Identifying and Exploring the Argument of Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

    

Lisa Delpit, Author of Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom.

    The argument presented by Lisa Delpit in her work Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom is that the needs of children of color are not being met in the classroom because a dominantly white education industry insists on teaching students of color with the same curriculum, context, and tools as white students. She asserts that this way of teaching is flawed, because it falsely assumes that people of color will have the same opportunities, assets, and history at their disposal as the white students for which the education is being crafted. As we have previously discussed in last week’s reading, this is systematically false due to the disproportionate amount of people of color living in low-income neighborhoods, the daily prejudice that people of color must overcome in all facets of their lives, and the various cultural background differences between people of color and white people. Delpit asserts that the best thing educators can do for their students of color are a) to hear, not just listen to educators of color who can earnestly speak about and work with the struggles and differences of students of color, and b) to acknowledge and teach about these differences and disadvantages, rather than ignore them and both set students of color up for failure while also allowing more generations of white students to move on to their lives with ignorance of the bias and advantage they carry. 

    It’s not difficult to see why students of color’s needs have continuously failed to be met in education settings. As previously mentioned, like with many fields, education is largely white-employed, and educators are inherently going to be biased. This can be minimized through self-awareness and self-reflection, but it doesn’t allow these white educators to properly understand or address the experience of students of color, ensuring that they are unable to adequately address the needs or challenges of students of color. Additionally, the continued segregation of schools through social and economic classes goes hand in hand with systematic racial oppression, as low-income schools are disproportionately filled with students of color. This means that while middle-class white students receive modern technology and more experienced educators that have relatively easy access to materials and resources, students of color often are left to make do with little to no tech in an age that demands proficiency with it, and educators that are struggling to make do with their classroom resources. The disadvantage of students of color in classrooms is supported by various studies, such as one in 2016 that found students with lighter skin tones were more likely to be accepted to or attend higher education (Ryabov, 2016). The same people behind that study also asserted that educators may have unconscious biases towards students of color with more classically euro-centric features, and a later study supported this when it found that students of color with darker skin tones sustained lower GPAs than students of color from the same racial groups with lighter skin tones (Thompson & McDonald, 2016).

    A point I'd like to share in class is the role personalized learning could play in resolution of this issue. I'm a big believer in and a big pusher of personalization on every possible level of the education structure, and I believe that personalizing education to better address and fit the experiences, differences, and needs of students of color would be a massive step in the right direction when working to make education a more fair environment for all students. 

    However, I also recognize that by asserting this and interjecting my own ideas to resolve this issue, I am inadvertently doing the same thing so criticized in the piece we've just read. While I believe my ideas of personalization in classrooms is a strong one that could do a lot of good for students of color, I will heed these ideas to actual educators of color who have the experiences and knowledge of what it's like to be a student of color, so they have the space to meet the needs that the education system failed to meet for them not so long ago. 

Hyperlink

Allan G. Johnson's Privilege, Power & Difference

Privilege, Power and Difference, the subject of today's response.

    As I read Allan G. Johnson’s Privilege, Power and Difference, I am reminded of and forced to once again confront a number of elements. To start, though I am non-binary, I am male presenting and certainly enjoy many of the societal benefits that come with being a man. Likewise, I am bisexual, but am in a straight presenting relationship despite both of us identifying with the non-binary spectrum. Additionally, I am white, of middle class, and aside from seasonal affective disorder do not suffer from mental illness. So I have found myself in the unique position of being someone who technically has (and upon demonstrating the less obvious sides of my identity am more prone to experience) the ability to speak on disadvantage and discrimination on a societal level. But my perception is most certainly warped due to the shields I have from this, and I also understand better than many who are more obviously marginalized the defensiveness that rises in you unwittingly when an accusatory finger is pointed towards you. Allan Johnson likely shared this experience, as a white man with a wife, and this makes for a reading that speaks to me and my experience of the world and its relationship with minorities better than most. 

Allan G. Johnson, author of Privilege, Power and Difference.

I’ve come to understand how entangled each subject of oppression is. An example I like to use is this: police brutality is an issue that you would be hard pressed to argue doesn’t exist. There have been countless recorded instances since the early 1990’s of police using brutal, unnecessary force, and even today the conversation is as topical as ever. Many would say that this is an issue of racism, and the police targeting black people. However, statistics suggest that while a bigger part of the black population is affected due to its relative size, just as many white people as black people seem to be targeted and brutalized by police each year. The constant in this is that police brutality is almost always in low income neighborhoods, which are, of course, more prone to crime. However, while this is true and I would suggest is the leading target of police brutality (that is to say, people that can’t afford to defend themselves or people that have done ‘wrong’ and therefore deserve to be beaten in the minds of a power-warped authority), you can’t make this argument without also acknowledging that low income neighborhoods house more people of color than most neighborhoods due to previous systematic oppression, and through entirely different systematic problems, it is near impossible for anyone to get out of poverty once in it. Not only does this make minority communities disproportionate targets of police brutality, but it also leads to the stigma that all minorities are low-income and/or criminals, which then allows this already serious issue to affect people of color that aren’t in poor neighborhoods when police and others assume they’re low income, and therefore, criminals.   

This is how entangled our systematic issues are, and to confront them properly means to confront them all. This is why it is important for authors like Allan Johnson to reassert the importance of understanding privilege, and how those with it can utilize it for good. It’s what I appreciate most about his writing- the theme of accountability, not judgment that echoes throughout the work. It’s not a crime to have privilege; we are born with it. But it is important to recognize it and use it to advocate for those who don’t have privilege, to work towards turning those privileges into rights for all. This is the thesis of Johnson’s piece, and it’s a message that I can happily get behind.

First Blog

 

Hi all, my name is Aidan Danburg. I graduated from ACT Magnet, a performing arts school in Willimantic, CT. Attached are some photos of my time there, including my last poetry performance, halloween, and my senior year prom with my wonderful partner. I am currently a freshman Elementary Education major and am excited about my future classes and career.