Chapter 3
Creative Connector
On page 54 in chapter 3 of “We Cant Teach What We Don’t Know” Howard says that “Hegemonic group(s) tend to construct reality in ways to reinforce, protect and legitimize their position of dominance (Sidanius & Pratto ,1993)” I can connect this to an interesting situation that I encountered over the summer while in Italy. There were a large number of street vendors in every major city and these street vendors were often selling replica purses. These purses would often retail for over a thousand dollars each and the street vendors would sell the knock off’s for less than fifty dollars. There were signs all over in English and Italian that said buyers would be prosecuted if they bought these purses. It was apparent that it was not the buyers, but the sellers who would get in trouble and in this fact lies the hegemonic group constructing reality to “reinforce, protect and legitimize” their positions of dominance. The fact was the only people being chased or prosecuted for selling the knock off bags were Black people or people of Asian dissent, usually Indians. There could be three street vendors on the same corner with their goods laid out on a rug, two of the vendors would be Italian, the third being Black or Indian and the Black or Indian person would be chased, have their goods taken, sometimes even arrested. The Italian Polizia, or Carabinieri didn’t seem to try to construct a “melting pot” but were trying to “protect” the hierarchy and hegemony that they thought should exist within their realm of life.
The notion of “Legacy of Privilege” as interesting to think about and in America the power truly lies in the hands of Caucasians. I have not only been guilty of, but have heard of the situation described on page 64 of “forever foreign syndrome.” When I first met my housemate who is Ethiopian I imagined him living in a hut and talking in clicks when he was first born (due mostly to his own jokes that he would play on people). This seems like a common notion that many people have about people of other different nationalities and a way to break dominance is through teaching our students to break the chain of dominance and shift our flow to inclusion and equity
Essence Extractor
Dominance is apparent in the hegemonic groups and it is easier to be ignorant about our dominances, but as teachers we need to chisel away at the dynamics of dominance in order to create a generation of more equitable students.
Zach - your "Essence Extractor" really makes one think... with so few words, it still clicks the "ah ha" lightbulb that so many teachers, and even people, these days are lacking. I agree with it in some ways but in other ways I think that sometimes whites are still viewed as the "dominate" race, but recent studies have shown that the "white race" is slowly but surely becoming extinct or of the non dominant group. I feel like even though Howard didn't mention "White dominance" that there is no question, that is what he was he was speaking about. I think that in general everyone needs to be viewed as equals America is full of many races, cultures, ethnicity, religions etc. and in my mind there the idea of there being a dominant race is slowly diminishing.
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