Journal #4
Covert racism is the worse. Like stated earlier, Neo Nazi's actions are easily identifiable. It's the tiny actions that perpetuate the ignorance and feelings of racism. If you saw a black man walking down the sidewalk would you cross the street? Would you clutch your purse a little tighter? If a car cuts you off do you dismiss the person's bad driving because they are of Asian descent? Think about it. Your true feelings are expressed in split second fleeting motions. If you heard someone talking Arabic or another Middle Eastern laniguage in the line at the grocery store, would you switch lanes? This, sadly, has happened to me before. I was standing in line with my father and he was speaking Farsi to me. Everyone in line grew uncomfortable and eventually switched lanes. The cashier grew silent, scanned our items through, and handed me the receipt, not my father who had paid. I looked the lady in the face and said, "Thank you for being so welcoming and friendly. I will not be returning to this establishment again." Living in Temecula was very difficult. Everyone thought I was Mexican and associated a variety of stereotypes with me. I have also been told that I do not have the credentials to talk about these types of topics because "You are just white." A college professor actually said that to me. Temecula, being a largely conservative community is covered is discriminatory signage, bumper stickers, and the like. There is a man that sits outside of the Temecula Post Office with a sign that depicts as picture of President Obama as Hitler. Everyone just drove by and an uncomfortable number of people honked in support. My boyfriend and I pulled over, got out of the car, and had a very very long dialogue with the man. I think the biggest bias I have is ignorance. It is difficult for me not to immediately jump on someone when they make ignorant or discriminatory comment. This is one of my biggest biases. I always think to myself, well, if I don't say something no one will. This is also a mentality I take into the classroom. I can't stand it when students used words like "fag" or "beaner." I immediately try to calm myself down, take a deep breath, and come at this ignorant comment from the perspective of an educator. If I don't tell you why it's wrong, it will just perpetuate. This is definitely a trigger of mine that I am very aware of and need to make sure that I always maintain a professional demeanor because most of the time, the students are repeating what they have heard in their own home.
I would love to know how you deal with these kinds of comments?
No comments:
Post a Comment