A Classroom Example of Discussion Around Race

Submitted by rlynnglembin on 21 April 2010 - 4:02pm

In my English class this term, we start off reading a nonfiction article about various topics. These articles offer an opportunity for students to read, reflect and discuss various issues. The articles are compiled by author and educator Kelly Gallagher and they cover various current hot topics and they are not too lengthy (articleofthe week.com). They vary in tone and content. For example, yesterday's article was about cell phone etiquette.
Today's article was from CNN and it was about a 11-year old boy who shot and killed his pregnant step-mother while she slept. The questions we asked about this article were: When is a perosn old enough to know right from wrong; when is a person old enough to think about the consequences of his/her actions; what is the purpose of the criminal justice system; should a minor be charged as an adult for a crime such as this?
A lively and thoughtful discussion ensued. But then, one question was asked that I did not expect to be asked: What is the kid's race?
Almost immmediately another student answered: he was white.
I asked this student: where does it say that?
The student replied by quoting the article: It says he was an "All-American boy."
Why, I asked him, does that mean he is white? There are many other colors of people in America.
The boy, almost eighteen years old and of Mexican descent, looked at me and shook his head.
He said, Miss, they don't never talk about no black or Mexican kid like he is an All American Boy.
Out of the mouths of babes.

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Submitted by kittstl on 23 April 2010 - 1:59pm.

 
What this says to me is that whether we adults want to recognize issues of race or not, our students are more astute about these issues than we often give them credit for. They often "see" things we do not, or maybe I just don't have to "see" as a white person, unless I choose. There is a poem by alice walker that I love titled "patriot". She talks about loving america by loving the man wearing the turban and the one with the braid and eagle feather and I love it because it conjures images that are not the image society has produced of the "all-american" yet they are images of america nonetheless.
And if all of our students are America, then I am brought to the question brought up at our last diversity session about who gets included/reflected in the curriculum and whether staff is willing to commit to a multicultural curriculum in all subject areas? And how we go beyond Black History Month, which we didn't even really do in a surfacy way, to infusing multiculturalism and anti-bias curriculum throughout the school.
 
 

There was an article in

Submitted by mudgetdm on 27 April 2010 - 11:26am.

There was an article in yesterdays Journal (www.jsonline.com) about a boy that, a a juvenile, murdered his adoptive family. The now adult man is white. It would be interesting to have the kids read that artilce as a follow-up since how he lived his life afterward may not be percieved by the kids as typical "white" behavior. i wonder what they would think.
It is interesting how kids see themselves as "all American" or not. Do they identify as being American? If not, I wonder where that influence comes from? Have we as teachers somehow perpetuated that? If so, how do we fix that?

don't be silent

Submitted by alli d on 22 July 2010 - 12:41pm.

How sad. Hope you told them that the only All American boy would be our indigenious people and he, as a student of Mexican heritage, he is closer to being an All American boy than a child of European heritage.
And out of the mouth of babes .... comes the majority of intelligent thought. "They" are my teachers.