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