Chapter 31

"Safe spaces rarely exist in schools for adults or children to explore race, especially when Whites- who tend not to think of race all that often - determine agendas, and teachers from other backgrounds become used to the absence of talk about race, or are convinced they will not be heard." This quote struck the biggest chord with me in this chapter. That it is politically correct to not see color. All people are the same and should be treated as such. When that is just an escape from reality, these children have experienced racism and it is a real part of their lives that needs to be confronted and questioned. Otherwise, it will never change and they will believe the world is full of white bigots.

Futhermoore, my sentiment is that there is racism out there, but the real issue is classism. Racism validates many minorites position in society and gives a justification for their position but the real issue is they are there because others don't want any level of financial eqaulity in this country but because they are afro-american, its just a scapegoat to me.

Quote I like:

As much as racism bleeds America, we need to understand that classism is the real issue. Many of us are in the same boat and it's sinking, while these bougie Mother-F**kers ride on a luxury liner, and as long as we keep fighting over kicking people out of the little boat we're all in, we're gonna miss an opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a whole.

Social Construction of Knowledge

Social knowledge is "the product of agreement or consent between individuals who live out particular social relations and who live in junctures in time." I feel that the key idea is that knowledge needs to be questioned, that "dominant discourses" can not become assumed truth just because the powers that be claim them to be such. These so called "great men" and "great event of our past are not all that the majority would like you to believe. These were men to be respected in some of their motives and actions but not seen as omnibenevolent. My belief on this is that it is hard to attack this cirriculum of the majority in other areas besides history. I suppose in teaching multiple languages is one area that you can do this but I feel history is the main source to teach students about prespective of what happened so that they questioning what is happening and who is saying it. My hope is to teach from a reformist point of view of history and show students not to accept our past as absolute truth but see event as something controlled by those who wrote it.

Lesbian and Gay Adolescents

The text speaks about a "period of intense anxiety when they first realized that they suddenly belonged to a group of people that is vehemently depised" leads to a "identity crisis." I understand this statement but at the same time I do not. I understand that the individual has been taught that homosexuality is something dirty and unnatural by much of society and now has a certain degree of anxiety and self-hate about this "identity" forming. The reason I do not fully understand this is because the text also says that the sexual feelings come out around 12 years old, younger for males but isn't the major concept of today is that you are born gay or straight. I mean, I didn't start to lreally like girls openly till I was around 3rd grade but I atleast understood the concept of attraction before this time. I was just afraid I would get the coddie comment from one of my friends. Basically, I am confused that the concept of attraction to the opposite or same sex is being implied at around 12 when mine was much earlier. I am also confused by the inference that I get from the text that homosexuality is something that blossoms or forms. I never looked at it like that. I mean, I can see that we all have sexual growth and maturity in our attraction to others but that is more experience based and not genetical.