The most salient experience that I have with racism was when I was interviewing for a teaching position. I interviewed for a middle school position teaching special education. The middle school was in an urban area and was predominantly African-American. The principal asked me about my high school’s diversity ratio and my own personal upbringing. My high school exhibited very little racial or ethnic diversity. He asked me, “How in the world do you expect to relate to these children who come from poor, abuse-filled, black homes? You have no idea what they have to deal with on a daily basis since you came out of a happy, white home. They will eat you alive”. I was disgusted by his comments. He was judging me before he even knew me. I told him that despite my upbringing, I attended a diverse university and was not racist. He made several other rude, demeaning comments toward me about my inability to teach African-American children. It was very frustrating. I thanked him for his time and told him that I did not want to work in an atmosphere where I had to prove that I was not racist. He knew nothing about me. My family is bi-racial and prior to my father finishing college (which he did when I was 5) we lived with limited financial means. Just because my “surface culture” fit into the dominant culture in the United States, all families are different and should be treated as such.
This experience made me realize how quickly someone can judge others by only their surface culture. It is frustrating and unfortunately I have been on both ends of the experience. I have judged others wrongly at times. This is something that I need to work on.
(I chose this photo of our trip to Disney this past summer. We were are Epcot and loved the diversity that it presented. Noah, Masen, Maddyn, Mekhi, Owen, & Ella with Mickey!)
My family is blessed to be racially diverse, have multiple religions, differing sexual orientations, differing financial statuses, and ability levels. Diversity can be so beautiful! We can learn so much from each other!!!
Great point about surface culture. I have come across a few individuals over my lifetime who sounded just like the individual you described. I think the older I get the more I make the choice to comment back to these individuals (in the most diplomatic way of course). It is sad that this school lost out on a great teacher because of their own blinders they wear. I think we all need to be more aware how we treat others as well. Courses such as this one are a real eye opener that is for sure. Great post! I enjoyed reading it very much.
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. That principal sounds like he'd be terrible to work for. I'm glad you stood up for your self and told him that you didn't want to work in an environment like that. They lost out on a great teacher and he is doing the kids in his school a disservice. And since when is a "white home" always happy? Through my work and from stories I've heard from people, I've heard of and have seen the affects of abuse in white homes as well. There are both happy or abusive homes in every gru of people. Yes, white people and African American people have different experiences when it comes to race and oppression. However, it doesn't mean we have nothing in common or that we can't all learn from and teach each other.