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Topic: Race Discussion -- self-perception and education (Read 315 times) |
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Hypatia society
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Race Discussion -- self-perception and education
« Thread started on: Aug 18th, 2003, 5:14pm » |
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Hi All,
One of the issues that I hope we will address with Hypatia is with regard to minority G/T children. I think that our efforts to encourage G/T specific youth will also translate into the greater population as a whole.
I did a survey at an inner city high school a while back to see how the students percieved themselves culturally.. what does it mean to be black, act black, versus trying to be white, act white.
The results were quite discouraging, and gave me a strong desire to try and make a difference in this area. It seems to me that by adopting a cultural identity which requires one, to remain a part of the culture, to not do well in school or care about education is to feed into the racist attitudes of the past.
This is the link to the survy and results, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
http://photofoxygirl.tripod.com/hypatiasociety/id57.html
Julie
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RoddyYoung
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Re: Race Discussion -- self-perception and educati
« Reply #1 on: Aug 19th, 2003, 4:00pm » |
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Two of the respondants in the survey just signed their names and this interests me. Two posibilities that could account for this is that by giving no responce but validating the questions by acknoledging them with a signiture is a way of not getting caught in the steriotypes that the person profile project into contempory USA.
The second is that it is easy to sign and not entertain the class work but day dream about other things.
In all cases I feel that I would like to have an IQ scores next to each comment so I can find out if the comments are from the highest or the lowest IQ person.
i was heartened by the overall comments as a feeling of inocence is still with some of the kids.
How would I write up a set of questions so we can chose which counties we are talking about. The description of the countries are to focus on equitable use of the worlds resourses.
That would be good to show that these children are in a country that they may portray a whiteness persona internationally and all children are clasified as white even though some have dark skin. White because the dominant political attertudes are coming from disproportionate numbers of people who were white when you look at the colour of the skin of the founding fathers. By the citizenship of their birth place dark skined peoples have white fathers when they are looked at internationally. I personally believe that the world is but one country and humankind its citizens as a follower of Baha'u'llahs teaching and so I see the oneness of humanity in this question but note that countries from time to time reflect the dominate groups thinking in the internal and external expressions of nation hood.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 19th, 2003, 4:11pm by RoddyYoung » |
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Roddy Young
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thebohemian7
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Re: Race Discussion -- self-perception and educati
« Reply #2 on: Aug 20th, 2003, 03:45am » |
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Are you a Baha'i? My foster father is one of the most important Baha'is in Australia, if not the most important. You might know him.
As for the IQ of racists, I believe that there are racists at both ends. There are racists among the poor unemployed and the lower classes (although lower class doesn't necessarily mean low IQ obviously, it means low education, but low education doesn't mean low IQ), but also among very high IQ people. There has been a very long pretty racist discussion on the Mega Board for example. This is very sad.
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There was never a genius without a tincture of madness. Aristotle
Common sense is a collection of prejudices acquired by the age of 18. - Albert Einstein.
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wendallpauls
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Re: Race Discussion -- self-perception and educati
« Reply #3 on: Aug 21st, 2003, 1:43pm » |
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I can't say "race" is an issue that carries much play with me. It's seems it has been overdone one too many time. After all, who among us, rational people grounded in common sense, does not realize that judging people for conditions they have absolutely no control over is an asinine approach to life.
That much said, I would like to alert anyone out there to the movie "Monster's Ball". I watched in last evening, and found myself thoroughly impressed. It was, to me, one of those films that dealt with the issue without "dealing with the issue". It wasn't preachy. It wasn't condescending. It was just real.
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Hypatia society
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Re: Race Discussion -- self-perception and educati
« Reply #4 on: Aug 21st, 2003, 10:39pm » |
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Hi Wendall,
In response to the 'race' thing... I believe that this issue is really appropriate to Hypatia Society because it seems that gifted minority children are the most underserved group of all, not only because of lack of proper programs, but also due to cultural bias against education and achievement. I personally think, if educational advocacy for underserved youth is to be one of our areas of focus, that we would be irresponsible not to consider the implications of cultural bias... this bias also clearly exists within other minority populations (particularly among females).
But, this is just my opinion, and while I consider this to be a very important issue, I am not interested in pursuing programs without the approval and assistance of other people.
Thanks for your take on this subject. I hope we will get some more minority members so we will have a better idea of the scope of the problem.
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Millieb03
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Re: Race Discussion -- self-perception and educati
« Reply #5 on: Aug 22nd, 2003, 2:33pm » |
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Hi Julie,
You've really struck a cord that seriously needs to be addressed within the African-American community. That a lot of us refuse to discuss. Being labeled as acting white still plaques high achievers within our community I remember as a child, some of the black children wouldn't play with me because I was dark. so instead of brooding over the love of my people, I simply made friends with a few of the Anglo children. Afterwards. that created a problem because then the black kids who wouldn't play with me because I was dark, accused me of acting white. I didn't fret about though. I went about my business of making friends with people of all races.
Even as an adult today, some within my community consider me weird or strange because I don't act "ghetto fabulous." I don't have a million kids that I know I can't support. I don't have some man laying around my house not working beating on me. Lastly, I stay to myself and mind my own business. So, that means that I'm acting white. I love people from all races and I wouldn't have it any other way. 
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Millicent
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thebohemian7
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Re: Race Discussion -- self-perception and educati
« Reply #6 on: Aug 25th, 2003, 04:54am » |
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What you say reminds me somehow of a certain attitude I noticed in Vienna, where foreigners seem to hate foreigners even more than Austrians and to avoid them, or even more Austrians of foreign background. There must be a certain mentality behind this. "If I avoid this group I don't belong to them". Many of the politicians against foreigners had a clearly foreign surname (particularly from Eastern Europe).
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There was never a genius without a tincture of madness. Aristotle
Common sense is a collection of prejudices acquired by the age of 18. - Albert Einstein.
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Hypatia society
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Re: Race Discussion -- self-perception and educati
« Reply #7 on: Aug 31st, 2003, 10:08pm » |
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Millicent: I appreciate your input and sharing of your experience. I like to think that there is a solution to every problem if a) you look far and wide enough, and b) are willing to accept that the solution may not be comfortable or easy. I wonder, in this society built on instant gratification, if we will ever find the motivation to truly solve the 'race problem' in America and finally learn to think of each other as individuals instead of colors.
Bohemian: That must be quite disconcerting for tourists 
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