-->
Dion Ginanto
Race and discrimination have become a
serious debate in the US since this nation was formed. Even though, race by de jure has been abolished and has been
considered the same among others; race and discrimination, however, by de facto can still be seen in daily
life. In this article, I would like to take the ideas of the authors and make
summary from books, articles and films that I learned from Diverse Students and Families class for three weeks about race and discrimination.
This time I will discuss: what does it mean by race and discrimination, how it
is constructed, what kinds of discrimination in education, and what connection
to my own experience?
Almost all articles, books and films in
these three weeks define the meaning of race and discrimination. So, what
exactly is race or discrimination? McKenzie (2009) correlates race and
discrimination with narcissistic injuries. “Narcissistic injuries are defined
as the psychological damage that results when a child’s narcissistic (i.e. self)
needs for respect, understanding, and monitoring are denied” (McKenzie, 2009).
In line with this, Lipman (2003) in her article asserted that the African
American and Latino students are treated differently in some schools in
Chicago. From her research, she found that African American and Latino are put
in the probation schools where a very few white students are in school on
probation. Mcintyre defines race and discrimination from different perspective.
She connects race with whiteness. Whiteness is a system and ideology of white
dominance that marginalizes and oppresses people of color, ensuring privileges
for white people in this country (Mcintyre, 1997). Hall both from his movie and
his article contended that race and discrimination are portrayed by the
discourse that has been set on the media all the time. This includes the
stereotyping by media that portrays young black male or Latino as criminals
(Hall, n.d). In addition, Delpit created the meaning of race and discrimination
from the perspective of both minority students and teachers. In her book, she
criticized the discrimination of color students and teacher. “Too often
minority teachers’ voices have been hushed: a certain paternalism creeps into
the speech of some our children must be given
voice” (Delpit, L., 2006). Smedley in Travis and Rosenblum (2012) also
define race as the one major symbol and mode of human group differentiation
employed extensively for non-European groups and even those in Europe who
varied in some way from the subjective norm. From those various authors’
definition about race and discrimination, I can conclude that
race/discrimination is a stereotype given by people (white) against minority
i.e. African American, Latino or Asian and as the result those minority people
got the different treatment in daily life or before laws.
Then we ask a question, how actually
race or discrimination is constructed? There are some reasons behind the racism
and discrimination are created according to the authors: discourse or
stereotyping, assumption, society background, laws or government policy. The
first cause of race or discrimination is discourse. Hall proposed the idea of
discourse that can set up the knowledge of portraying someone. Discourse
themselves construct the subject-positions from which they become meaningful
and have effects (Hall, 2001). Therefore, the discourse that had portrayed
African American and Latino long time ago, has influenced the representation of
them in the eyes of White people. The second factor that creates the discrimination
is the assumption. The assumption is a prejudice given to the color people. According
to McKenzie (2009) there are at least six assumptions of white teachers against
African American and Latino students: gangsters, freaks, criminals, devil children,
demons, and mean children. The third cause of race/discrimination is society
background. McIntyre (1997) posited that whiteness can progress along with the developmental
continuum of where someone confronted on multiple level with the issues of
whiteness and its meaning in contemporary society. The fourth reason behind
racism is the laws or government policy. From Race: An Illusion film the cause of racism and discrimination is
not physical appearance, but it is because of the law and policy. Further, Lipman
(2003) in her paper reveal that the US policies further differentiate
educational experiences by race, ethnicity, and social class and that the
constellation of policies serves to regulate and control African American and
Latino.
There are some discrimination that
minority students get in the US, especially in education. From the research, Lipman (2003)
revealed at least five discriminations, inequality and racial oppression over
African American and Latino students: inexperienced teachers, insufficient
facilities, probation school, retention policy, high-stake standardized tests, negative
perspectives against students. In line with this, as I mentioned before that
African American and Latino students often experience narcissistic injuries (McKenzie, 2009).
Also, the dominant philosophy and knowledge from Western without considering
any non-Western perspective also can create the discrimination (Merriam, 2007).
Given all the definition of race and
discrimination, I can connect to the discrimination in the place where I teach,
senior high school in Indonesia. Race and discrimination in the
US is not really different from the discrimination in my country. Even though
we do not discriminate against students by their color, we do unconsciously
discriminate against students based on their social status. For instance, the
low Social Economic Status (SES) students do not have access to some good
qualities of public school, quality teachers, quality resources, nor quality
facilities. They need to pay a lot of money in order to get better quality in
education that low SES student cannot afford.
All in all, the authors from articles,
books and the films have the same perspective on race or discrimination that
all stake holders: from teachers to government should have strong commitment to
really eradicate racism and discrimination. From the background, perspective,
and the theories of racism and discrimination, all authors agree that all
students have the same privilege to get the same quality of education. What
make difference among authors is they way they view the difference. McIntyre,
McKenzie, and Delpit focus the discrimination from the teachers’ and students’
point of view, Lipman from the law and policy perspective, Hall both from his
paper and film sees the difference form stereotyping or discourse perspective,
while, Merriam, Travis & Rosenbulm see the difference from general point of
view. To end up this article, I would like to wrap up the idea of the three
week material that actually “we are one,
but we are many.” Therefore it is now the time to create the equal law for
all people and then we really apply the equity law in our life.
Reference
Delpit, L. (2006) Other Peoples Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New
York: New Press.
Hall, S, (2001). Foucault: Power,
Knowledge, and Discourse. In, Discourse
Theory and Practice. A Reader. Eds., Wetherell, Taylor, and Yates. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lipman, P. (2003). Chicago school
policy: Regulating Black and Latino youth in the global city. Race, Ethnicity,
and Education, 6(4), 331-355
McIntyre, A. (1997). Constructing an
image of a White teacher, Teachers
College Record v 98 (4).
McKenzie, K.B. (2000). Emotional Abuse
of Students of Color: The Hidden Humanity in our Schools. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
Meriam, S. (2007). Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing. Krieger
Publishing Company. (Ch.1)
Rosenblum, K. and Travis, T-M. (2013). The Meaning of Difference: American
Constructions of Race, Sex, and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and
Disability. New York: McGraw-Hill. (6th Edition).
Videos:
Race: An Illusion (on Angel)
Stuart Hall- Representation & Media
Comments