Re: Diversity Issues & Resistant Students

Melanie Hahn (melhahn who-is-at earthlink.net)
Fri, 3 Oct 1997 14:06:12 -0700 (PDT)

Mucho gusto Jaime,
In the next ten weeks, it would be interesting to frame the issue
for a paper or somehow decenter yourself in the discussion. By that I mean
try to depersonalize it. It helps because we would otherwise (and I don't
mean to assume we feel the same way, but...) get quite angry. I think
another way to think of this is to put yourself in the student's place and
then think how an unsympathetic white professor might act if you were
demanding mc classes or texts or guest speakers or some representation of
some sort and then try to not do what an insensitive professor might do.
The problem with this switch is that we cannot assume the privelege that my
students projected and that makes the equation a bit off. I am a bit
stumped. Obviously.
Thanks for your book references. Have you read, Fine, M., Weis, L.
Powell, L., and Wong, M. Off White: Readings on Race, Power, and Society.
New York, New York: Routledge. or Hardiman, R. (1994) "White Racial
Identity Development in the United States." In E.S. Salett and D.R. Koslow
(Eds.) Race, Ethnicity, and Self-Identity in Multicultural Perspective,
Washington, D.C.: NMCI (National Multicultural Institute)
Publications? I urge you to read Delpit, L. (1996)Other People's
Children:Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York, New York: Longman
and McIntosh, P. (1989) "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible
Knapsack." In Peace and Freedom, pp 10-18. I apologize as the italicized
or underlined book titles don't copy on the page.
Stay strong and in touch.

Hasta Pronto,
Melanie

>Mucho gusto, Melanie,
>
>We are living parallel lives! I too am
>
>> a person of color, teaching in a 99% white college community, trying to
>>sensitize my students to issues of diversity
>
>I teach in a small university in Pittsburgh. I too have not been sure what
>to do with the apparent frustration of the students. I had included in my
>course readings about:
>
>minority identity development
>
>Sue D.W. & Sue D. (1990). Racial/cultural identity development. In, D.W.
>Sue & D. Sue Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice (pp.
>93-117). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
>
>Ogbu, J. (1991). Immigration and involuntary minorities in comparative
>perspective. In M. Gibson & J. Ogbu (Eds.) Minority status and schooling: A
>comparative study of immigrant and involuntary minorities (pp. 205-247).
>New York: Garland Publishing Inc.
>
>about racism and prejudice
>
>Dovidio, J. (1996). Recognizing the "new" racism: It's causes and
>consequences. In B. Abramms & G.F. Simons (Eds.) Cultural diversity
>sourcebook (pp. 424-431). Amherst, MA: ODT, Inc.
>
>Ponterotto, J.G. & Pedersen, P.B. (1993). Preventing prejudice. Newbury
>Park: Sage Publications.
>
>about multiculturalism in America
>
>Takaki, R. (1993). A different mirror. In R.Takaki (Ed.) A different
>mirror: A history of multicultural America (pp. 1-17). Boston: Little,
>Brown and Company.
>
>to name a few of the topics. I have noticed the same as you a
>
>>feeling tension that I could not put my finger on for a few weeks.
>
>and I took the same approach and got a similar response, I
>
>>opened class discussion up about issues they might have thus far and boy,
>>was the response huge and unfocused, but clearly full of disgruntled
>>students who articulated this message which we arrived at after the dust
>>settled. "I really don't care about language minority kids, so the
>>theories you are teaching us are irrelevant."
>
>I felt I was hearing that many students had personalized much of the
>information I felt compelled to include in the class. As one student put it,
>"you have to realize that we are probably the first generation that has been
>bombarded since preschool about mc this and mc that. We all have been
>brainwashed to be colorblind. Enough is enough!". Another added, "I don't
>need to be reading articles that tell me I should be ashamed of being
>White". I can't offer you any suggestions as I am scrambling for my own.
>I'd be interested in knowing how this plays out for you ... I have 10 more
>weeks of this course and it promises to be an interesting ride.
>
>Peace,
>Jaime Munoz
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Jaime Munoz
>munoz who-is-at duq3.cc.duq.edu
>
>
>Jaime Phillip Munoz, MS, OTR
>Department of Occupational Therapy
>Rangos School of Health Sciences
>Duquesne University
>227 Health Sciences Building
>Pittsburgh, PA 15101
>w (412) 396-5950 h (412) 492-9549
>fax: (412) 396-4343
>e-mail: munoz who-is-at duq3.cc.duq.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melanie S. Miran Hahn School of Education
E-mail Address: melhahn who-is-at earthlink.net Dominican College of San Rafael
San Rafael, California 94901-8008
Telephone
(415)257-1347

"Movement is what creates life. Stillness is what creates love. To be
still and still moving--this is everything."
Do Hyun Choe