Dear Daphne, guest speakers, and all participants in
this list:


After all your postings I would like to contribute
with my own personal experience with poverty, race and
privilege.   There have been postings that suggest
self identification.  So I will start by doing so.  I
am a Mexican woman, and a happy mother of two young
children.  I have lived with my partner, a Brazilian
American lawyer for 17 years. 

While there have been postings regarding "the right to
be listened" as opposed to the the non optional "being
spoken to"  I hope I will be able to explain the
constant tension or synergy that I have experienced
throughout my life.  It seems to me that we all share
the same dividing categories in our selves from what I
have read.

I would like to start with my skin color and features
because I think they matter and they are read just as
any other ethnicity's' defining features and
complexion.   I could be categorized as a product of
the mixing of ethnic groups and Spaniards in Mexico. 
I belong to the majority of the so called "Mestizo"
Mexicans. I was raised in Mexico City.  I come from a
family that fought (may I use the word) desperately to
break the cycle of poverty, abuse and lack of
education.   I know for a fact that it takes
generations to break the pattern.  I just need to
think of my own mother, grandmother, and the women
before them to have this sense of pain that comes with
memories that are of my own, and others that I
inherited from them.  

My own personal experience, mere anecdotal
information, is that the most damaging racism is the
one promoted by institutions.  Precisely the type of
racism that wants to disguise itself as a color blind
society.  Or, the type of racism that stubbornly
supports the ideology of meritocracy, when indeed the
education systems here in America just as much as in
Mexico are not based on an equal opportunity for all. 
People who are not equal can not be treated equally. 
In this sense I can only agree wholeheartedly with the
most significant tenets of  education reform, access,
and better resources for those who have been under
served and oppressed.

As I read experiences of "whiteness" I think of myself
and realize how different it is being Mexican in South
Dakota, New York City, Emporia (Virginia), Houston and
Mexico City, all places where I have spent a
significant amount of time in my life.  While my
ethnicity may be read in one way in Houston (I have
not been long enough here to be sure of how being a
"Mestizo" Mexican woman really feels like, but I am
beginning to have a sense of things), in Chiapas,
Mexico, it will be read in a completely different way.

And I think that here is where intersections of class,
gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and ability or
disability seem to make the category race a bit
diffuse.   Even though I  know I have been
discriminated against quite a few times, the one
category that really encompasses and carries with it
the most defining consequences for people is, in my
opinion, class.

There is a book in particular that allowed me to
travel throughout the United States and see the lives
of the most under served people in this country, many
of whom are also white.  To an extent the book
supports the idea that "identity politics" does not
necessarily allow us to create those waves of
countercultures and agency where power can be
reformulated, power for whom and for what.   In
"Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) getting by in America",
Barbara Ehrenreich makes a case against the myth that
the majority are doing well in this country.   She
uses mostly official data regarding access to health
care, education, housing, and income .  The case for
not privileged white, and non white minorities is
really strong.

Then when I think of Mexico the numbers become even
more disheartening.   A study published by a well
respected university, Tecnologico de Monterrey,
provides the following numbers: 10% of the population
in the country owns 60% of the resources while 60% of
the population own 10% of them.   This information
appeared in a book that could translate as "what shall
we do with the poor" "Que hacemos con los pobres?" by
Julieta Campos.  It is true that the poorest states in
Mexico are highly populated with ethnic groups and  so
not surprisingly some of these regions have "guerrilla
movements" actively working at the grass roots level. 
 

One colleague wrote about the privilege that the mere
fact of participating in this list entails.   She
really acknowledges the fact that there is a tendency
in the world for significant income gaps among
countries, within countries and within cities.  And
this includes access to technology.   

Some of the colleagues that have participated in the
discussion have brought up other categories that
define their identities.  As a Mexican woman, as
someone that has dealt with issues that pertain to the
medical sciences, as a mother and a long life partner
of a white male I tend to think that race matters but
perhaps class matters even more.  The vicious circle,
though remains unsolved, because being of one color
may either open or close doors. 

Marx has been mentioned in some of the postings.  I
agree with one of its most fruitful and less orthodox
minds, Gramsci, that a moral and intellectual reform
can only take place along with an economic reform. 
But because I don't think this will take place soon
nor  am I sure if I will live to see it, I try to
navigate and surf in the dichotomy that power entails
for all of us.  For me as an immigrant and as an adult
educator there is always that synergy and tension,
(feelings that I share with my students),  between
being unique and belonging, between feeling powerless
and moving forward, between speaking to them and
remembering as I listen to them where I really come
from in all venues of my life.

I have really enjoyed the discussion and I have kept
in mind the words of Dr. King in terms of self
disclosure as a potential way to bridge differences. 
Up to now, I honestly don't know if I will be able to
change some hearts. Or, said differently, I don't know
if I have the tools to really tap into prejudices and
stereotypes.  Perhaps the Freirian approach would
help.  Maybe in the next discussion colleagues could
tell us concrete ways in which they deal with this
particular issue.  I already described one exercise
that might be in Wiki.  It is based on material that I
found in ERIC clearinghouse.

Two examples, talking about race I heard again from
students, we are all people.  We are all the same.  I
said to Latino students, maybe if you had a very dark
baby you would feel different, right?  Question mark
in their eyes.  I mentioned the Oscars and I said BTW,
a short documentary about same sex families won an
Oscar...wide eyes.  One of my students seem to have
really liked the comment.  Short steps into nowhere?
The work of an ant? Maybe.  Sometimes I do want to be
listened to.  


>From Houston, TX

Nadia Quiroz-Colby  

             

 

 




              
--- "Dr. Kathleen P. King" <drkpking at gmail.com> wrote:


> Picking up on some of the recent comments from Andy

> and Ryan

> 

> I have found them both very helpful and well thought

> through. *This is the

> sort of reflective practice we need to model for our

> adult educators in

> every opportunity.*

> 

> I also believe in a level of self-disclosure with

> people with whom I am

> facilitating classes. In fact I have to work at a

> *disadvantage *because of

> being white- female - academic professional (and oh

> my goodness I guess I am

> middle age at least!)  Students and administrators

> make frequent false

> assumptions about who I am and "from whence I came"

> 

> Here is a mouthful of a description- but it proves

> some points others

> probably could make as well...

> 

> I am white female, 49 yrs old, 2 adult sons,

> partnered/ CU. I have a very

> mainstream surname through my first marriage.

> I am first generation college, my parents dropped

> out of high school and I

> was brought up with very Italian and Irish working

> class experience in a

> community in which we were treated as minorities. I

> was also constantly

> reminded that my parents had lived close to poverty

> as children. I am not

> from a privileged upper class background, but many

> people assume I am

> because of my career position. I have degrees in

> biochemistry, theology and

> adult and higher education; so I do not fit just the

> liberal arts of

> science/math camp. Add to that an armload of

> different religious

> identifications over the years and you have the now

> "undeclared" religious,

> but my decidedly spiritual perspective :) Some refer

> to me as a technology

> goddess, but that is going way to far!

> 

> My point being - if we are not authentic educators,

> if we do not engage in

> self disclosure as appropriate and pertinent to

> instruction... How will

> people of all identifications and affiliations ever

> "see" themselves? We end

> up perpetuating the cycle!

> 

> When I was enrolled for my first masters class (I

> was in my 30s) in stats

> (and I greatly enjoy math/stats). It was taught by a

> female Italian American

> professor. I finally felt like it was POSSIBLE for

> me to go into academia

> someday... that was about 1992! It took that long

> until I "saw" myself in

> that role. my culture had so mocked Italian American

> women pursuing higher

> ed- but this is not the typical discourse about

> white females in 1970-2008.

> However it was my ethnic and family culture.

> 

> Students repeatedly tell me that as they hear me

> mention different points

> listed above it has the same affect on them  as my

> grad school experience

> (see below). Why does it have to take so long? Why

> are our educational

> environments perceived as unsafe to self-disclosure?

> 

> *My approach to opening them is self-disclosure and

> learner-centeredness*.

> Creating robust learner-centered activities which

> engage students in

> dialogue as the means to learning content and

> application. I honestly say,

> however, it is a long road of personal, professional

> and curricular

> development....

> 

> *I am also so careful and hesitant sometimes because

> I am distinctly aware

> of earning the right to be heard. I dislike

> platitudes and I cannot claim to

> understand the hardships and terror many people

> experience. Yet if I do not

> speak with my classes and try to create that

> "bridge" (as many of us have

> referred to it as) who will? Can we count on others

> to  dot it?

> *

> *What are your stories and perspectives? How do you

> create the environments

> which welcome all individuals to participate?

> *

> 

> Kathy

> 

> *(Kathleen Palombo King)  ;-)*

> 

> -

> Dr. Kathleen P. King, Professor of Education,

> Fordham University

> 

> President, Transformation Education LLC

> Email: Transformationed at gmail.com   and

> kpking at fordham.edu

> Tel (201) 916-0575 Fax (201) 458-9736

> 

> WEB- http://www.transformationed.com/ and

> http://www.kpking.com

> BLOG- http://blog.transformationed.com

> 

> Newest Books: Innovations in Career and Technical

> Education at

> http://www.infoagepub.com

> Also: Podcasting for Teachers: Using a New

> Technology to Revolutionize

> Teaching and Learning

> at

>

http://www.infoagepub.com/products/content/p45f87061c70e9.php

> 

> PODCASTS: The Teachers' Podcast -

> http://www.teacherspodcast.org

> Transformation Ed Podcast:

> http://www.blogtalkradio.com/transformationed

> >

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