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.
Monday, February 27, 2012
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.
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Jon,
ReplyDeleteYou state that many people look at skin color and don't try to define people's identity. I wonder, though, or may be hope, that people might not always be looking at skin color at all or defining people by ethnicity. Maybe we go through our day and acknowledge friendly people, or what people are doing, but I hope that for many people we are not judging or defining anything by looks alone. Ethnicity is a personal thing, and is something that should eventually get discussed, but not as you pass someone on the street. I realize it is difficult not to have 'first impressions' about others, but I do hope that those impressions won't be based on race, though I'm not so naive to think that there aren't racist people who will.