John,

Thank you for your personal response. Yes, this is a fascinating 
example of hybrid identity. My roommate last year, though not Spanish 
speaking, often explained her difficulty with identity being 
American-born Indian who attended school in India but didn't feel like 
she fit with the Indian communities in the states.

I have to get better at these listservs. I meant to send that to the 
list, and I will post our discussion directly for other members. 
Quoting John Warrior <john.r.warrior at cox.net>:


> I have several of my student that could be

> considered as case studies for this research.

> These students are if Indian descent, but they

> grew up in either Central America or the

> Caribbean. These students then came to the US and

> attended at least a year or two of school in the

> US public school systems.

>

> So, they look Indian, they speak Spanish and

> graduated from an American high school. Most of

> them have very little knowledge of Hindi or their

> parent's primary language, which makes it

> difficult for them to interact in Indian circles.

> They do not have the physical characteristics of

> the other students from Central and South America

> so they find it difficult to interact within the

> Hispanic community despite the fact that Spanish

> is their primary language. Finally, they do not

> have the English skills to interact effectively

> with the English speaking community.

>

> This is possibly an example of a hybrid identity

> that is filled with challenges and obstacles. I

> agree in that I feel our title should be one that

> is broad and inclusive, not narrow and

> constrictive, because for every socioeconomic

> factor that is identified it seems that there are

> two more that go unnoticed. However, all of them

> affect learning and literacy, whether or not we

> recognize them.

>

> Take care,

>

> John

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Brett Griffiths [mailto:bgriff at umich.edu]

> Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 8:29 AM

> To: John Warrior

> Subject: an argument for "Identity" in the name

>

> There is a  lot of current work being done now on

> the term "identity,"

> with scholars looking at the nature of "hybrid

> identities." A person

> can identify with one or more races, one or more

> nationalities, one or

> more ethnicities, one or more social classes, and

> even one or more

> genders. For example, if a person is Native

> American who grows up in

> mainstream American culture but follows the

> teaching of his or her

> historical tribe, there are still implications for

> literacy learning.

> Complicate that with social class or skin color,

> and you have a further

> complication. Because social class and skin color

> both have important

> correlations with literacy questions, it seems to

> make sense to leave

> that identity up to subjects themselves to define.

> A person with a dark

> skin color may identify as Haitian,

> African-American, Pakistani, or

> White American depending on other factors of his

> or her identity.

> Another person may grow up white with a

> working-class family and live

> in a middle-class suburb. The identity that s/he

> most identifies with

> will have implications for relationships with

> literacy, one way or

> another, given the conflicting social messages

> about literacy and "what

> is text" viewpoints from each class. I guess this

> is my push for using

> Identity in the title. To me, it allows us to

> consider each discussion

> from multiple subjectivities and allows them to be

> personally defined.

>

> Brett

>

> Quoting John Warrior <john.r.warrior at cox.net>:

>

>> I am not sure what the final decision will be

>> about the name of this particular list but as I

>> have said before, there are some critical

>> questions that we need to ask ourselves before

>> changing or adding to this title. The fact is

> that

>> "ethnicity affects education. Ethnicity is not a

>> "comfy" word, it is a word used by professionals

>> that means "a sense of being different than

> other

>> groups because of cultural tradition, ancestry,

>> national origin, history, or religion." This

> term

>> is more accurate than "race" when we look at how

>> it influences learning and literacy. For

> example,

>> try to describe the influences of "race" on

>> education in India or the influence of

> "ethnicity"

>> on education. You will see that "race" is too

>> generic and it does not accurately represent the

>> complex differences between people. Andres seems

>> to be stuck on race because of its connection

> with

>> racism with ethnicity being too comfy. However,

>> ethnicity is tied to something even worse than

>> racism and that is ethnic cleansing. The fact of

>> the matter is that professional educators and

>> professionals from other disciplines use the

> term

>> ethnicity to define the differences between

>> people.

>>

>>

>>

>> As for me, I am not Caucasian as race would

> label

>> me. I am a second generation European. My

> father's

>> side of the family is Scottish and immigrated to

>> the US during the 1930s to escape the affects of

>> the depression in Europe. They came here and

>> worked hard as farmers in Iowa, fought for their

>> new country in World War II and continued to

> grow

>> and prosper through hard work and determination.

>> One my mother's side I am Polish. My

> grandparents

>> fled Poland in the face of the German invasion

> in

>> 1939. An incomplete escape since I have two

>> great-uncles who's names are etched on the

>> Auschwitz Memorial. They were killed for their

>> ethnicity, not their race. They came to the US

> and

>> when my grandfather was told he couldn't fight,

> he

>> took his skills as a machinist and worked for

>> Martin aviation, building aircraft to protect

> this

>> country. I have a Protestant/ Catholic

> background,

>> I am the first one to complete any college

> degree

>> and my father went to public school and my

> mother

>> went to a Catholic girls school. Today, you will

>> find that my family includes my past, plus the

>> past of my Korean wife. Race does not describe

> my

>> children; it cannot because of all of the

> factors.

>> Factors that we encounter in the classroom

>> everyday.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> Why does the name need to be more inclusive? It

>> needs to be so that when professionals, students

>> and those with personal interests in literacy

> come

>> to the NIFL site they can look through the

> titles

>> and see that this one, deals with the often

>> volatile and controversial influences of how

>> poverty, ethnicity and gender affect educational

>> achievement and opportunities in the US and

> around

>> the world. That is the purpose of a title, it

>> should act a s beacon to people looking for

>> information. No one is going to come here if

> they

>> are looking for information about learning

>> disabilities and literacy, they can see from the

>> title that there is another list.

>>

>>

>>

>> Now comes the topic of gender. I would like to

>> say that I take offense to sexist attitudes

> toward

>> males. I feel that blindly leveling prejudice

>> towards men is as cancerous as the prejudice and

>> discrimination against women. That is why one of

>> my favorite quotes comes from Mahatma Gandhi.

> When

>> asked if he was a pacifist he replied that he

>> would not become what he was fighting. In the

>> struggle to dispel the injustices of the world,

> we

>> must not loose sight of what is right and wrong.

>> The fact of the matter is that it women are not

>> the only one's affected by sex when it comes to

>> literacy and education. There are significant

>> groups of women and men that feel the affects of

>> sex upon their educational achievement and

>> opportunities. This is not sexism, this is

>> reality.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> I need to go teach, let's not become what we

> hate.

>>

>>

>>

>> John

>>

>>

>>

>>

>

>

>

> --

> ---And the day came when the risk to remain tight

> in a bud was more

> painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais

> Nin

>

> Brett Griffiths

> Second Year, PhD student, JPEE

>

>

>

>




-- 
---And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more 
painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin

Brett Griffiths
Second Year, PhD student, JPEE