Some of you may find this of transitory interest. I began my teaching career as an eager young(er) man with a purpose. Science had always interested me and I felt that as a teacher, I could share this interest with young people and teach them some cool stuff about the natural world. But as I got deeper and deeper into the subject matter, well the following quotes from Carl Sagan say it better than I:
--the more I taught, the more I wanted to learn. And it felt really good. So deeper I went into matters of the history of life on Earth, and how we have defied probability in simply existing...
--Ok Carl, this is getting a little intense. And kind of depressing. Am I better off knowing all this?
--So that's it. In order to make any sense of this, we should do what we can with the incredibly short amount of time that we have to deal more kindly with one another.
So I came to grips with all of this.
Vonnegut said, "we are here on EArth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different". So, as I've been farting around, I've really tried to be a decent and moral person. I've tried to be a good teacher and role model. I've tried to show patience, and flexibility, and empathy toward my students. Then I get this slap in the face right out of the gate from the first reading of my first graduate course. From page vii of the introduction to Privilege, Power, and Difference written by Allan G. Johnson, "We all know that a great deal of trouble surrounds issues of difference in this society, trouble relating to gender and race, sexual orienatation, ethnicity, social class," and "All of us are part of the problem."
I was taken aback and kind of angry. But I trudged on to hear what he had to say.
I think Johnson knew he might get this response out of me, because he spent the entire three chapters explaining how as a white, heterosexual, middle class male, that I was part of the problem. And it worked. What I was blissfully ignorant of prior to this reading, I'm now committed to examining and to working towards a solution to the problem. If it's anything like Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, I'm in for a real awakening. But excited for it.
I know the first three chapters are just part of a book that I assume in later chapters lays out some solutions, but I think just defining and acknowledging the problem, and using proper language is the beginning.
I felt reassured when at the beginning of chater 3, Johnson writes, "The trouble is rooted in a legacy we all inherited, and while we're here, it belongs to us. It isn't our fault. It wasn't caused by something we did or didn't do. But now that it's ours, it's up to us to decide how we're going to deal with it before we collectively pass it along to the generations that will follow ours." I think that even though I have never really considered the privileges I clearly have, it's not too late for me to work on making th e situation better for the next generation.
Johnson goes on to write (page 36), "...privilege doesn't dreive from who we are or what we've done. It is a social arrangemnt that depends on which category we happen to be sorted into by other people and how they treat us as a result." Ok, so he's not saying every individual "WHMCM" (as a teen might text) is necessarily guilty, but that "privilege is more about social categories than who people are." This just furthered my buy in. Nonetheless, "privilege itself still exists as a fact of social life" (p39).
I watched a good Ted Talk by Richard Wilkinson called "How Economic Inequity Harms Societies" . In it he explains that those countries with the greatest difference in income between the richest 20% and the poorest 20% have the worst gaps in health and social issues (including imprisonment, trust, obesity, life expectancy, math and literacy, and social mobility). These steep social gradients cause general social dysfunction because people think about the inequality in their daily lives. IN fact tests were carried out by Dickerson and Kinney ("Acute stressors and cortisol responses", Psychological Bulletin, 2004 vol 130) who found that test subjects exposed to threats to self esteem and social status when performing certain tasks, had significantly higheer levels of cortisol (a hormone released during times of stress) in their blood than others that did not experience those threats (stress has been linked to chronic health issues such as cardiovascular disease. *another study suggests a link between racial discrimiation, stress and health).
The US has the second highest income gap behing Singapore. And incidentally, those countries with greater disribution of wealth (Japan, Sweden) had far fewer problems regarding health and social issues...
Johnson writes on page 24, "the ease of not being aware of privilege is an aspect of privilege itself, what some call 'the luxury of obliviousness'". After reading Johnson, I'm no longer oblivious to privilege and I don't think I can ever go back to simply "farting around".
GK
I can understand your anger at the beginning of the reading and I felt anger too. My husband, Joe, is a great guy who took on “dad” for my daughter when she needed it so desperately. Joe works hard and raised two kids of his own, quite successfully. So, when I started reading the introduction I thought, not Joe. Johnson cannot be talking about Joe. However, I can now understand how he was trying to raise our consciousness to something as basic as being born into the "WHMCM" privilege. Something I subconsciously have thought about at times but never really discussed at this level.
ReplyDeleteThere were many times while reading this text where I actually stopped and just thought about the line or phrase or paragraph I had just read. It took me a long time to read it because I paused so often and thought about what I can do to raise consciousness. Christine wrote on my blog that she shared this “only one person” sentiment. I agree with her that in my classroom (like hers) I will do what I can “to help influence the thoughts and actions of students”. I guess we are lucky that as teachers we really can be part of the change that needs to happen : )
Interesting point of view! I appreciated that you wrote about your initial honest reaction. It reminded me of when I was first presented with these ideas.
ReplyDeleteI went to Umass-Amherst ('09) and the issues of white male privilege had been brought to me by several friends who were involved with the social justice program there. I recall at the time I was irritated and didn't want to hear what they had to say. Plus, they weren't as exacting in the importance of their argument as Johnson was, and far less humble and aware of the potential offensiveness.
I was outraged and ignored their ideas at the time. However, as I've worked the past three years, I've seen the obvious disparity and have started to understand what they were trying to talking about. The Johnson article was much more logical and was able to put the argument into easier terms to swallow.
I enjoyed the video about disparity - good connection!
Great video Geoff. The math teacher in me truly appreciates how Richard Wilkinson presented the data in multiple ways to show how inconclusive data can appear. That being said, I thought his argument was very conclusive and insightful.
ReplyDeleteYou said it, "ignorance was bliss," and now I find myself googling "usa income gap and education" for more information. It's another ball of wax all together to bring college completion into the mix, but the following chart shows college completion rates with respect to both 8th grade standardized test scores and income status.
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Education-Chart.jpg
Vulnerability is hard. Especially when you have to write about it in your first week of your first grad class. Kudos for that. I learned a lot from this post -- Sagan, a Ted Talk I haven't seen, stress and cortisol... and you got your peers posting good stuff too. Looking forward to discussing this on Tuesday!
ReplyDelete"The trouble is rooted in a legacy we all inherited, and while we're here, it belongs to us. It isn't our fault. It wasn't caused by something we did or didn't do. But now that it's ours, it's up to us to decide how we're going to deal with it before we collectively pass it along to the generations that will follow ours."
ReplyDeleteI’m ashamed to say that upon initially reading this quote a felt a brief sense of relief, because I felt that if this legacy was inherited and “not our fault”, then it wasn’t my responsibility to become a part of the solution. How close minded and naïve of me to feel that way!
As Jim and Madonna point out in their blogs, I feel that society has come a long way since this piece was published, but there is no way we can sit back and feel that we “have arrived” as a society to a point where these conversations are no longer necessary or that these are topics that no longer require our focused attention. Additionally, as I was reflecting on this reading, I noticed that we (our cohort group) all fall into at least one of the categories Johnson considers to be ‘privileged’. I wonder if our group had more attributes that Johnson would not consider privileged if others would feel the same way about how far we have come as a society…
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ReplyDeleteBill Cosby has this to say in regards to race and the relationship between Whites and Blacks:
ReplyDeleteThey're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.
I can't even talk the way these people talk:
"Why you ain't,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be...".
And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.
And then I heard the father talk.
Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.
People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an Education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.
The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.
These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids.
$500 sneakers for what?
And they won't spend $200 for "Hooked on Phonics."
I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.
Where were you when he was 2?
Where were you when he was 12?
Where were you when he was 18, and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol?
And where is the father? Or who is his father?
People putting their clothes on backward. Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?
People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something?
Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles (piercings) going through her body?
What part of Africa did this come from?
We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa.
I say this all of the time — it would be like white people saying they are European-American — that is totally stupid.
I was born here, and so were my parents and grand parents and, very likely my great grandparents. I don't have any connection to Africa, no more than white Americans have to Germany, Scotland, England, Ireland, or the Netherlands.
The same applies to 99 percent of all the black Americans as regards to Africa — so stop, already!
With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap...and all of them are in jail.
Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.
We have got to take the neighborhood back.
People used to be ashamed.
Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' — or men or whatever you call them now.
We have millionaire football players who cannot read.
We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We, as black folks, have to do a better job.
Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.
We have to start holding each other to a higher standard....
+++++++
WELL SAID, BILL!
It's NOT about color...It's about behavior!
As a math teacher I can certainly appreciate that video! As far as your response I agree what you said about defining the problems so that solutions can arise. I for one was also ignorant to many of these issues. In the future, I will try my best to use what I read in the classroom and make appropriate decisions on how to talk with students.
ReplyDelete