Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e94HR1900929; Wed, 4 Oct 2000 13:27:01 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 13:27:01 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <DBBA01AD8061D311857A00A0C9854E4A4E2BC4@sbctc.ctc.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Michael Tate <mtate@sbctc.ctc.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:122] Institutional Racism in the classroom X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: multipart/alternative; X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2448.0) Status: O Content-Length: 4415 Lines: 81 This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ------_=_NextPart_001_01C02E28.DFFA25BA Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" A Black friend served in Peace Corps in the 70s in Lesotho, a country surrounded by South Africa. Since he was frequently required to be in South Africa in mixed Peace Corps meetings, the South African government agreed to confer "honorary White" status upon him. He was able to stay in White hotels, eat in restaurants, etc. despite apartheid. That's real power supporting race prejudice. I'd like to move the discussion to institutional racism and how it shows up in the classroom and what we can do to about it. It's relatively easy to make sure that we include writers and thinkers of color as we select materials and design curricula. What's much more difficult is to allow for non-dominant cultural ways of thinking, knowing, expression, etc. An example from my background: the talking circle tradition in several American Indian tribes allows for each participant to talk about a decision or a matter until s/he signifies that s/he is done by passing a stick or other object to the next participant. Many dominant culture people think it wastes time, and think that having a facilitator push toward consensus, or voting is a better way to have a group decide something. In a culture that is time-oriented that must make sense, but for cultures that are people-oriented, it does not. I'm seeing more teachers mention the talking circle as a group decision-making method, but I rarely see a teacher say that it is as viable as consensus or majority rule. This is institutional racism at work. Students from other cultures had better adopt 'our' ways if they want to get ahead. ------_=_NextPart_001_01C02E28.DFFA25BA Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2314.1000" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=860223516-04102000>A Black friend served in Peace Corps in the 70s in Lesotho, a country surrounded by South Africa. Since he was frequently required to be in South Africa in mixed Peace Corps meetings, the South African government agreed to confer "honorary White" status upon him. He was able to stay in White hotels, eat in restaurants, etc. despite apartheid. That's real power supporting race prejudice. </SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=860223516-04102000></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=860223516-04102000>I'd like to move the discussion to institutional racism and how it shows up in the classroom and what we can do to about it.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=860223516-04102000>It's relatively easy to make sure that we include writers and thinkers of color as we select materials and design curricula. What's much more difficult is to allow for non-dominant cultural ways of thinking, knowing, expression, etc.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=860223516-04102000></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=860223516-04102000>An example from my background: the talking circle tradition in several American Indian tribes allows for each participant to talk about a decision or a matter until s/he signifies that s/he is done by passing a stick or other object to the next participant. Many dominant culture people think it wastes time, and think that having a facilitator push toward consensus, or voting is a better way to have a group decide something. In a culture that is time-oriented that must make sense, but for cultures that are people-oriented, it does not. I'm seeing more teachers mention the talking circle as a group decision-making method, but I rarely see a teacher say that it is as viable as consensus or majority rule. This is institutional racism at work. Students from other cultures had better adopt 'our' ways if they want to get ahead.</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> ------_=_NextPart_001_01C02E28.DFFA25BA--
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