Race is always a problem. Especially in the United States and particulary in the academic world. It's a slippery subject.
Todd Taylor's essay 'The Persistance of Difference in Networked Classrooms" discusses the idea of "non-negotiable difference" focusing on African-American students and literary education, asking the question "whether or not difference... can ever be resolved or negotiated." Taylor goes on to recount the "widely debated assertion that a white person in America cannot ever genuinely understand the experience of being black in this country and that as progressive as a white person may be, he or she can never get beyond at least subconscious racist thought and action."
Taylor's analysis of race and difference is focused on the usage of computers in the composition classroom and how this "non-negotiable differences" can be accounted for and taken into consideration when teaching writing. Taylor concludes that educators must not let racial "presumptions dominate perspectives" and that teachers "need to consider individuals as individuals who defy tight demographic or cultural grouping".
Taylor's seemingly well-informed and logical position somewhat defuses the race bomb. But reading the article leads my attention to a basic observation and critique of CSUP's English M.A. program regarding the low number students of color in the program.
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I think the article presents interesting ideas. We, however, should not consider just black people, but all minorities who have experienced discrimination. But, let's think about the other side for a second. At the same time that white people are unable to understand the "experience of being black," minorities cannot understand what it is like to be a white person either. All white people suffer the consequences of what certain people did in history. I'm not saying that racism does not exist, or even disagreeing with the idea that "as progressive as a white person may be, he or she can never get beyond at least subconscious racist thought and action." There is, however, some reverse discrimination going on as well.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea that computers can open everyone up to demographic and cultural differences they are not usually familiar with, is a benefit no matter what race you choose to include yourself in. Maybe we can take Taylor's advice that every student is an individual to break down the binaries of our own program and see students who we may think belong to a certain group in different ways, instead of students of color and white students.
ReplyDeleteIt is beautiful the things we can learn when looking across cultural bounds. Our blind spots are unveiled and we can appreciate other's individuality. We learn ultimately through contact with others and calling to light our differences pulls us back to see a bigger picture.
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