Hello! I am a senior and I will be graduating with my Bachelor's in English in May. My minor is education and I am just starting the fast track Master's program. These are a few of the things I took away from this week's readings.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack
I had actually just read this essay last semester in my Women & Psychology class. I found it to be kind of shocking going through her list and realizing all these things I've been taking for granted. She wrote: "My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make." This is true, and it's something I NEVER think about. It's also interesting looking at how these "privileges" confer dominance over other races. I don't look at it like this. It's almost like if I pretend not to see it, it's not there. The sad truth is that it is there.
Racial Formations
I had forgotten that way back in the day, people of different races were viewed as not human, but as another species or even animals. It's awful to think about. Talking about the terminology connected well with the pages read in Affirming Diversity; saying things we don't mean to say or things we don't realize we are saying. Stereotyping is a huge problem when it comes to race, and unfortunately they are a large part of how we make racial formations for ourselves. We decide, or learn from others around us, how certain races should act or the certain things they should say. I'm guilty; I do this all the time. I don't mean it to be a negative thing, though. But it just goes to show how easy it is to do or say something so simple that could have lasting effects on someone else.
Affirming Diversity Chapter 1 Defining Terminology (9-18)
The reading brought up some good points. As teachers, we need to watch what we say, and how we say it to our students. One wrong word could send a student the wrong message and grave danger could follow. It almost makes me nervous because I feel like it is going to be so easy to say the wrong thing to a student and then not even realize what it has done to them.
