What makes you smart? Whiteness?

The image above is one of the many ways society views white privilege; having money, obtaining better opportunities, and gaining  rewards simply for being white.

As I was reading the articles for this week  I thought about “The Only Valid Passport From Poverty” from Goldstein’s work. “Education is the way out” seems to be a common theme I keep seeing and referring back to. In “My Class Didn’t Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege” by Robin DiAngelo, DiAngelo talks about her life and experiences with poverty and her whiteness. She felt that she had to struggle to survive figure out a way out of poverty and education was her ticket. “I could see no path out of poverty other than education” (53, DiAngelo). She was white, female and poor, and felt oppressed for her encominic status yet was using her struggles to be aware of her social given privilege “going up poor didn't’ protect me from learning my place in the social hierarchy.” (53, DiAngelo).

As she described her beginnings she talks about the pain she endured. she knew she was poor but other people knowing she was poor, left her feeling “exposed”. I feel this fueled her do show others that there wasn’t anything wrong with her.   “The shock came not just in the knowledge that we were poor, but that it was exposed. There was something wrong with us, indeed, and it was something that was obvious to others and that we couldn’t hide, something shameful that could be seen but should not be named. (53, DiAngelo).  Once she felt she was succeeding in academia she was also finding herself understanding the even though she grew up poor she was still white. “I came to understand that the oppression I experienced growing up poor didn’t protect me from learning my place in the racial hierarchy.”(53, DiAngelo). She lists and discusses patterns of internalized dominance and gives examples. One that stuck out to me the most was we live separate lives and what is seen in media or books. “Virtually all out teachers, history books, role models, movie, and book characters, are white like us” (54, DiAngelo) I think back to my own early schooling were some stories had some range of diversity but white characters were dominating the literature I was exposed to. I (a white female), have failed to notice the that at the time. I can think of so many examples of internalized dominance. Now I think about my colleagues who teach literature, what pieces are they using in class? Is it diverse like our classrooms? Or is it still a dominance of one race? What can be do to change that?  She argues that even though she didn’t experience the same white privilege as others in the white community she knows the reality of racism is real and still an issue. “I may never fully understand the workings of racism, as I have been trained my entire life to perpetuate racism while denying its reality.” (57, DiAngelo)

In Smartness as Property: A Critical Exploration of Intersections Between Whiteness and Disability Studies By Zeus Leonardo and Alicia A. Broderick they talk about the views of “smartness” and “whiteness”.  They discussed that “smartness and whiteness only exist as a tool of oppression”. I think its makes people of color or people with a disability to feel belittled for not match that description. Only a specific group is smart but has nothing to do with intellect or competence.    The idea of its better to be “like white” and being called an “honorary White” was thought of as a positive thing “as a way of disciplining other non-Whites to stay in line” (2210, Leonardo & Broderick) I think back to the Lemon Grove Incident Professor Goss showed in class. At minute 50, the judge comes back with the ruling for the Mexican children that they should get the same education of the their white peers and be put back in the "regular school" because they “pass” as white, white privilege for being “like white”. We must unravel both whiteness and smartness and just focus on competence to learned there can be a leveled playing field.We as educators we should be giving our students the belief they can succeed regardless of race because they can. If we fail to do that we fall back into the categories of the hierarchy society creates to oppress the ones who don’t fit a predetermined norm (white, male, economically stable, straight). Even if a student is classified as one of those classifications, they may be above someone else on this hierarchy and that needs to change. We need to allow our students the same chance to learn aside from the classifications that society label of students. “If one cannot imagine capacity in a child, one is unlikely endeavor to educate that child." (2223, Leonardo & Broderick) in Once we let go the these "meaningless constructs" perhaps the “race of life” could one step closer to being fair. Leonardo and Broderick hope the unpacking of these ideologies will make a change in the cultural practices in schooling.

I found this short Ted talk “Check Your Perspective, Not Your Privilege” and would be interested to hear thoughts about it. Junior, Rachel West, talks about going to school with a predominantly white population and talks about instead of telling her white classmate to check their privilege she wanted to check her own perspective. She left the audience with this quote, “Privilege does not harm people. People who are privileged do not kill people. People who have Hatred in their hearts kill people.” I think about the “The unequally opportunity race" that Katie posts in her blog videos as an example of privilege hurting or making it extremely difficult for people. The white male runner glades effortlessly on the escalator with no enough and ease while the black female runner with all for effort falling, pushing herself through these obstacles that maybe a few runners encounter but not all.

She states that everyone narrative is important part in our society and that we need to come together and push forward for something greater. I do agree with Miss West about everyone's narrative being an important part to making our society better. We need the stories of the past to create a better future. You know your story share it hear someone else story learn from it.