So, here's my story.
I was eating at an outdoor restaurant with a friend. A car pulled around the corner at incredible speed. The car was being followed very closely by another car. When they both stopped, the driver of the second car jumped out of his car with a baseball bat. He reached into the second car and hit one of the passengers with the bat.
My first thought was "What did those guys do to make him so angry?"
No, I did not say "Who hits people with a baseball bat?" Nor was it "Violence is not the answer." or any non-violent things that I would normally think (because I am all hands-across-America like that).
The first car was an expensive sport's car filled with young, white men.
The second car was a clunker with one brown driver, the same skin color as me.
So, here it is. Somewhere deep inside, if I see a conflict between people of different races, I assume it's the white person who is the aggressor. Kind of the opposite of the norm, but still not right.
I do know where this came from. Growing up, I went to three major schools that had very distinct racial breakdowns. From first grade to fourth grade, I went to a school that had a population that was basically half black and half white. From fourth to sixth grade I went to a school that was half Asian and half white. From seventh through high school, I went to a school that was half white and half Latino.
In that time I was bullied, my friends were bullied, and fellow students who weren't friends were bullied. If the bully and the bullied were of different races (as they often were), the bully was always white. Somehow, that planted the seed in me that all conflicts between races will have the white person as the bully.
What does that mean for me as a teacher? Alot. I have to be objective and see every conflict on its own. Will it make me think any differently if the conflict is between people of different races?
So, I work at a school that has a completely different race structure than the one I grew up in. I teach drama which has plenty of conflict, but really no bullying. So, if there is a conflict, it's probably not going to be racially based, but the situation may not always be this way.
There we go.
The bias you share is similar to an opposite bias that I’ve had in the past. I was the only white kid on a bus full of students coming up from southern NM for the one year that I went to public elementary school in southern NM. The bus was one of 4 busses that shuttled students up from a small town, of 500 people to schools 30 miles north in Deming, NM. The student’s on these busses were shuttled from a town across the border, Palomas, Mexico. That single year alone, I was jumped 3 times either waiting to get on, or off the boss. We both recognize that we need to be objective when observing conflicts, so that our past experiences don’t negatively influence how we react as those situations arise.
ReplyDeleteI don’t feel that it is my place to say that this is right or wrong. I believe that understanding our bias is important, especially as teachers. As teachers we need to have an environment in our classrooms that doesn’t allow our bias’s to affect our teaching or students. Biases do affect us for sure but if we are aware of the bias we have, we will hopefully be able to keep them at bay, and keep equality in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWow those were three schools with three different racial breakdowns. They each must have been very different experiences. It is interesting that you think feel in many cases that whites were aggressors of the bullying situations that you were in. For me in middle school, I felt the Mexican girls were the aggressors and that I didn't know what I did to incur their wrath. I think you have taken the first step to being aware of what your bias is and as teachers we need to be proactive to keep our bias from affecting how we treat our students. I think your work in drama is great forum to bring your students together on common ground.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the river of prejudicial thinking flows both ways. But really, in the situations that whites get the short end of the stick (and not to belittle Frank's experiences, because I've had plenty similar ones, myself), it seems a little like a case of "turnabout is fair play."
ReplyDeleteMinorities are going to be distrustful of the traditionally more-powerful oppressors because of the way they've been treated in the past. I'm not okaying any unfair treatment by anybody; I'm just saying that I think I can see where it comes from.