Now What?

Reading through Howard’s book has been quite an adventure. I feel as though I learned a lot about myself, my culture and my identity, but at the same time still feel as though many questions remain unanswered. First, let’s go over some ways that I have grown through reading this book. When first choosing a book to read, I chose this one because of its interesting title. I agree entirely that it is almost impossible to teach what one doesn’t know. I want to be a great teacher, and the title of this book screamed “Now you WILL be great!” to me. When I opened up its pages, I found myself immersed in true stories of how White privilege has affected many people. I hurt for those who were discriminated against, solely based on their skin color and rejoiced for those who decided to fight against it. I have always been aware that White privilege existed, but hearing these stories made it more real. My perspective has changed in that I am more conscious of its extent of existence.

 

This knowledge will definitely impact my future teaching. Knowing that White privilege is still extremely present in today’s world, I need to actively fight against that. One of the first places where I can start is within my own classroom. I need to make it known to my students that they will all be treated equally—no one will be placed above or below any other students; they are all equal in my eyes. I also will need to work on helping my students see each other as equals also. In many classrooms today, students base their social groups on race, and that is not how it should be. I plan on actively working to help my students integrate with one anotherThis book has helped me gain much knowledge on how to be an effective White teacher in multiracial schools, but it has also given me more questions on the topic. Something I struggle with is, how much is enough? How much do I, as a White educator, need to do in order to fully be aware of my students’ diversity? It seems to be a never-ending process, one that can continue throughout a career. This makes sense I suppose because teaching in general is a continual process; each year I will be learning from my students just as much, if not more than, my students will learn from me. Another question is, could his book be applicable in the reverse situation? Wouldn’t it be just as important for a book to be written called: “We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: Black Teachers, Multiracial Schools”? Or Mexican Teachers, etc.? I wonder whether a book like this would ever be written, but it seems to me that all teachers need to be educated on all races so we can better teach all students. These questions are ones I think I will be wrestling with for awhile; there seems to be no simple solution.

Opening up Howard’s book was just one of many steps towards professional growth. As mentioned above, I believe that this type of learning is a life-long process; one can never truly be done educating themselves. To further this process, I am very interested in reading some of the other books my peers read for this project. Why are all the Black Kids sitting together in the Cafeteria? sounds like a very interesting book. From reading my peers’ experiences with it, I definitely think my competence would increase through this story. I also am very interested in attending some conferences on teaching in a diverse classroom. I found on Google an online weekend seminar entitled I hear you; Do you hear me? Teaching in a Radically Diverse Classroom. Reading through the table of contents, it sounds like an excellent seminar that would definitely benefit my competence on teaching in multiracial classrooms. These are just a couple of steps to help further my education, but I am excited to continue this endeavor. The journey of developing professionally may be a long one, but it also will be one of the most rewarding ones I will go on.

 

 

Why do I help others?

As I continue reading Howard’s book, I consistently am educated on various subjects. In chapter five, he refers to Helms, Helms and Piper’s six stages in the development of White racial identity. These are the six stages: contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-independence, immersion-emersion, and autonomy. This section stuck out to me because I think it is something that many White people experience. I’d like to explain some details from each stage.

The first is contact; in this stage White people make their first contact with a non-White person. People are usually ignorant of their White privileges here, but are also hesitant to form relationships with non-Whites. In the disintegration phase, White people acknowledge that they are in fact White, and begin to question how much they have been socialized about race. Sometimes people will feel shame or guilt over their Whiteness during this phase.

After the integration phase, people go through either the reintegration phase or the pseudo-independence phase. In the reintegration phase, those feelings amplify to having anger/fear towards non-Whites; racism is more direct during this phase. The alternative phase, pseudo-independence, is when the negative feelings of being White fade, and they work at “helping” non-Whites. The next phase, immersion/emersion, occurs when people no longer have that desire to help non-Whites, but to change themselves and fellow Whites in a positive way; they want to be proud of their race, without being a racist. The final phase is autonomy; here race is no longer a threat and people just want to eliminate oppression in all its forms.

These six phases are extremely intriguing to me. I think Howard was smart to include the next section in his book after explaining these phases—the next section, he entitled “Cautionary Notes”. He goes on to list some things that White people should be cautionary of when hearing about these phases. We need to recognize when we develop, but should not feel set within these particular phases. Some people are born in the autonomy stage; others never make it past the integration stage.

Reflecting on this passage has made me wonder what stage am I in. Contact? No, I’ve had plenty of experiences with non-White people, and I have no hesitations forming relationships with them. One of my best friends from high school is African-American, and I am so thankful God gave us such a great friendship. Disintegration? I don’t think so. I’m confident that I have been socialized about my race, and I do not feel guilty or ashamed about being White. My next options would be reintegration or pseudo-independence. I don’t believe I am in reintegration because I am not racist; I have no hard feelings towards non-Whites. Pseudo-independence? Maybe. Throughout my aiding placements, I have found myself leaning more towards helping non-White students more so than the Whites. Usually it is because they are the ones needing the additional help, but nonetheless, I tend to have a desire to help them. That would be my guess at where I’m at according to those six stages. One reason why I think I may be in the pseudo-independence stage is because of my worldview.

Within my worldview I believe strongly in God’s commandment of helping others. Matthew 5:16 says this, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” I think it is so important to help others; doing so helps spread the light of Jesus Christ. I don’t think believing this causes me to help non-Whites more than Whites, but I do have a very natural helpful personality—I just like helping others. Hearing about those six stages though gave me more to think about why I am helping them. I’ll definitely have something to ponder as I continue reading through Howard’s book.