose the white doll. "Which doll looks nice?" They chose the white doll again. "Which doll looks bad?" They pointed to the black doll. "Which doll looks like you?" They pointed to the black doll.

__Sneetches__ by Dr. Seuss "But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches Would brag, 'We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.' With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort 'We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!' And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking, They’d hike right on past them without even talking." -This book is a prime example of privileged differences. What are the social norms and how do we treat our differences?

How do we treat differences in the classroom as teachers?


 * Yes, we should acknowledge differences as a respect towards student's heritage and culture.
 * The key is HOW we react towards differences.
 * Things that work: RESPECT **all** your students, use humor, stay positive, believe in students, and be caring.

Story: Colored student, 8th grade, male. The student's mom is a single parent, who is poor and going through severe depression. This boy was caught selling drugs about 2/3s into the school year. By the end of the year they were discussing his placement in high school classes. He passed Love's class and English class with a C-, and they wanted to place this boy in honors classes because they saw his cognitive abilities and believed in him. Whereas his other three teachers failed him and had him repeat the 8th grade. Love asked the boy, "What happens when people tell you over and over again that you're worthless?" and the boy responded, "You believe it, and you become it." But Love pushed him to pass the class, along with his English teacher, but why did the other teachers fail him? Because they gave up on him! Giving up on him just reinforced his self-image as worthless. This is a child who is going through unimaginable hardships outside of school, he needed support and help to get on track, he needed to just be treated as a human being. In these sort of circumstances we are forced to ask ourselves as teachers, "At what cost do you run your classroom? How will your grading affect the students? Who are you privileging and/or pushing away?"

When will racism die? How could it be put to an end?

Video- Time Wise, Pathology of Privilege
 * Privilege: not having to know other race's history; in America blacks have to know white history better than whites even have to know it.
 * White's in power DENY problems of race, every generation!
 * We want to help the "underprivileged". What do we mean by "underprivileged"? That shit happens... and if there is "underprivileged" then what about the "overprivileged"?
 * White students are always seen as highly capable. Bad grades means you slipped up, just underperforming. The privilege is that when a white person slips up, they don't have to carry the weight of their whole race; but if you are part of the underprivileged races, then you fail your whole race, and everyone questions whether or not they should be there.
 * Whites aren't responsible for their race, whites are not blamed for the Unabomber or the Oklahoma bombing, but 19 Muslims have committed terrorism attacks on the U.S. and now we discriminate all muslims as terrorist.
 * Creation of Whiteness- white indentured servants in the colonies were given power over the black servants by the rich to gain support of their rebellion and not have to kill off workers. This turned into slavery. Then the Civil War, fought over slavery, the rich had to convince the poor that their white skin color was more important than to let the slaves be freed and take their jobs. After Katrina, the two communities were very split white versus black, and during rebuilding, the white community wanted to keep it white, so they placed a law that only allowed relatives/ family members to rent and buy the houses.

When will racism end? Maybe never... Maybe once we are all so mixed that there is no definite race... Maybe we just need more diversity in power. (Jessica Roberts)

The Pathology of Privilege: Racism, White Denial and the Costs of Inequality; Tim Wise on White Privilege 1991-2000; almost 1 million black people that died because of a lack of health care and due to toxics that would not have died if health care would have been better black and latino are three times more likely to have their vehicles stopped and searched for drugs when whites are 4 and a half times more likely to actually have drugs on them when they are stopped The average white family has 12 times more networth than Black families and eight times more networth than Latino families (Whites have more wealth accumulated than blacks and latinos)

__White Denial__ Only 6 out of 100 percent said that discrimination was a national problem 1963 - 80 percent of whites said that racial minorities were treated equally 1962 - 90 percent of whites said that racial minority children were treated equally denial is in every generation and members of the dominant group has said there is no problem and every generation has been wrong while every generation of blacks have been right in thinking that there is and was a problem every month but a month that is designated to someone else is white history month

Underprivileged (what is wrong with the term) 1) passively constructed term (passive voice) 2) relative term (if there is an underprivileged then there must be an overprivileged but there is not this word in any dictionary (it does not exist and we do not talk about it because we do not acknowledge it)) white privilege does not only mean money

__Unburdened by Race__ He did not have class privilege but was seen as a bright, capable child and when he made bad grades he was seen as underperforming unlike a person of color; even though he was a bad student White missteps will never be attributed to their racial background unlike blacks (however women will experience the negative group stereotypes at the gender level)

__The Creation of Whiteness__ Creation of whiteness was a trick Colonies 1660s and 1670s (indentured servants (both blacks and whites) rebelled against elite (the point was to be a person of leisure at this time White indentured servants (which became free labor) helped the elites to keep the black "now slaves" down Elites had to convince the white indentured servants that their skin was more important than their economic standings (Jessica Morneault)

**Clarifications for the class notes this week** :

**Clarifications, points, and questions work pursuing for future weeks (Extend the discussion from this week's class):**

I think Sonia Nieto’s encouragement in really getting to know your students can be related to several of the stories we heard about in the video, “A Girl Like Me.” Someone mentioned in class (and I cannot remember who it was) that even though a group of us may all be of the same race, we are all so different. We are different people even within a certain race. Individuals within the same race think differently, have different viewpoints, different beliefs, but from the outside, for some it may seem that they are a collective. It is not only important for a teacher to understand certain aspects of a particular race, ethnicity, or religion, but he or she cannot stop there. The learning must continue to discover, what does this individual think about this topic and how might that be different from this individual. Also, home life is huge for students. These students are growing up together and might live in the same neighborhood. I know in the school where I work now, things that occur in the apartment complex where many of the students live are carried to school with them. If a teacher does not know this and try and understand the situation better, he or she will be so disconnected from the real issues occurring in the students’ lives. An example from the video that stood out to me was when a young African American girl was talking about the importance of having your hair done. How certain hairstyles mean certain things and light skinned hair is different from dark skinned hair. To someone outside of this culture, this may seem insignificant but inside this group, amongst these teenage girls this is extremely important. Knowing this simple detail, which probably does not take that much time to investigate and ask the students, can help that teacher-student bond that is so crucial in education. (Laura Vagnini)

I have been thinking about Jessica Robert's question, "when will racism end?" It is interesting to think that one day we may all look virtually the same. Will it take us that long to get rid of racism? Our discussion today reminds me of the priveldge walk that I did in my other class. I remember looking at all of the people who were given the role of a black person or a person with a disability or alternate sexual preference. These people, no matter their financial situation, kept getting held back further and further with each question. It is such an incredibly humbling thing to experience. I hate that we have such double standards! Jessica also commented, "maybe we just need more diversity in power." Perhaps she is right and maybe President Obama is a leap in the right direction. What struck me most, about the whole discussion, was that I don't ever really notice that these injustices are going on. It is not that I am ignorant and I think that they are not happening, I just don't notice them on a regular basis. I think that in itself says a lot about this double standard. Because I am a middle class white female I haven't noticed these issues on a daily basis as much as someone else might...and that is part of the problem. ( Sarah Rousseau)

In response to Sarah's post I agree with her about how as a middle class, white female, it is easy to forget about all the equality issues we still face in America. I recently just watched a movie that reminded me of this topic. A white lawyer was trying to prove a black man innocent in a southern town and the black man said that no matter whether or not we think what had happened was fair or not you will always see me and my race as different when you look at us. I hope that with President Obama taking office we are headed towards a change here in the United States, but that it is important to remember not everyone agrees with equality. It still is a very large issue here in the United States and I think a great place for change to start happening is in the school system. The public school system helps show the facts rather than the prejudices in the history of the United States and it allows the children to make their own decisions about right and wrong rather than basing their prejudices off of their parents, like so many families pass on prejudices. (Emily Hungerford)

In a way, I agree with Sarah when she stated that the injustices that take place in our lives are not always noticable or thought about by people on an everyday basis. It's sad that people are going through this everyday and all over the world and maybe even in our classrooms as we speak, but are not aware of the effect its having on certain people. As educators, we need to be more aware than anyone what prejudices or injustices may be going on or felt by our students. In an education class I have taken recently, my professor told the class that we need to be aware of our biases at all times. We may not realize it because of the way we were raised or the world in which we come from, but we may have our own subconcious biases and I think that the most important thing is to realize that the classroom is going to be diverse and we can not ignore that. We need to realize that students could be struggling from discrimination in and out of school and it is important that the students can feel comfortable in your classroom because that should be their place of freedom from judgement. If students feel they are being judged they will not feel open to learn. Overall, I feel that everyone needs to be aware and open of any biases they may conciously or subconciously hold and be able to throw them in the garbage when they walk in the classroom. (Allie Beardsworth)

The video "A Girl Like Me" really shocked me and opened my eyes to how young these children are exposed to racism and discrimination. How awful is it that even a child as young as 6 or 7 already knows what society and life has in store for them, how they are already looked at as "ugly" in society? I agree with Sarah when she said that she never really noticed how huge of a problem this is, because I admit that I also had no idea the injustices which are going on all around us are so common and constant. Perhaps this is Tim Wise's point in the video when he said that some white people don't see some of the problems while those being discriminated against see this as a HUGE daily struggle. Of course I am not ignorant to and do not agree with this diversity gap, and I definitely think discrimination is awful and nobody should have to experience this. Speaking from personal experience, it is frightening and lonely when you're placed in an all white American classroom, as I was when I was 7 years old coming to the US from Russia. I think this also ties into Sonia Nieto's lecture and when she said that everyone should experience being the minority at one point or another to see how the other side feels. I agree that having more people from diverse backgrounds in power will help because of course an all white government will do nothing more than discourage and turn their backs to the issue because they have no idea what it's like to be put in the situation thousands of African Americans are put in every day (Katya Lagun).

I agree with Katya, I was shocked to see how young children are exposed to racism. It was interesting to see that these children thought that they were "ugly" or the "bad" doll. It is something to keep in mind as future teachers, that even young children notice the differences, and apparently know racism. It would be interesting to see how one can maybe help to lessen racism through the classroom. I also wonder how having president Obama would now effect the results of the doll experiment. As president he should be showing that he is a good guy, here to help, and can be anything he wants to be. That maybe this will expose children to something different, and help lessen racism. ( Kristie Fergusson)

The video "A Girl Like Me" was an excellent choice to go with our learning about race and privilege. I knew to some extent that race was still an issue for people. Especially younger children who have no filter when they speak and will often say something mean or rude to another person. What I took from the video was not really the issue of race but self esteem. these young women are trying to change who they are. It's not as easy as changing clothes or material items, they are trying to change their physical features. This is just the start to more drastic changes as they get older. I know both men and women deal with body issues, but it is more common for women to change more about themselves. I always thought of this as teenage traits and problems that come with puberty, but now there are Pre-K age children that know they look different and wish they could change. Part of what I try to do in the classroom is make children feel good about themselves. They should be proud of what they do, even if it is not the best work the teacher needs to give the students confidence and praise so that they can continue to try harder. No matter what you look like, everyone has something they want to change, we need to show children that everyone is different and that what you look like is who you are. (Kelly Bates)

I think privlidges really do make life better for individuals. Unfortunately, all white people especially males have the greatest privliges. There are many stereotypes towards certain people that do not help this situation. It's not fair that a white male who is lazy and does just enough to get by will more likely to succeed over a black male who works very hard and goes out of his way to do so. In regards to the video "A Girl Like Me", I was aware that race differences were noticed by children at a very young age. In the preschool I work at, we have a few children who have darker skin and notice it. However, it is not a race issue. In the video I was surprised to see that the majority of the children would rather have played with the white doll over the black doll. I was also surprised to hear the children say that the colored doll was the "bad guy". At a young age, I think it is important for teachers to emphasize that skin color doesn't matter. Everyone in the classroom should be treated fairly and equally. Kristie mentioned president Obama in her response as well. I don't think that the privliges of the white man are diminishing, but by having a colored president I think maybe colored people will get more respect and not looked down upon as much. (Allie French)

After seeing the video "A Girl Like Me" i was in shock. How could one doll be bad because of the color of ones skin? After sitting down and thinking about the video I realized that that's real life. People with darker colored skin are constantly seen as more dangerous, less educated and more or less just "bad" as the little girl put it because of their skin color. I thought that it was really sad how some of these darker colored people went to the extreme to try and become lighter by bleaching their skin.I have never heard of anything like this before. I could not help to think about the side affects that that might have on someone.( Kari M)

When I was watching this video, I wasn’t that much in shock because I can see the struggle that minorities are facing and I notice the racism and discrimination that exists not only in our societies, but in our communities as well. Like Katya said, she felt freighted being in an all white American classroom at age seven, because she emigrated from Russia. I didn’t have the experience of emigrating, but I’m second generation Armenian-American. I remember growing up and my dolls all having beautiful straight blonde hair, and blue eyes. I remember even asking my mother why none of my dolls looked like me. I had dark curly hair and dark brown eyes. I even remember one day at school, I was in the third grade, and my friends were all talking about where they originated from. I remember vividly saying that my grandmother came here from Africa, and all my friends gasped and responded back, by asking me if she was black. I was outraged. Never did I get that response. I was proud of my family and my grandmother. I remember telling them her story. I explained to them I was Armenian. No one knew where that was, even made fun of me. I remember because of this own personal shock I started to lie to people and simply said I was Italian because I thought I looked like I could possibly be. By doing this is was just easier. But for little girls, who say they the color black is referred to as bad, or white being good. This is simply sad. This notion exists in their minds. And why? Is it our society? It is the media? Who portrays this message? When will discrimination end? And why does it still exist? These are the questions that I ask myself, and I’m ready to see a change. (Tara Gleason)

The video we watched in class, "A Girl Like Me", showed a very unfortunate reality that such young children have to face in today's society. Seeing that the majority of the kids chose the white doll to play with and chose the white doll as being the "good" doll as opposed to the "bad" doll was definitely still shocking for me, but I found myself as being aware of these race problems just as Allie said in her response due to working at her daycare. Being exposed to children of all backgrounds and races in different school systems has been the even bigger eye-opener for me and has brought these terrible views children have on themselves just by their skin color, to life. The huge problem I see in some of these schools that I have been at, is that the teacher doesn't acknowledge the stereotypes and racial bullying, or they certainly are aware of it, but think that it is "just a phase all kids go through" as far as identity and becoming who you are goes. Seeing as these problems arise in and out of school, at the least while the children are in school they should be having a positive reinforcement on the notion that no matter what color skin each of their classmates have, that doesn't change, or at least shouldn't change, who they are and the amount of resect they get from others. I was also thinking about the factors that contribute to certain student's decisions in the video, picking the black doll over the white doll as far as appearance and good vs. bad goes; peer influences, family influences, people in power and their influences that they project into society, etc. Like we talked about in class, eventually someone will just start to believe what they hear is what they are because they hear it so much and that talk is literally going on all around them. (Mandy Lucente)

The question of when racism will end stayed with me all week. I am currently placed in a school that majority of the students are black and this made me think even more. Are they racist against me for being different than them? Then I realized that they are very accepting. Is this racism changing? Are we becoming more comfortable with people who are not like us? A student in the school I observe was presenting her exhibition of all of the work that she had done throughout the trimester. She started her presentation by dropping a stack of papers. No one picked them up. We later found out that she had been working on an experiment to see how children develop sympathy and empathy for others. She measured their sympathy and empathy by seeing if they helped her pick up the paper. Going back to the question of when racism will change I thought to myself… we must teach children sympathy and empathy for others in order for there to be no more racism. (Elisabeth dos Santos)

In response to Sarah's comment, it is very upsetting to have to ask ourselves "when will racism end." What is even more upsetting is that our students are being exposed to racism almost everyday in schools and out of schools. I work at a daycare center with 2 1/2 years old and I can remember a child saying to another child, "I don't like you because I don't like brown people." It was so shocking to hear something like that come out of such a young child's mouth and we did not know what to do. It is so sad that some of these children's parents are teaching their kids this. But for what reason? Why are they learning something like this at such a young age when they have not even really entered the real world. It seems like no one is even making a real effort to make racism end because it is just a vicious cycle that just keeps continuing in our society. Also, in response to Sarah's comment is how we both did the "Privelege Walk" in one of our education classes. The only people that had reached the American flag in the front of the class first were mainly Caucasian individuals that had succcessful jobs, however there were American Indian and African American individuals that had much money and successful careers and they were set very far from the flag because they needed to keep taking steps backwards. This is when I realized even more what a problem racism is. Even if an individual has money, a good job, comes from a good family, etc racism will always be a factor. To change this, I really feel like celebrating diversity in a classroom and having a multi-cultural classroom is very important. Though this does not mean that racism will be eliminated from children's lives completely, they are still learning that all cultures and racisms are important and these are people just like them. (Danielle Velodota)

I was was really taken back by the video "A Girl Like Me". Do i know what racism is? Well let's just say that I have heard of it. And after watching this video and a few others, while participating in some discussions in class, I can honestly say that I actually have no clue what it REALLY is. And there is no way that I think that I ever will because I never had to live it. I am a live and learn type of guy. Rascim is something that i will never have to live. There is no way that i will really be able to understand what it is. That is why I sort of stopped discussing and putting insights in class on my opinions because I just do not know what to say. I dont know the issue. I think that the most important thing for me to take from this is to just know that rascim exists, I dont have to neccessarily understand it, but it is important to know that it is out there. I couldn't believe when I saw the little girl answer those questions about the dolls. I was so taken back. That was the point when I realizd how huge this issue is. Listen to her actually call herself ugly and say that the other doll was "better" was so sad. I can't even imagine what it is like. And that is just the thing. I do not know and will never be able to fully understand the topic. (Nick C.)

Even though I have a slight idea and not a full understanding of racism, I really was moved by this video and really saw firsthand how people can be so awful. The questions that were brought up in this video were unbelievable and the answers were shocking to hear. What question really got me and set me off the deep end was when they asked the little girl which Barbie doll was good? And then which Barbie doll was bad? Then asked her what Barbie doll she was? It’s frightening to see at how early of an age students can depict if they are good or bad and what the society see’s as “good” or “bad”. As said above, I too will never understand and probably never have to go through racism because I am not of color and I am the majority of the population. This video hit a home run and should be watched in schools throughout the nation, to prevent hate crimes and make this world a safer and knowledgeable place to live in. Greg Grochowski

I felt this was a powerful class. I mean the priviledge walk we had done in class to see how back in the chain I was, made me remember the way I grew up not that is somehting you can forget, but in my case I was so determine to be like every one is to be part of the norm, I forgot that I grew in a poor neighborhood. That I was part of the Ghetto, I am and my brother we Graduate together as part of Class of 2011 we are the first in the family to graduate college, when all our father continued to say that we cannot go, because its too expensive (but its ok for him to buy a new car right?) Anyways do to good grades my brother and I go to college with scholarships,so far no loans. We face a challenge because we are latinos. As we walk in society Racism is something that continues to exist in this world. Unfortunately we are soo used to it that we continue to ignore because it has become part of the norm. The video of the black girls picking the white barbie doll, because she is beautiful. I confess I avoided Theresa, and kristie the barbie dolls, because I myself wanted to have The white barbie. But is it really worth hiding and changing our culture. I mean in honestly discovering and becomeing more familiar with my culture I love spanish and it culture and I can't believe that I wanted to be part of the norm and forget my culture, just because rascim is something that still exist. (Frances V)