What are some of the major points Chideya makes about people of mixed race? What did you learn from this chapter about what it might feel like to be of mixed race? What ideas did this chapter give you about how we might best support students of mixed race?
Chideya does a good job of considering both sides of the mixed race situation. In the first part she talks about how some people get upset that there is no "mixed" category on census surveys. For them it an issue of recognizing and legitimacy of (an ever increasing number of) people who have multiple racial backgrounds. On the other hand, people who have been down this road before -specifically those in South Africa -maintain that giving people labels forces them into a niche which can result in stereotyping and racism.
ReplyDeleteAs far as how to treat a student of mixed race, I will treat them the way I treat all my students. It's not like you can always tell, as the author points out, what race someone belongs to anyway. I have been called anything from a Mexican to half-Black to Arabic. What is so hard about treating all students the same?
Chideya points out that people don't necessarily identify themselves as just one race in most cases. People are claiming their heritage more than ever. Marking mixed on a census survey could be considered discrimination if people are of more than one racial background. People all have different ways of identifying themselves, and it is often difficult to fit into one category as Camille Maston's story shows the reader. She grew up with a white father and a black mother, but she considers herself black after her upbringing.
ReplyDeleteI would let my biracial students find themselves. I would treat each student the same as far as race is concerned. It's like Lee said, you can't always tell what race someone belongs to these days, and there is no reason to discriminate based on racial background.
I agree with Lee in his statement of treating all of your students equally. You never know what ethnicity or race someone is or would like to claim they are. However, if a student shares they are biracial it is important to be supportive of their decision. Like the parents of Nicole Brown, we too should be supportive and make sure other students understand their is nothing wrong with someone who is biracial. If someone does have a problem with it than it is THEIR problem.
ReplyDeleteChideya does a good job showing several different perspectives of what it's like to be a person of mixed race. Some people would rather claim just one race while others are pushing to be able to check off several races or just one category listing them as "multiracial." It is understandable how this entire argument could lead to some people of a mixed background to feel as though they do not belong since they do not fit into this cookie cutter mild that has been around for years and years.
I found it to be very interesting and educational when Chideya interviewed the people from South Africa and what their views were about adding more options for race. Although they were relatively young, they all made great points. My favorite was that there should be no race. This identification people have for one another simply based on looks is "barbaric" and should no longer exist if all people are to be treated as equals.
I liked the idea of no race, because if we are not "categorized" then we are all on an equal playing field. I mean, we are all people. But a lot of people are proud of their heritage and race, it is how they identify who they are, so I don't think that it is very likely that will happen in the United States.
ReplyDeleteI am going to treat all kids the same in my classroom, no matter what their race. I also think that art is a great way to study all sorts of cultures and races, and expose the students to different artists with different types of backgrounds.
I agree with Erin. When I was reading the chapter, I thought it would be amazing to talk to the people in South Africa that thought there should be no race. The people were so offended that the option was even there. I never really thought of doing away with that part of a survey before because it was just something that I always did. Everyone should be treated equally, but the reality is that is not going to happen any time soon. We as teachers are just going to have to do our best to not cast aside any student because of their background.
ReplyDeleteChideya's exploration of identifying racial characteristics is interesting to me in chapter 2. I thought her attempt to show different perspectives of race identity was eye opening. I don't understand the difficulty a person has when choosing to publicly identify with a race because it has never held me down to check the white box.
ReplyDeleteIt is so important to treat all of your students equally. Although there is still discrimination in the real world my class room will be a safe haven from that where students can be whoever they choose to be and identify themselves according to how they want the world to see them and not by how the world sees them.
I found the ideas of the people from South Africa interesting as well concerning there being no race. Some have the idea that racial labels will cause fights and increased division. i will admit that I have a tendacy to not fill in my race on forms unless it is required to do so. I don't like the idea of labeling that, yet I understand the purpose of the label. We like to have a way to identify ourselves. I don't think that a multicultural label would cause negative problems in America. It makes more sense than trying to list all the possible race combinations and as Chideya pointed out most people only check one box.
ReplyDeleteAs far as multiracial students in my classroom, I will treat all students as individuals. I think it's important to have somewhat of an idea to their background so that you can supply them with information and models that are related to them. However, I think it is also important to let them experience cultures and races that differ from what they know.
I like what Katey said about an equal playing ground. And even the idea of respecting people's cultures and traditions is not mutually exclusive with this. It's not as if once someone is assimilated into the culture, he or she can no longer celebrate heritage or race. We don't have to be a bland society to be a society that accepts all races. "White people" have traditions and heritages as much as any other race. Irish celebrate St. Patrick's day, German's gave us the Christmas tree (and many delicious lagers), African-Americans gave us rock and roll. The more heritages and traditions, the better society! I say bring in the Mexicans and make Cinco de Mayo an official holiday and why not celebrate a Chinese new year and get a few more days off?
ReplyDeleteToday is National flag day (in Canada) and we should celebrate this diversity by drinking a Labatt Blue and watching hockey.
I agree Katey!! If we want this country to continue being successful than it is extremely important that we all start becoming aware of other peoples cultures. The more we learn about each other the more likely we will understand and get a long with one another.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be impossible to find someone in our country that isn't a mix race of some kind. So I agree with Lee in that we do not have to be a bland society because we are certainly far from it!
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ReplyDeleteI actually got several lesson plan ideas out of reading the chapter.
ReplyDeleteYes, we should all have equal playing fields and yes, people do like having labels. My whole thing is, treat your students all equally, but don't hide the fact that they're all different too. The students need to understand that different backgrounds bring different elements to the "playing field".
I've always checked the 'white' box because I didn't grow up in a multicultural household and always figured my skin color was white...hello. but now that I look at it....Asian Americans aren't yellow and American indians aren't copper...I was just never taught what checkin white really meant-in reality I'm biracial. One side of my family is American Indian and the other side are European/Irish. Going back to the chapter one discussion,"What's pure white anyway?" But discussing the different backgrounds in the classroom could add so much richness to your classroom. I plan on incorporating it into a lot of art projects...and I plan on having students pick and lead the different culture lesson plans (hopefully they can bring in some of their own experiences). Students like to learn from people who have first hand knowledge...and student's learn by what they see. If I'm (a person of authority they should and do respect) treating people of different race and cultures all equally and I enforce that behavior in my classroom-then (hopefully) it wont stay just in the classroom
I like Christine's thoughts of letting students find themeselves. Chideya offers several people of different backgrounds perspectives. Each of them had different ways of deciding which race to embrace. Living in a country that is as diverse as ours, I think people should be able to decide what race fits them best. Everyone is different and no two students will be the same so I think it is a good idea to let our students decide what race they feel they belong to and embrace it.
ReplyDeleteI was very curious to read the interviews in this chapter. The idea of being "mixed" is a personal issue for me because if my husband and I ever have children, they will be "mixed". They will never be completely white or completely hispanic. I have a cousin, whose last name is Ortega, and she has 3 children. None of her children speak Spanish, but people assume that they can and should. Truth be told, the hispanic side of my cousins is suppressed and the white side is celebrated. I do not want my future children to feel that they have to give up a part of themselves to fit into a mold that society creates for them.
ReplyDeleteI thought the juxtaposition of the two girls interviewed in the article was very interesting. Nicole came from a family that supported and celebrated her mixed heritage, but it was clear that Camille had to choose between her two heritages, but was being forced to choose a white identity. Camille seemed to rebell against her father's whiteness and considers herself black, despite all her father's attempts to make her white. Keeping that in mind, I think it is vitally important to create a classroom environment where students learn about each other's backgrounds and heritages. I think an interesting journal entry would be to ask the kids what they think it would be like to be black, white, hispanic, asian, etc. just to see what they believe about other people. I think it would start an interesting conversation and perhaps, help dispell some racial stereotypes.
Do you think there will ever be a time in the United States when we will not be placed into categories by race? It is a real "burden" like Maceo says in the book.
ReplyDeleteAlso, will the population of the United States ever get to the point where it will be impossible to place people into racial categories because everyone is multi-racial?
I think before we can teach kids about other races, it is important for them to know what it really means when they claim themselves as white, black, mixed, etc. You know it's like you have to truly know and accept yourself to some degree before you can begin to that with others. I do like the idea of Christy's journal entry. I think that could be a useful tool.
ReplyDeleteA good friend of mine is from South Africa. He grew up during apartheid and was considered "coloured". When I first met him, I assumed he was an Australian surfer based on his accent and his build. Ignorant me! When he would tell stories about his life in South Africa, especially his childhood, I was usually almost in tears. I couldn't help but think that if he had been born in the US, he would've probably been considered white. What a difference it makes to be considered coloured verses white! Marc, however, aligns himself with African-American culture moreso than anything else. He has lived outside of South Africa for such a long time, that he is able to just be himself without trying to live beneath a color distinction. Meeting him and getting to know him challenged everything I thought I knew about race and racial categories.
ReplyDeleteLike Amanda said, I do think it is important to know where our students come from, but we have to be willing to look beyond our own ideas about how people should be, act, or look like and focus more on helping our students develop a sense of pride in themselves about what they can accomplish as individuals.
I think that being of mixed race now would be different than 20 or even 10 years ago. We have just come such a long way. When I was little I judged anyone that I thought was mixed and didn't talk to them. My ignorance then and what I've been reading today makes me consider how a mixed person would feel in today's world. They must still be persecuted...either by strangers or especially by the races they are a part of. Depending on how they were raised, they might be forced into choosing what race to participate in..which could leave them feeling empty and confused inside. Having to choose between parents races could cause some unconscious family problems as well. I imagine that they have a lot of fear...more fear of hurting people (family) than most.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very important for us to be aware of any personal prejudices we may have against people of different races and those who are multiracial. Having grown-up in Georgia I know that I have some prejudices and stereotypes that I need to address and make sure that I don't let affect how I treat each one of my students.
ReplyDeleteSo student teaching has been a real experience. As I was getting the student demographic information we are collecting for our TWS some major issues arose that are related to our discussion. BHS uses a program called SASI to house all of the class rosters and here I was able to access their DOB, gender, see if they were living in a single parent home and if that parent was related, but also see their race. As I was collecting this information I came across an M. In this case the M stands for 'mixed'. I was taken aback, mixed- are we really still using this term. I could not help but feel sorry that these particular students heritage had been reduced to this. Amongst these students there was an Asian/White, a Native American, and White/Black. All of these beautiful and completely different heritages had been boiled down to mixed.
ReplyDeleteI think we can do better. Giving our teachers more accurate information about the racial background of our students would go a long way to better help these students in the classroom. I think it would also promote awareness about culture make celebrating race a positive experience.