I attended a workshop on racism a while ago that almost made my head explode.
The workshop consisted of a multicultural group of about 40 people. The lead facilitator asked us to do two things:
- write down what race/ethnicity we identified ourselves as
- write down what we liked about being a member of that race/ethnicity
I identified myself as a white person. (My ancestry on my father’s side traces back to Spain; from my mother’s side, I’m part Irish. But I don’t really know much about my Spanish or Irish heritage.)
That was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out what I liked about being a white guy. Hmmm, I guess it’s nice being a part of the majority, I thought. I don’t ever really have to think about my race/ethnicity because I’m white.
The facilitator gave us a few moments to write these things down, then brought everyone together.
“How many people here identify themselves as Latino or Latina?” she asked. A few people raised their hands. She picked out one woman and asked her, “What do you like about being Latina?”
“Oh! I love the culture. I love the food, the music, the celebrations, the holidays, the language, the rich history of our people . . . ”
The facilitator then asked, “How many people here identify themselves as African American?” She picked out a guy who had raised his hand and asked him the same question.
His response sounded familiar: “Oh! I love the culture. I love the food, the music, the celebrations, the holidays, the language, the rich history of our people . . . “
A white woman could see where this was headed and protested. “Wait, this isn’t fair. I’m white, but I’m also Jewish. You didn’t ask me what I liked about being Jewish. If you had, I would have said all the same things about culture, food, music, celebrations and all that . . . ”
The facilitator responded, “I asked you to write down what race/ethnicity you identified yourself as. You chose white.”
* * *
The point of the exercise was this: If I apply for a job, if I stand in front of a judge, if I encounter a police officer, if I go to a social event and I act in a way that shows that I identify myself as Irish or Spanish, there’s a good chance that I won’t have as much in common with other people in the room. If I identify myself as white, now there’s a good chance that I’m in the majority.
There are benefits to being a member of the majority.
But there is a cost as well. The cost is my lost connection to the food, the music, the celebrations, the holidays, the language, and the rich history of my people.
The story of America is the story of one pale-skinned ethnic group after another facing that agonizing question: do I maintain my cultural identity and remain a “minority” or do I jettison that part of me to gain the benefits of being in the majority?
* * *
E pluribus unum. It means, “Out of many, one.” It’s written on the Seal of the United States.
* * *
As in so many other ways, school is once again a microcosm of America. Kids show up at the schoolhouse door with all the wonderful things that make them unique, and they have to put all that aside.
The things that make them special have no place in an environment that is designed for standardization. School is a place for kids of any skin tone, any religion, any belief system. But understand that school is not going to plug in to your interests or your passion. You have to plug in to their program.
Do we really value diversity in schools? If so, then diversity has to be about more than just kids with different skin colors on the brochure. We have to create schools that help kids become more of who they already are instead of trying to turn them into something they’re not.
There are many ways to do this, but we can start by eliminating required classes filled with stuff that we think is important. Instead we can ask them a simple question: What are you interested in learning?
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