Chapters 1-3

            In what I’ve read so far there has been a significant theme: white dominance is a “highly selective poison that continually steals the lifeblood from those people who have not been marked with the genetic code of whiteness” (19). Racism is perpetuated through ignorance, dominance, and privilege, and because of those things whether we realize it or not, being white has given us opportunities that we have taken advantage of that other people haven’t had just because of skin color. Being white is like carrying around an invisible knapsack of things we can cash in every day. These things range from big social injustices to small things as well, like when getting band-aids not having to worry about them matching our skin color. This also comes down to how students are affected educationally. At one point Howard talks about a kindergarten teacher who couldn’t understand why some racial students fall behind because they all come with the same “equipment”. However that’s not the case, all students may have the same physical equipment but white children don’t have to deal with the discrimination of society. They are at a huge advantage that has come because they are white. For instance, Native American children were removed from their families, placed in boarding schools, given western haircuts, and punished for anything they did that was traditional. “An attempt to ‘bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility’” (pg. 46) was how their treatment was described. Later Howard says “The stated intention of the policy was to ‘kill the Indian…and save the man” (pg. 46). White kids don’t have to deal with any of that discrimination, or anything close for that matter. So how do we as white educators, get past the students’ mentality that we, as white people, are the cause of their disadvantage? Unfortunately the answer is we can’t. As white people we can’t rightly ask them to let go of all the discrimination that we have put them through and expect them to just let it go.

            Even though we have a history of discriminating and obliterating other cultures and minority groups we cannot simply face these issues and move past them. If we do that we will be plagued with guilt and only be left feeling worse about the situation. “If we do not face dominance, we may be predisposed to perpetuate it” (pg. 30).The solution is that as educators we can no longer ignore the cycle of racism that’s taking place. We can no longer feel uncomfortable facing these issues in light of the fact that we may be the only white person among our students. To be a good educator you not only have to face the bias, strive for change, realize privilege, and move on from it but you also need to accept that as a white person you have a culture and it too, is important to you and who you are much like it will be for your students.

            In my aiding placement I have many students who are first or second generation immigrants, whose culture is extremely different from mine. I don’t try to ignore what’s happened in the past; however it’s not as if I celebrate it either. If something ever comes up in a lesson or in a question, I address it as a teaching opportunity. That’s one of the things I love about history, it gives us a guide of “do’s” and “do not’s” from our past. Just today I mentioned something about slavery and how African American’s culture thrived in the south. They clung to their culture because while being enslaved it was something they had during a time where they barely had anything. It was something that couldn’t be taken away by their white slave masters. No I’m not proud that white people enslaved other races, but it happened, we learned from it, and now we can teach about it from an educational standpoint and address it.