Constructing White Womanhood

A blog that I've been following for a while and that I encourage you all to check out is Collier Meyerson's carefreewhitegirl.com. She describes her blog as a "running critique of the ways in which popular imagery reinforces the deification of white womanhood." I think it's a fascinating and subversive look at how imagery (especially pervasive on sites like tumblr) can create tropes that we may not be able to name until they are pointed out to us. I thought it might fit well with the selection from Up Against Whiteness this week and our ongoing discussion of the White Savior trope. 

I think we all know the image of Carefree White Girl - she's always white, usually blonde, wearing a flowy dress, vaguely bohemian (but not too ethnic), and likes to pose in front of grimy buildings in Brooklyn, travel to Cambodia to connect to her selfless side, and wear a lot of vintage-looking clothes she bought at Urban Outfitters. She has a connection to poverty, nature, and the 'diversity' of the world. I won't speak for Collier, but I bet Carefree White Girl bought a Kony 2012 action kit. She likes 'awareness.'  

Most of the posts have an image or video featuring the Carefree White Girl with a satirical caption about the image, such as:

"Carefree White Girl asks travel mate to photograph her in front of a sudra. She’s going for the: “leave it up to the viewer whether or not I’m pondering poverty or the beauty of diversity.”

Meyerson's work is an ongoing project analyzing how the media views womanhood, white womanhood, and how this imagery creates ways for us to racialize ourselves and others.

A High School Student's Perspective on Trayvon Martin

One of my 11th grade students at Boston Latin School writes a sports blog, and he recently posted an entry about a photo of the Miami Heat all wearing hoodies as a sign of support for Martin and his family. From the post:

I found that photo to be incredibly moving. Upon realizing all the symbolism that the photo possesses, and reflecting upon the information I had gathered about Trayvon’s story, I felt a wave of emotion crash over me. I felt pity for Trayvon, and heartbroken for his friends and family. I felt angry at George Zimmerman (Trayvon’s killer) for taking an innocent life. In fact, angry cannot even begin to describe the emotions I felt towards that man. It was a white hot twinge of pain that no word could ever come close to accurately describing. I felt scared, because I am roughly the same age as Trayvon, just a mere seventeen years old. It could just have easily been me. President Obama must have felt similarly because he said that if he “had a son he would look like Trayvon…”. I felt despair because despite the great strides we have made towards freedom and equality for all people, a few knuckleheads like Zimmerman are perpetually attempting to erase them. I felt an eerie sense of deja vu. Yet another young, black life taken by violence. But, most importantly, I felt grateful to the Miami Heat for having both the ingenuity and the guts to pull off such a thought provoking, tear-jerking tribute.

His whole post is linked here (with his permission)

Edwidge Danticat connects the dots between detention centers and incarceration

A timely recent editorial by Haitian author and MacArthur Genius prize winner Edwidge Danticat

Advisory Program - Trust

OK - I'm completely new to the posting thing. I am not sure I am putting this in the right place, but here goes! Learn something new every day.

One standout from the "Up Against Whiteness", by Lee article was that so many Hmong students both "Traditional" and "Americanized" at UHS, felt so disconnected from faculty and staff. There was a chronic truancy problem, but the basis for students being late had many other layers to it.

I couldn't help but feel that if the school looked at the problem systematically they could create a more accepting and trusting environment for all students would possibly alleviate some of the truancy issues. Hence, leading to a better experience for the students.

This feels like a lofty aspiration, but even starting with an Advisory program, or small groups in which faculty and staff could get to know students better, would nurture a healthier environment.

Reading Race

This is an article that talks about fans' reactions to the Hunger Games release this weekend when they found out certain characters are black.  Whether you've read the books/seen the movie or not, the article gets at deeper issues of racism and how it comes into play with social media. While the article itself points out some disappointing truths, at least it is making people think about the issue of racism and how we read race into things. Thought it would be an interesting discussion since as teachers we all read with our students but the issue of characters' race seems to be generally left up to interpretation - for better or worse.

http://jezebel.com/5896408/racist-hunger-games-fans-dont-care-how-much-money-the-movie-made

Discussion questions for 3/29

In talking about the positive impacts of the CMP, Lee says, “Although this may seem commonplace, it was not uncommon to walk through the halls of this high school and look through the windows of classrooms to see teachers lecturing to students who were sleeping with heads on their desks or who were looking out the window or talking to other students” (116).  Can a single subject teacher alone change the mindset of a student who may not be on a positive trajectory?  To what extent does it take the entire school community? Does culture change in a school happen from top-down, bottom-up, or both?

After showcasing the higher order thinking skills in which students engage through the Cultural Modeling Project, on page 105 Lee notes that many of these students have traditionally performed poorly on standardized tests.  On page 119 Lee talks about Lisa Delplit’s research and the importance of teaching explicitly. Lee notes that the CMP strives to teach explicitly.  Do you see any examples of explicit instruction in the CMP?  How do you think explicit instruction changes the dynamic of the classroom, community, and conversations?  Is there a connection between explicit instruction and performance on standardized tests? 

Reinforcement of White Privilege

A different perspective on living life as an American:

One morning, not too long ago, I woke up with white privilege on my mind. It was the morning after a gathering of mostly white people at a friend’s house during which racist comments had been uttered, and I felt quite unsettled as I tried to sleep on my friend’s couch through the night. One person characterized a black woman we both knew as “talking like a white girl.” Another person told me, very matter-of-factly, that black people did not like dogs...



The rest of the article:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/trayvon-martin-and-white-privilege/

"Up Against Whiteness" discussion question

In "Up Against Whiteness", Lee compares and contrasts the relationship that second generation Hmong American and foreign-born Hmong students have with school. She describes their views towards each other and also examines why both feel inferior to their White peers.

On take-away question I have is what do we do to kids from other cultures when we stress classroom participation? If these these kids have internalized that their capital and experiences are worth less than those of their middle-class White peers, are we increasing their disadvantage when we punish them for not meeting the same expectations regarding classroom participation? If we as teachers could understand the reasons behind our students actions, maybe we would start to value them. By limiting some students' access to be be successful in school, aren't we helping to perpetuate social reproduction?

Between articles like Lee's and MacLeod's Ain't no Makin' It, I am becoming more convinced that much of social reproduction is caused by socio-economic and cultural misunderstandings and a lack of communication.

Decrease in diversity among teachers

Following up on the discussion we had in class on Thursday, here is the quote about why the diversity of classroom teachers is decreasing from Lisa Delpit's, Other People's Children: "Researchers have cited many reasons for the decline of minority participation in the teaching force-among them, the overall decline of the number of college-bound students from ethnic groups, the widening of professional opportunities for people of color, the increase of competency exams, the lack of prestige for teaching as a profession, low salaries, and the less then optimal working conditions" (2006, pp. 105-106)

A Mom's Advice To Her Young, Black Sons

A Mom's Advice To Her Young, Black Sons

In light of the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, Steve Inskeep speaks with writer Donna Britt and her sons Justin and Darrell Britt-Gibson about how she prepared them as young black men for a world that might view them with suspicion.

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/22/149126015/a-moms-advice-to-her-young-black-sons

Donna Brit spoke with her sons on NPR Thursday morning. After class on Thursday night, I was thinking about this broadcast a lot and the systemic changes that need to be made, so that more people are involved in this "talk," rather than just a mother and her black son. This is a very worthwhile read. The link above takes you to the transcript from the broadcast.

An unfinished conversation

Our class session on Thursday was a necessary start but insufficient conversation in our class about racialized experiences and locations in society. There is much, much, much to be discussed, deliberated, acted upon, reconsidered, and changed up. Who is afforded opportunities; who is not? How do circuits of opportunities and dispossession operate? Why in teacher education programs are we so focused on only the at-riskness of black and brown populations (see criticism of KONY 2012 for parallels) and largely silent on the challenge embedded in White middle and upper middle class teachers going into contexts which they may not know and perhaps even fear? How do we tackle knowing our own racialized identities and how they shape our work as educators? Who are allies in doing this work?

We will continue this conversation next week by breaking the black/white binary and considering how this process of racialization works across other populations.

Use this space to post up thoughts, comments, and relevant links.

Discussion Question for 3/22

Education and Profit

One of the tensions that came up in our class discussion about education and privatization is the goal of education is to help human beings develop to their fullest capacity, particularly in a stratified society. The central goal of a private company is to make profits. This creates, to differing degrees, tensions and contradictions in how priorities and decisions are made.

In this interview Yale Law Professor John Macey and fake news show host Jon Stewart have an accessible and spirited conversation about how private equity firms operate and how laws and policies support profit making as that central goal. As you watch this, consider that there are billions of dollars to be made, and being made, by corporate involvement in education. From textbooks to school cafeteria food, there is lots of co-mingling of ties and obligations. There are three parts to this interview, and lots of interesting moments in all three, particularly in a mainstream mediascape that rarely values engaged discourse.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-31-2012/exclusive---jonathan-macey-extended-interview-pt--1

Confessions of a "bad teacher"

Great article (or at least I think it's great) that gets to the heart of the some of the frustrations around the seemingly ambiguous nature of value-added assessment. Any thoughts?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/opinion/sunday/confessions-of-a-bad-teacher.html?pagewanted=all

Collaborative Planning in an era of high stakes teacher assessment