2 Part Blog Assignment

Fox, Chapter 8

Fox writes in "Exercises, Assignments and Advice" that as a teacher, when we are leading a discussion about racism or addressing racism in class and the discussion is Silent or Superficial, it is a good idea to ask the class:

"What makes it difficult to have meaningful relationships across the racial divide?" (124).

This is an interesting exercise, because it is a loaded question that I think would and should generate discussion. Sometimes it is easier to formulate ideas in reaction to a given stance.

A lot of ideas are implied in this question, namely "is there one, "the," racial divide?" Is it in fact difficult to have meaningful relationships with others due to people being of different races? Is it easy to have meaningful relationships within each side of a racial divide?
I don't like the question at all, and I don't think it is something that I could ever ask a group of students. But perhaps that is because I rebel against what it implies. So, as an exercise in class, maybe the question is being raised so that people can speak up against it. If it generates discussion, maybe it has worked effectively as an exercise.


Questions for Reflection

1. In what ways does White Privilege enter the classroom?

I would say that we could divide the classrooom into three general contexts: one, the living, material, current classroom environment, constituted by the students, teachers, school organization, and system. The second would be school as an institution of socialization. The third would be what is taught, or the "ideological" classroom, or the curriculum, and learning materials.
White privilege, I would hope, does not enter into the material, current classroom, because as a teacher leading the class it would reflect my own disregard or insensitivity about it. When you wonder a little more about school as an institution, however, it's hard to peel off layers of how historically the system has been predominantly run by white people to find a place completely free from a context of white privilege. I quote rapper T.I.: "School's just a white man's game, and it's ran good" ("Still Ain't Forgave Myself," I'm Serious, 2001). I'm not sure I agree completely with this statement, but perhaps I am overlooking white privilege.
The third place that white privilege would enter the classroom is through the books, media, and other learning materials used to teach. I know that a lot of English literature high school programs in Canada are starting to move in a more multicultural or "global" direction. This was probably a result of the question of whether or not everyone should have to learn a form of white, European-dominated culture and history, and why other cultural histories were not represented in schools. If school is supposed to give students an education in which they can find themselves, the curriculum in many History and English departments has not provided that opportunity.

2. In what ways can you and your students work to articulate and transform the authority of Whiteness?

One way is to encourage a way of learning, instead of encouraging students to learn certain facts. This way, students can develop a critical approach to any material, not to digest and internalize hidden biases, not to accept historical truths as universally valid, and to recognize their place in the world while still understanding that learning is where both the present and past come together. Another way would be to directly talk about Whiteness, or maybe more generally racism, to address the issues in class. A third way would be to make sure that what I as a teacher am teaching is sensitive to a standard of a universal history and open to future possibility.