Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, but I found that
chapter 5 was particularly interesting to read. This chapter is called “Student
Voices on Race.” I thought it was an important chapter to have in the book
because it ties a lot of the concepts together and brings the issue of race
full circle. I suppose that I never thought twice about it but people of a
minority can also be racist. Being a white person, I just assumed that any time
race or racism is brought up it is white people being racist to a minority
group. This chapter points out that minority groups can be racist towards one
another and that minorities can also be can also be racist to their own race.
Based on the book, it seemed that many of the minorities
were actually speaking poorly of one another. African American students felt
that the Asian Americans were climbing over them and becoming more successful
than them faster (pg. 107). Korean students felt that African Americans were
lazy and depended on the welfare system to survive. One student even mentions
that they would share a drink with a white friend but not with a black person because
“we might think they have AIDS or something.” (pg. 109). It was surprising to
me that in these examples minorities were so hard and critical of one another
and generally had positive things to say about whites. Many students even went
so far to say that they wanted to emulate white middle-class students. I wouldn’t
expect all minority students to band together and say “let’s take down the
whites!” but I did think that they would be a little more understanding toward
another minority.
From the book it seems that different races are always going
to make generalizations about other races. For example, the book states that
African American students used the terms “Asian, Chinese and Korean”
interchangeably. I think it would be a safe assumption that Asian students (or
others for that matter) would not know how to categorize African Americans
properly. A student would not be able to tell if someone grew up in Trinidad,
South Africa, or down the street. I know that I cannot look at any group of
people and be able to tell their exact race or ethnicity by appearance. Maybe I’m
bad at making judgments but French-Canadian, Irish and English, etc. generally
look the same to me, so I don’t mean to offend you by calling you Irish if you’re
really not. I doubt that a person who did not know my ethnic background would
be able to look at me and pinpoint exactly what ethnicities I am and where my
ancestors came from; I would not expect anyone to.
My question would be how do we overcome this? Can we
overcome this? Is there any way that people can stop making generalizations
about other groups of people?
It sure is odd that minorities are racist to each other or even to others in their own race. You would think they would realize how they are affected by racism and therefore not perpetrate it on others. So odd! It really shows just how stupid racism is. My fear though is that the anti-racist groups go too far, attacking any generalization at all. News flash! Generalizations aren't made out of thin air! Without generalizations, the world wouldn't make sense and people would simply never move forward or understand anything. There has to be a happy medium. Generalizations are healthy and key to survival and any thinking person should know the line to where they are not acceptable (i.e. all blacks are blank, all whites are blank, etc). Without generalizations, attractive girls would be walking down inner city allies in the Bronx at 2am, expecting no danger to come. If I put my hand on a stove and burn myself ten times, what do I expect to happen the eleventh time? Do I not generalize here? Food for thought, great post with thoughtful questions!
ReplyDeleteKate,
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way - about the racism among groups and the many labels we could, effectively, be putting on groups from every possible country. Where do we stop? I don't want to be insensitive, and it is important to be proud of and let people know where you are from, but no person should take it as a personal affront to be generalized into one group either. As I was reading Chapter 5, I was wishing that this information could somehow have been updated to reflect if students today felt any differently within any of these groups or if results would be the same as when her research was done twenty years ago. I am hoping that this country and this world, albeit slowly, are gaining ground in our views toward seeing all people as worthy of being treated without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. and comparisons in research studies might be able to show this.
Kim brings up a great point about student racism. Its fascinating to see that not only are many majority populations racist, but minorities can also be identified as racist. It’s also important to identify that students of a young age who shouldn’t be learning about the hardships of race and racism, are experiencing it firsthand. Also seems as if this becomes a divide and conquer type atmosphere where students see each other’s differences as reason to hate, push away, and be separate from. This creates no learning atmosphere at all and these students’s will not benefit from it. This book truly identifies that some races see others as an opponent in a race. However, not every race is playing fair. More often than not one race sees an opposing race cheating in a race of success. For instance your point about African Americans saying that’s Asian American students are climbing over them, or passing them to succeed. Instead of embracing diversity student racism creates a non learning environment. Sadly, this is a real issue we all might have to face in the classroom.
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