I had an interesting upbringing.

I lived in Salem OR for the first nine

years of my life and both my town and my school was predominately white.

My parents raised me to be aware that people were different; however their

differences were to be celebrated. At the same time I wasnt overtly made

aware of the dominant white culture we have developed in this country.

When I moved to Portland I went to a predominantly black school and I

experienced a certain level of hatred that I never had before, the key reason

being that I am white. My parents were very honest with me about how the

neighborhood was always a black community, but in the last few years many

white families have been moving in and have raised the rent of low income

families. I didnt understand why they didnt realize that I also came from a

low income family and that I was an individual who didnt have anything to

do with these reforms that I didnt even understand. Taking this course has

taught me many things, one of them being that people of more color tend to

not be seen as individuals, but instead are measured by their ethnicity. This

is one of the many luxuries that I am personally afforded as a white person.

As a child I didnt see the kids I went to school with as individuals, I saw them

as a single entity that attacked me. I will never understand what it is like to

be a person of more color; however I was gifted with an interesting

perspective that enables me to have a deeper sympathy. Over the course of

this term I have begun to see my three year streak of being bullied as a gift

and at times a gift I didnt fully appreciate or understand at the time.

 As I said before I wasnt taught to aware of the white dominant culture,

even when I attended Vernon. So this course was the first time that I truly

chose to be aware of what goes on in this country pertaining to race

relations. All of the areas in which white people, like me, are benefitted over

people of more color from systems that were implemented hundreds ago and

continue exist. In the early days of this term when I was reading the text and

the watching the films my first instinct was to feel guilty and in some way fix

the mistakes of my ancestors. As we read, this is a natural emotion that

many white people who choose to see the truth feel. I think this is one of the

reasons that we tend to look away. We have the luxury to be blind to what

we do to others through reforms in politics, economics, education, and social

constructs. Its easier to have an easy life when we dont acknowledge the

truth. We dont need to feel guilty or be accountable. Its only when we look

outside of our cultural experience that we are receptive of responsibility and

the areas where we make mistakes, which should be a burden and a struggle

to correct. We put that struggle on others based on their inherent traits. I felt

guilty for that and some level I still do. I am working on transforming that

sense of shame into accountability, because guilt is never constructive, but

the actions and the ideology that come from awareness can change the

world. I realize that as a white person I have an obligation to stand up and

speak from the platform that I was born with.

I am not a parent. There are so many things that people who have

children have to navigate that I cant imagine having to deal with. One of
those things is race relations and bias. I have heard parents talk about how

their children will make friends with anyone no matter what they are and

they feel a sense of pride from that. I can understand being grateful that

your child has a healthy social life or even that they choose to go outside of

their cultural understanding. Its just the idea that its celebrated that their

children go out of their way to befriend diverse people that makes me

concerned. Its the same way I have come to think about the term colorblind.

What one is declaring when they use that phrase is I see that youre, insert

difference with declarer here, but I dont mind. In fact Im so ok with you that

Im going to pretend that youre not a certain way so that we dont have

uncomfortable social interactions or negative emotions. Its these sediments

that are the building block of bias. Bias is an element of the human condition

and over the course of the last three months I have come to terms with some

of my bias. I think its incredibly nave to have this opinion, but many people

are under the impression that children are blind to bias. Certainly

preschoolers talk about what they see, and often they do it in ways that

make children uncomfortable.(Tatum). This is why it is so important to

answer children honestly when they ask question about topics such as race.

Children have to know that its natural to observe peoples differences and

that its healthy to talk about these observations, they have to have

someone that they can talk with openly. Educators and classrooms can be a

vehicle for those conversations. Unbiased education is about approaching

childrens observations of the world seriously and honestly. We must invite

people into our classrooms when we do not know how to appropriately

approach some topics. When the need arises we must initiate conversations

that are centered on controversial topics that students may be curious about,

such as race relations or the LBTGQ+ community.

Something Im concerned about is the implementation of unbiased

education vs. diversity education in schools. As Tim Wise points out, its not

that diversity is not important. Thats not the point. The point is systemic

injustice. I think that diversity education can be extremely constructive;

however its another tool thats used to benefit white people. Instead of

educating all people to work well with one another, like what unbiased

education focuses on, diversity focuses on teaching white people about other

cultures in ways that tend to encourage empathy rather than understanding.

Understanding only happens when there is a two way conversation, but

diverse education doesnt encourage that. Although there are cases where

diversity is really successful in schools, I have seen too many instances of

speakers from a certain culture coming in and educating students on their

community and the students nod their heads and thank the speaker for

coming and they might have discussion about what they learned from their

guests. Thats all. Thats not wrong, it just allows for people to hear a

singular voice within a culture and from those perceptions decide that they

understand this culture. However special events in isolation can reinforce

stereotypes rather than challenge them. (Lee, et al) Also it encourages

going through the motions of listening rather than participating in a multiple

perspective discussion.

I think that when we talk about race relations in this society and

particularly in schools we often times mention the same five people and

most of those people are black people that either were instrumental in

ending slavery or leaders in the civil rights movement. This can be

detrimental on many levels. First of all students of more color get the

message that to be successful they must fit the images of Martin Luther King

Jr., Barack Obama, and Rosa Parks. It also shows white students that only

people of more color can be advocates. When we do not show

representations of white advocates or portray them in negative terms

students of more color may believe that white people only harm them and

do not make an effort to correct mistakes made in this country, that those

mistakes go completely unseen. White students may believe that they can

only be contributors to the problem and not be the advocates that they

should be. The sad truth is that nothing will change if members of the

dominant group do not speak out. When I was fourteen I read John Howard

Griffins Black Like me, in which he permanently darkened the pigment of

skin so that he could travel the country and better understand what it is like

to be a black man in the sixties. He wanted to provide his readers with an

honest depiction of the structures of this country and although he had some

opinions I dont agree with he was honest. The Southern Negro will not tell

the white man the truth. He long ago learned that if he speaks the truth
unpleasing to the white, the white will make his life miserable. (Griffin) Not

many people agree with my opinion however I think that all white people and

especially white men have an obligation to be out spoken about the truth

and how citizens of this country and of the world are being treated.

During this term I have reevaluated my responsibility in the dominant

white culture that we enforce politically, economically, in the education

system, and in social circles. I am now honest with myself about some of the

biases I have and I know that children may also have those biases no matter

how young they are. I have ideas of how to approach talking about race and

other topics in a classroom. I have found some white advocates that I can

look up to or build on the ideas that they have. Most importantly I have

stepped on the platform that I was born with so that I can speak in support of

others as I hope they will for me.

Work Cited
Tim Wise, Video: Tim Wise Lecture- Between Barack and a Hard Place:

Racism Privilege and White Denial in the Age of Obama Captioned,

October, 15, 2008

Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, Beverly Daniel

Tatum, PH.D, 1997, Basic Books

Beyond Heroes and Holidays, Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart, Margo Okazawa-

Rey, 1998, Teaching for change

Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin, 1960, Penguin Books