Journal – Week 1

After reading the articles assigned, I realized that what the authors had stated about race and “privilege” is absolutely true and apparent in all society. In McIntosh’s “White Privilege”, she states that white people grow up learning about racism and how it is supposedly geared primarily towards people of color.  That is what a lot of people believe about racism: it only affects non-whites.  However, white is also a race.  Just like the author states that men have a “natural” privilege over women, so do whites over non-whites, especially in a place such as the United States. 

As a white girl growing up in the South, it does not seem very apparent that this is so.  Around me there were other people of color in the same classroom as me, sitting with me at the lunch table and playing with me during recess.  Nothing seemed strange.  But after reading about Type 1 teachers and how they sometimes are “colorblind” and want to accept all children because underneath their skin they are all the same, they don’t realize that they still single out students.  Reflecting back on my primary school education and what went on in the classroom, this is very evident.  When I lived in the South, I remember some of my teachers paying particular attention to colored students in my class. To the classmates, we knew that the colored students were different, but so were we different from them.  We did not yet understand “white privilege” and therefore did not know that it was happening.  The teachers, all of them white, would take particular care to always use a colored student in a positive example during a lesson.  They had to make sure that they felt included. 

An example of those happenings in the classroom become more evident in other events in life.  Just how the author gives examples of race not effecting being pulled over by a cop, being granted a job/promotion, etc. it is evident that we all are judgmental in some way whether we realize it or not.  Stereotypes exist for every culture and unfortunately, that follows people around in situations.  White people have stereotypes as do blacks, Asians, etc.  When it comes to conversing or being interactive with a person of another race, it is hard to be completely neutral.  This is not necessarily negative or one person’s fault but rather an example of how different cultures are viewed in general.   

As a teacher, it is easier to be best steeped in your own culture and be comfortable with it when teaching students.  A teacher that is comfortable with their own ethnicity is better equipped to handle a classroom full of students from different backgrounds.  In a way, it enables them to be more open to other cultures and to be able to communicate better.  During class, it should not be evident that the teacher is uncomfortable with students of varying backgrounds because it then gets in the way of the students’ learning and understanding and should not be the main focus. We live in a culturally rich world and it is important that individuals at least be acquainted with their culture in order to appreciate the culture of others.