Hi,
I thought that the reading for this week was very interesting and I enjoy these sorts of sociological studies. However, I disagreed with many of the points of the reading. For example, in McIntosh's reading, the premise was that whites, and more specifically white men, are in a privileged position in society that women and minorities cannot enjoy. I feel that if this was twenty or thirty years ago, the author may have a point. I immediately remembered thinking of studies I have read about how women do not make as much as men for equal work. However, the author's proof for such claims is shaky at best. For example, the author says that proof that he is privileged as a white in his everyday life was that he can turn on the TV or open a newspaper and see people of his race represented. I don't know about others, but every time I turn on a TV I notice all races being represented, almost to the point where it is painfully obvious in many commercials that the writer of the commercial went above and beyond to have a white, an Asian, an African-american, and a Hispanic person represented in the commercial in an obvious attempt to be representative of the population. Another claim that can be refuted was when the author stated that his children are given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race. I think this is bogus as well, but possibly one could make the argument historically for this case. However, anyone who has taken an education class in history knows the schools are pushing to represent every underrepresented population in history, with national myths being exposed and studies of other cultures and peoples being interwoven extensively into curriculum. There are many other examples which caught my eye, and I found many claims to be dated and of another more discriminatory time.
Towards the end of the article, the author goes on to speak about other things which oppress people, such as someone's age or physical ability. Though I find the article intriguing, I feel his claims are overstated and dare I say nauseating to a point, as he complains about virtually every population being "oppressed" in some way. In fact, I feel as long as we keep this tragic story of oppression alive, we will never move on from racism. Furthermore, it is insulting to minorities to treat them as oppressed people to be felt sorry for, when every day they are working hard just like every other race. I do have to say though that this reading was worthy because it did open my eyes to consider another point of view, though it did not convince me.
In the Affirming Diversity text, something that stood out to me was the authors underlining of the point that it is a civil rights issue for every child to get a truly equal education. I couldn't agree more strongly and I find it astonishing that in this day in age there are still ELL students even in the state of Massachusetts that are denied an equal education. If we are to promote an image of a free America, a land of opportunity for all, than we need to start treating every group regardless of background in that manner rather than just in rhetoric. This chapter also introduced me to many terms in this field, such as achievement gap, and reminded me about some of the history of their development. This was a good way to open up the course, as now we will be able to speak on these issues in an educated way using vocabulary. In addressing the achievement gap, it is regrettable that lagging students are often in impoverished schools with few resources and inexperienced teachers. This reading opened my eyes to how the problems of poverty and low achievement are institutionalized, and I feel the Board of Education needs to do more and provide incentive for quality teachers to work in poverty-ridden areas to stop this system of economic oppression. Overall, I realize that it is impossible to create a truly equal system, but the reading really got me interested in the course and it made me aware as a future teacher the importance of providing an equitable and equal education for all. I think it is sad that we haven't got there yet in the year 2012. I feel that strict laws and strict punishment by the government for offending school districts such as steep funding cuts for schools that violate a student's right to an education may help remedy the situation.
