Cultural Privilege and Education

"Your "race" shapes your experience in society and in schools, but no one fits a standard template as a racial group member. Some of us test the boundaries of racial categories all the time."(p33) I would like to use this quote from the book Every Day Anti-Racism to open up a larger discussion of race in public schools. How does my personal experience as an immigrant white male teacher translate and influence my teaching and my student's/community perception of me? Oftentimes where we come from impacts what types of social resources we have at our disposal, education being a part of it. I think that understanding that the culture that I came from, and the benefits and the privileges that I was exposed to while growing up sometimes to do not translate into experiences of other people. Learning about the history of public education this year, has given me the opportunity to reflect on my position as a white educator.

I think it was when I was reading Kumashiro's Bad Teacher, during the part when he was talking about the desegregation of black schools and the consequent trend of hiring white women to serve the role of indoctrinating the racial minority groups post-segregation, that I really started to think deeply about my work and position in the urban school system. "In the 19th-century the recruiting of young, unmarried white women into teaching echoed the ideology about white women teacher that pervaded imperial Britain, in which their role was to educate not only the White working class but also the Native people and people of color who were colonized by Britain or the United States." Of course I am not a woman, but being a white male in a segregated urban system carries it's own set of racial assumptions for the community and the students that I serve. I personally never fell into the mentality of the "savior on the white horse." As a product of CPS, this was a system that I was belonged to, that I was a product of since I arrived to this country. But this doesn't mean that I have not experienced the tension of being a white male teacher in a predominantly black school. I have often asked myself "how I might be perceived by my community, and what can I do to build trust with the same community." The trust, like other things had to be earned. I knew that I couldn't simply come into a new community, and culture and demand respect. That would come off as very inappropriate and I would probably fall flat on my face, since solely based on the color of my skin and my background, I was coming from a position of economic privilege.

Knowing that racial categories are social constructs and not biological realities, I think is the first step to start thinking about race and it's manifestation in a society. Knowing that certain cultures have been systematically denied access to high quality education is another step in understanding how privilege is distributed in our culture based on race and economic status. I realize that being white, not Russian, but simply white gives me certain invisible privileges, that are not available for people of color. As an white educator, and more as proponent of social justice, I believe in the concept of "educational debt," or as Gloria Ladson-Billings puts it  "The education debt is the foregone schooling resources that we could have (should have) been investing in primarily low income kids, which deficit leads to a variety of social problems (e.g. crime, low productivity, low wages) that require ongoing public investment." With the history of segregation, racism and oppression of minority voices in this country, it is challenging going into a low income school as a white male and establishing trust with a community, but due to the nature of my job (serving the students) it is not impossible.

Being privileged and working in a sensitive turnaround environment can inspire distrust from the community and students, but I think that there are ways by which I can use my assets to build trust and establish rapport. One way would be to build trust with the families of my students by opening up channels of communication, and demonstrating commitment to the education of their children. Next year I would also like to participate in the community based events more often. Sometime that may simply mean, going to the sport events of your students and holding more parent-teacher nights or open houses. This can provide an opportunity as Every Day Anti-Racims points out to "observe how young people test and transcend the boundaries of race categories with one another." (33) Another great way about mitigating the limitations of knowing your students culture, is getting to know your students! That means building personal relationships with students through conversations, and a curriculum that enables students to see themselves fairly represented within it's larger structure. Like Gary R. Howard writes in his book We Can't Teach What We Don't Know "As white educators committed to equity and social justice, we can offer a significant healing response when we advocate for the inclusion of historical "others: in the circle of power." (80)

RadioLab has a great podcast on the topic of Race. Courtesy of NPR.