Chapter Five

Scott Martin - Creative Connector: Chpt. 5

“… race itself is a social construct, a learned category. Its meaning is communicated through interaction with our own and other racial groups”. (p. 89)

We as teachers, have a seemingly insurmountable task ahead of us. To first find our own openness to racial understanding and acceptance, then to take these ideals of change and to begin to show the students that we influence so heavily. Yet, it doesn’t stop right there. These students come from their own racial groups, surrounded by their own social constructs. What they have learned before they walk through the door of our classroom. That seems to me to be the hardest and most daunting task at hand.

Yes, I may, according to Howard, find my own understanding of my White Identity and openness to other racial groups, but, how do I even begin to show that ability and understanding to those that haven’t arrived at this level of understanding. How do I go about influencing and opening lines of communication with those students and families that have spent years creating their own perceptions of what “otherness” means to them? Many, given the chance and opportunity, I believe, will be more than willing to extend acceptance to others. But, there will always be those few that just can’t comprehend that acceptance, that is the scary fact.

“Whites, for the most part, are not accustomed to seeing ourselves as racial beings”. (p. 89)

I found this an interesting topic, it sparked numerous thoughts within my mind. Basically, for me, I found it like looking at the topic from another perspective, from a different angle. I began to think about the fact that I never had to explain myself, to defend who I was, where I came from, and what I was to become. I didn’t have to come to grips with the past, other than ideals describe in earlier posts about my Irish heritage, but again, I was never part of the struggles of the Irish immigrants. The question comes to my mind though, what is it like to actually see yourself having race? What is it like to have to know that you are a “racial being”? Finally, what is it like to wake up and know you had absolutely no control over being given that stigma?

“The pseudo-independence stage begins when we acknowledge White responsibility for racism and confront the fact that White people have intentionally or unintentionally benefited from it”. (p. 96)

Again, this is one of those comments that a bit difficult to read. One the initial reading, it was again like Howard was “slapping Whites on the wrist”. Another scolding for being White, piling on the guilt once again. Responsibility for everything, racism is all your fault. When I read it again and in the context of the developmental stages, I began to understand that it is more of a guilt by association, that in fact goes both ways. I am guilty because of centuries of white dominance, and the other racial groups are guilty for being born what they are as well. Whites, without a doubt, have benefited for centuries because of their skin color, and I am sure I have as well in some manner.

Scott Martin - Essence Extractor: Chpt 5

Chapter five shows the process and/or hierarchy of the way one would discover first their own racial identity before moving into acceptance with other racial groups. Most of this chapter deals with Howard’s description of Helms and Piper’s stages of identity development. It is broken into six stages covering two phases. This ideal of identity development gives a mapped out psychological if not scientific “roadmap” to one’s understanding of their racial identity.

Chapter 5

“…any comprehensive theory of white racial identity must explore the following three developmental tasks:

1. Acknowledging the reality of white racism in its individual institutional, and cultural manifestations
2. Abandoning racism and engaging in active resistance to its many forms.
3. Developing a positive, non-racist, and authentic connection to white racial and cultural identity. (howard, 92)

This was a very hard chapter for me to digest. After reading it several times this has to be one of the only steps of abolishing a power dynamic in our country. The chapter discusses how “whites” are inherently racist and then goes on to discuss the stages of racism that “whites” may go through in life. I don’t think that I have ever gone through any of these stages, nor do I think I will. I can understand how there are exceptions to the rule. Many people have many biases and a select few are in another universe i.e. Klu Klux Klan and the Black Panthers or Muslim/Christian extremists. I don’t feel that the average 23 or 24 year old reading this book has any of these feelings of inherent or blatant racism towards anybody. I guess that part of this lack of understanding for me is I feel that I don’t associate myself as “white,” I associate myself as Italian-Irish. I can tell you each of my friends’ ethnicity as well and what is unique about each culture, even specifically to their family. Understanding somebody goes beyond color of the skin.

I do realize that we need to understand and change the institutional and cultural manifestations that are present, but I do think that our country is well on its way to doing so. This change sincerely only started with the civil rights movement with new societal scapegoats emerging in different times and places.

The only thing that any one person can do is to stand up to bias and racism and take action against immoral displays and ideas. Hopefully our actions as teachers become contagious with our students and our colleagues.

Chapter 4

“Honesty, Empathy, Advocacy and Action”

The subheadings speak to teachers who are culturally accepting, and teachers who are agents for change. Not only do these four descriptive words mean so much, but can you imagine a world where everybody followed these morals?

Teachers need to be honest in recognizing the “dogmas of dominance” and realize that there in fact is dominance everywhere we are, even if we are blind to it.

Teachers need to be empathetic. We need to identify with everyone one of our students in our class, whether it is there strengths, difficulties or culture. We need to teach our students to be empathetic to each other and the struggles that we all go through. This will help our students in turn realize how alike everyone on this planet is and in turn they will become agents of change.

Teachers need to be advocates! If we are in the dominant culture we need to identify the problems that we are creating and educate our colleagues and other professionals so that they can change. “Through acts of advocacy we can begin to undermine some of the assumptions that have grown from centuries of dominance” (Howard, 82).

Action. Honesty, empathy, and advocacy mean absolutely nothing if there is no action taking place. Teachers need to put in place actions to make their classroom a safe-haven of positive learning experiences. In turn students will benefit from multicultural education and a more equitable pedagogy that tells all sides of the story.

These statements not only put in perspective parts of what it means to be a great teacher, but these descriptive statements, shed light on what it means to be part of a potentially great global community.

RIGOROUS RESEARCHER

Chapter four depicts the healing process for Gary Howard’s son after the loss of a friend. He uses great analogies to demonstrate how the Rio Grande is like America and is always changing. What really stuck with me is the pain that Benjie (Howards son) and how he dealt with his loss and the pain he was feeling. Although Benjie was an adult and was able to go on his own healing journey, I asked myself “what if one of my elementary school students had to deal with loss, or pain? How would I be able to help them deal with that?”

These are great resources for upper elementary school kids;

http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/griefwar.pdf

http://www.pbs.org/witheyesopen/griefk5.PDF

A great blog with picture books for younger students:

http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/helping-children-cope-with-death.html

Essence Extractor:

Being a good person is essential to be a good educator and agent of change. In order to have an impact on our students to be agents of change we must practice what we preach! We nee do be honest, empathetic, advocate for each other and take action!

Scott Martin - Creative Connector: Chpt. 4

“Honesty begins for Whites when we learn to question our own assumptions and acknowledge the limitations of our culturally conditioned perceptions of truth”. (p. 73)

To begin, I must say that this passage is giving me a bit of a mental struggle. I understand what Howard is stating in this work, that we have to find ourselves, and what our own issues are before we can move to become whole with the rest of the world… in a sense. What is bothering me is this. Chapter after chapter in this book, Howard has broken down historically, socially and even personally the struggles and dominance that “Whites” have shown on race relations in America.

My issue is as follows. Howard keeps stating that “Whites” need to construct their own identity, break it down then re-build a new identity. Yet, Howard insists that this is a human solution. Yet, when I read all of this text, it is starting to seem like another “white guilt” issue. He constantly states that the human race needs to become one in understanding and work together, but, it is starting to sound like another thing that “Whites” are responsible to solve.

How is the solution to racial inequality our job as whites? I am starting to believe that there needs to be a change in a human understanding from all “rivers”. Myself as white can do anything and everything to change who I am, but if the rest of the “playing field” can’t agree on the “rules” then what good is all of this?

“When White educators acknowledge both our insecurity and our privilege when dealing with issues of race, and when we begin to question the influence of the dominance paradigm in our work with students, we actually gain credibility with our colleagues and students from other racial and ethnic groups”. (p. 74)

Again, this is a tough passage for me. I am finding that, yes, you may do everything within your being to overcome centuries of discrimination and oppression, but what does that find in the end? What do you find in the end? Do you become a better “White” than all the rest? Are you now the benchmark that everyone else needs to strive for? Am I saying that we shouldn’t address these issues, NO! It just seems to me that with Howard’s statement above, you have found the “promise land” in the eyes of the “other” cultures. Yet, what does that change, just one man. Is not the problem at hand to change humanity, not to find personal victory?

Scott Martin - Essence Extractor: Chpt 4

Basically I need to quote outside of my belief of this chapter being a personal introspect for Howard.

“From the broad perspective being considered here, the multicultural education process engages us in at least five key arenas (again putting it into the term of a fight or a struggle), of learning:

1. To know who we are racially and culturally

2. To learn about and value cultures different from our own

3. To view social reality through the lens of multiple perspectives

4. To understand the history and dynamics of dominance

5. To nurture in ourselves and our students a passion for justice and the skills for social action”. (p. 85)

Scott Martin – Vocabulary Vitalizer: Chpt. 4

- Diversity: The state of being diverse.

- Havasupai:

- Dominance: Power and influence over others : the worldwide dominance of Hollywood.

• Genetics the phenomenon whereby, in an individual containing two allelic forms of a gene, one is expressed to the exclusion of the other.

• Ecology the predominance of one or more species in a plant (or animal) community.

- Honesty: the quality of being honest

- Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another

- Advocacy: public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy

- Action: the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim

- Privilege: a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people

- Educator: give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, esp. a child), typically at a school or university

Chapter 4 The Rivers of Change

Chapter 4

Creative Connector

Summary of a Passage from Chap 4: At the original sources, American was formed by the Native Americans, and then came the Europeans from different lands and cultures changing the face of America considerable. Then the people of Africa came.  Like The Colorado River, American never stops changing.  New streams are continuously forming bringing diverse religions, languages, cultures, tastes, styles and traditions.

This section reminded me a lot of my training in Art History.  My Undergraduate degree is in both art ed and art history and I spend a lot of time debating what I wanted to go into as a profession.  The majority of my Art History education has been from a Western perspective.  This perspective often misjudges and ignores the art of  non-western cultures.

During my study of American art I looked at the western representation of American at it’s founding.  The images were a direct and interesting representation of the above quote and show how there is a skewed and distorted perspective of the “other”.  I have included some of Europe’s image of early America under the category of idea illustrator.

Intellectual achievement does not necessarily confer to wisdom in a multicultural dimension.

I found this passage particularly interesting due to its play of the idea of intelligence and wisdom.  In my experiences in high school and college I meet and befriended many people who were incredible intelligent, several of my friends are enrolled in medical school, these people, however, do not exemplify my idea of wisdom, understanding and empathy. In my life I have seen a lot of variations of people but the most influential people in my life have been the wise, and empathetic humans that seek not to gain intelligence but advance understanding and compassion.

Idea Illustrator

The following images are were created during the founding of American by Western Artists hired to create images that encourage other colonist to come to American.  When looking at these images consider the representation of Native Americans and how their representation contrasts with that of the Colonists? What message is the artist seeking to convey?

Comment Piece:

From your perspective are these good, bad...uncertain?

Essence Extractor:

As a society we must learn to heal our own personal and cultural wounds.  In order to do so we pass through 4 phases, honesty, empathy, advocacy and action, only then can healing have resolution.

Noelle Stappenbeck Chapter 3 & 4

Creative Connector Ch. 3 & 4

“How to be anti-racist without being anti-white?” p. 30

This I find hard to understand in my own views. He is white! How can he be anti-white? It’s almost as if he is the one that wants to tear his own skin off or dye it darker complexion.

I haven’t really had any instances like this other then when I was in high school and college. I was a member of the softball team and I was going to college for physical education. There is a stigma/stereotype that all the members of the softball team are lesbians and then there is that same stigma for female physical education teachers. I am not a lesbian, but I am also not anti-gay. To me it is their own personal choice. I do have some friends that are gay and or bisexual although I do not really agree or believe in it I do think that in their defense some people can’t help who they love. So this does not completely correlate but this was the only connection I could make. I feel that what I was trying to say as that sometimes because of this stigma/stereotype at times I was afraid to admit that I was a member of both groups because I didn’t want people to automatically think that I was gay.

“I don’t understand all this talk about differences. Each of my little kindergarten students comes to me with the same stuff. It doesn’t matter whether they’re Black, Hispanic, or White, they each have a brain, a body, and a family. They each get the same curriculum. I treat them all alike. And yet, by the end of the year, and as I watch them move up through the grades, the Blacks and Hispanics fall behind and the White kids do better. They all start with the same basic equipment. What happens?”

In my own teaching experiences I have seen this as well. It can be looked at in a few ways. But the first thing I feel that the teacher needs to realize is her assumption that “they come with all the same stuff”. That’s not completely true, because the teacher has to realize that yes they all come with a brain, but that is about it. They don’t all come with a family or at least the type that she is thinking of, each child is different in their own ways and there are a lot of things that determine how they are different. Depending on their race, ethnic group, religion, their home/family life, all take part in who they are and how they are going to learn. I could continue to go on and on about this topic as I feel so strongly about the need for teachers to get to know their students.

“We are tempted to cry out “Enough! I know this story and I don’t want to hear it again.”

Sometimes/a lot of the time I feel like this. As whites we don’t have a “white history month” yes there are many holidays that whites celebrate that many other cultures don’t, but these are the same for other cultures too. I know these are controversial topics but as I see it sometimes the white race is the one that’s fading out and they are actually becoming the minority and the ones that are being discriminated as well. I just feel like everyone needs to come to a halt I feel like sometimes others are looking for a reason to say “well that’s because I am ____________” or “I did not get the job because I am a women, because I am black, because, because, because…really anything can be put into that blank. It is just so hard for society to look past all these things. I feel like attempts are being made to change things but some people are causing the issues to stay the way they are.

Essence Extractor Ch. 3 & 4

As educators we need be role models to try to erase all the stereotypes and help all students thrive and become adequate members of society. Work towards social transformation.

Idea Illustrator Ch. 3 & 4


Speaks for it self :)

Interesting…?! Right?!

I feel that this picture shows the melting pot idea of America and the idea of ‘teamwork” everyone working together striving for everyone to get along.

Chapter 3

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.