Journal No. 4

Mary Waters's article, "The Intersection of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Identity Development of Caribbean American Teens", raises a few interesting points. On page 65, Waters talks about the time in an adolescent's life when he or she chooses their "desired self", which essentially means they choose what race or culture to associate themselves with. It made me think of a certain well-known figure. Professional golfer Tiger Woods is often praised for breaking grounds as a black man in a predominantly white sport. However, not everyone knows that Tiger Woods's mother, Kultida, is of Asian descent. Despite this fact, most people (including Tiger himself) seem to designate him as just African-American. There is rarely a mention of Tiger's Asian ethnicity even though it is a big part of where he comes from. I can't speak to whether Tiger identifies himself as black, Asian, or even bicultural. What I can say is that many people tend to only look at the color of one's skin when they try to define someone else's identity. People normally don't take the time to talk to others to see where they come from or how they define themselves. 

Another part of Waters's article that jumped out to me is located on page 68. Waters talks about going to an inner-city high school and asking a research assistant to tag along with her. The research assistant was black, played on the Harvard University football team, and grew up in New York City. He essentially helped Waters "break the ice" with many of the students and assured them that it was alright to talk to her (being an older, white woman probably gave her an intimidating presence). This story made me a bit nervous. I've been looking at jobs in inner-city neighborhoods and I've always wondered how receptive the students might be in these schools. I think that it would help that I'm relatively close to their age; they might feel more of a connection with someone closer to their age group. But being white in a  predominantly black / Hispanic / Asian population could present a similar problem that Waters faced. Some of the students might be skeptical and not want to open up to me even though I am their teacher. Ideally, I would be able to connect with each of my students as soon as I walk into the classroom. That is not how it works, unfortunately. We as teachers need to forge a connection between ourselves and our students no matter the racial or cultural barriers that may exist. 

Journal No. 3

As Stacy Lee points out in her book, Unraveling the "Model Minority" Stereotype, the race issue in the United States is mostly limited to the argument of "black versus white". All that's really talked about in our history books are the issues of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights Movement, all of which pertain to African-Americans. We rarely hear about the hardships that Asian-Americans have faced in the United States, such as being placed in internment camps during World War II. Lee attempts to shift the public discourse from "black versus white" to include the plight of Asian-Americans.

One of the things that really surprised me after reading Lee's book is the number of subcategories that Asian-Americans identify themselves as. Lee mentions four major groups: Asian, Asian-American, Korean, and Asian new wave. I'm sure there are other categories that Asian-Americans can classify themselves as (i.e. Japanese-Americans), but these four are the ones that Lee focuses on. I've never really considered that Asian-Americans would group themselves into smaller categories. I categorize them as Asian-Americans, which is extremely ignorant on my part. Perhaps that's because I only consider myself to be white. Or maybe it's because I was born in the United States. I only talk about my heritage when I'm asked about it (such as when we did the ice-breaker in class a few weeks ago). I don't consider myself Irish-American. I don't consider myself Italian-American. I consider myself to be a white citizen of the United States. Maybe from now on I'll start talking about my heritage spontaneously instead of being prompted to do so.

The most surprising thing to me after reading the book was how Korean-identified students viewed themselves compared to other Asian-Americans. Lee said that Korean students were different from other Asian students in a variety of ways: their socioeconomic status, their ability to speak the English language, and even where they lived. What was even more surprising was that many Korean-identified students seemed to think of themselves as "superior" to other students of Asian descent. One Korean student said "other Asians all seem to dress, act, and look alike" and that she couldn't tell the difference between them. One even went as far as to say that she finds other Asian students "hideous" and that she doesn't enjoy talking or interacting with them. It shocked me to hear that there was a superiority complex with some Korean students. I would have thought that those who have gone through the immigration process would have something in common with other Asian students. It appears that this isn't the case and that there is some internal racism within the Asian-American community.

Journal No. 2

On Sunday morning, the only thing that was on my mind was the Super Bowl. As soon as I woke up, I started to watch the pregame coverage on the various networks that were covering the game. One of the more interesting pieces that I came across was about the punter of the New England Patriots, Zoltan Mesko. He talked about how he was born in Romania, a war-torn country located in Europe. He recalled being with his mother and father in the family apartment, hugging the ground as bullets flew through the walls during the Romanian Revolution. Zoltan’s father ultimately applied for a green card and he and his family came to the United States in 1997. He spoke of how he had pre-conceived notions about America from movies like “Rambo” and how it was a bit of a culture shock for him coming to the US.

I couldn’t help but admire the symmetry between Zoltan’s story and Children of Immigration. Carola and Marcelo Suarez-Orozco share stories of people coming to the United States and the variety of reasons that they do so. There are those who come based on social, economic, or cultural reasons (referred to as “immigrants” by the authors), and there are those who are coming to the US simply to escape the dangers present in their native countries (referred to as “asylum seekers” or “refugees”). Zoltan and his family obviously fit into the latter of the two categories. His parents wanted a better life for the family, so they made a difficult decision: to leave the only place they knew in hopes for something more.

Hearing Zoltan’s story, it made me think of why I want to become a teacher. I want to be able to make an impact in the lives of each of the kids that I teach, no matter how unrealistic that may seem. Someone obviously had a tremendous impact on life. It may have been his parents. It may have been a teacher. It may have been a coach. Whoever it may have been, someone was there to help him adjust to life in a new country and assimilate him into American culture. 

We as educators, however, need to be conscious of the various cultures that make up each of our classrooms. This rings particularly true with those who have immigrated to the United States, like Zoltan. As pointed out in Children of Immigration, those who immigrate are stripped of “community ties, jobs, customs, and (often) language.” They are also sometimes separated from family members and are deprived of “the social roles that provide them with the culturally scripted notions of how they fit into the world.” (p. 70) We need to be mindful and accepting of all cultures and beliefs that our students have in order to create a more comfortable learning environment. This will reduce the anxiety that a student might have about being in a mainstream US classroom and, in turn, will enable the students to retain information and get the most out of the lesson.


Here is the link to the interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj-2msI1DIs