Open Thread

14 Responses to Open Thread

1. Lara says:

   February 4, 2010 at 11:31 am

   I wrote a post on my blog the other day when I was feeling some intense disequilibrium due to heavy intellectual growth. I’ll quote a piece of it here:

   “It’s bubbling, my mind. My heart, it’s bleeding. I’m thinking about how one stays without staying the same. how one leaves without retreating. how one helps when every inauthentic voice tries to smother the flames of hope. how one lends space for creation instead of reiteration. how one loves through loss. how one learns through trauma. I’m thinking about my students and my child and me. I’m thinking about connection and recognition and value and hope and wondering how it all fits together – how it can’t fit together in isolation, and how I don’t want to be in isolation anymore.”
2. ms four says:

   February 4, 2010 at 12:57 pm

   I’ve been thinking about the children of Haiti, and how international adoption is not the answer for the many orphans there, or the answer to poverty anywhere, but how it’s really difficult to explain that to seemingly well-intentioned Americans.

   I’ve also been thinking about the Americans who tried to take a bunch of not-orphans out of Haiti into the Dominican Republic. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/world/americas/05orphans.html

   This part of the story is chilling: “But several of the 33 children had at least one living parent, and some of those parents said the Baptists had promised simply to educate the youngsters in the Dominican Republic, and said the children would be able to return to Haiti to visit their families.”

   The Americans were wrong even if these kids were actual orphans. But that they weren’t is so scary. It really frightens me that people think that poverty is enough of a reason to remove children from their home countries, families, cultures, languages.

   It also really upsets me because I suspect that this is also happening in Ethiopia (where my kids are from) on a really major level.

   This is not a new awakening for me. I’ve known about these problems in international adoption for a long time. But what’s so frustrating is how far the level of discourse is compared to what’s really happening in poor families around the world.

   That’s what’s on my mind.
3. Agibean says:

   February 4, 2010 at 2:52 pm

   In a discussion about Black History Month in my 5th-grade daughter’s GIFTED class (I keep hoping they’ll know better), the same kid who told her that “all black people look alike” asked why blacks should “get their own month”. Another classmate pointed out that the rest of the months are pretty much all devoted to white history…which is yet another reason why despite the excellent academics we’re looking at a less Caucasian-filled school. Again.
4. Montclair Mommy says:

   February 5, 2010 at 3:18 pm

   I’m a little disappointed at the lack of postings on this site lately. There is a lot of discussion to be had about recent happenings and I’m not finding it here. Its been awhile since something has really drawn people into a good discussion. What’s going on??
5. Seadhlinn says:

   February 5, 2010 at 3:47 pm

   @Agibean: ack. You’d think people would know better.
   I’m dreading work tonight because I’m going to have to deal with a guy who I called out for making some… unenlightened… comments about my race. And now he’s mad at *me* for “being too sensitive” and “picking a fight” because he was “just joking”.
6. mgummere says:

   February 5, 2010 at 4:48 pm

   I’ve been thinking about the huge variety of opinions regarding what should be involved in Black History Month. I’m not a mom– I run and afterschool program at a charter school for 3yr olds to Kindergartners with a 95% black population. On Monday my employees and I started to plan activities for the week and to kick off BHM. I’m white and the three employees are black. Each of us had very divergent thoughts about what the focus of BHM is– probably thoughts you’ve all heard before. What really interested me though was the divergence of opinion on what race issues are appropriate to talk about with 3 yr olds. One person wanted to do a project in which the kids placed pictures/drawings of their families on the continent of Africa to symbolize heritage. I’m very in favor of teaching kids as much African history as we do European history, but I really didn’t like this project for three year olds. Firstly, I’m not confident that they would understand the idea. But secondly, I think it’s problematic to treat the continent of Africa as a unified monolithic landmass from whence all black Americans came.

   One of the other people wanted to do a project focusing on the idea that “difference is beautiful/special.” I totally agree with this idea, but I wasn’t comfortable with planting the idea of black as different in the kids’ heads. They go to an all black school. While I’m sure they have an awareness of different skin colors, I’m not convinced that they already associate racial issues with tension and discomfort. I’d love to hear thoughts from parents with young kids!
7. Jeff says:

   February 5, 2010 at 6:19 pm

   @Montclair – I just realized that my rss reader wasn’t picking up new posts since it was still pointing at Anti-racist parent.com I wonder who else dropped off when the url changed?
8. Seadhlinn says:

   February 6, 2010 at 3:01 pm

   @mgummere: when I was that age, I loved hearing stories about specific people and events.
   I do like the general idea of a group project that would promote a sense of group accomplishment and connection, but I’m not really sure how complex you can get, especially with a big group of fairly young kids.
9. MS says:

   February 6, 2010 at 6:43 pm

   I’m an elementary school teacher in New York City and I realize from some of these comments that I have no idea how Black History Month is observed outside of my school. In my school, although we are certainly not perfect, we assume that black history, like the history of other groups, will form a part of all history we teach, throughout the year. We would never separate it out into a separate month. I understand that Black History Month was originally meant to redress the absence of black history in regular history classes. But is that still the case in most places? Shouldn’t we be working toward a way of teaching history that doesn’t segregate the history of different groups? Mostly, I am wondering how other schools observe this month and how other people feel about the month being separately labeled this way.
10. Amanda C. Whelan says:

    February 7, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    @agibean and friends: It is very distressing. The “why is there a Black History month or Indigenous Peoples Day and why can’t there be a white entertainment network and white history month” so called argument is coming out of younger and younger mouths.

    I saw a lot of that on the yahoo Vanity Fair “Young Hollywood” magazine cover thread debacle. Hundreds of people who one could tell from their avatars were well under 30, were asking why there were never any white people on the cover of Ebony or many were simply saying that “Vanity Fair” is about “money and business not race” so just “live with it.”

    It was if the social consciousness of most people posting only went back to about 1995-if even that far. Somehow being asked to acknowledge history is synonymous with “oh no, I have to be all careful about what i say now…” It seems like the main white supremacist based arguments being fed to children are:

    1. Why can there be a Black history month and not a White History month?

    2. Blacks owned slaves too, not just white people, did you know that?

    3. Why are there Black magazines and “networks” but we can’t have white ones without being called “racist?”

    4. Colonialism brought civilization, progress and medicine to brown, black and/or yellow or red people.

    I remember growing up, Black History month and studies of Native Americans never to my knowledge, came under fire from parents or the media like it is today. I think because the world is smaller now and more information is available that white supremacist/capitalist atrocities can’t be rationalized or erased any more so their is a collective “denial” going on. It really is frightening because it is so robotic.
11. Amanda C. Whelan says:

    February 7, 2010 at 7:39 pm

    “I’m not really sure how complex you can get, especially with a big group of fairly young kids.”

    Good point. We have to figure a way to make it simple.
12. Katie says:

    February 7, 2010 at 8:38 pm

    Montclair mom- I’ve been noticing that too… I would try to offer some kind of conversation starter or thought-provoking commentary, but I am lost in a mental fog…

    Maybe we could have a hair thread, or an interracial dating thread, because everybody and their momma has something to say on those.
    jk
13. Lyonside says:

    February 7, 2010 at 11:18 pm

    I’m with Seadhlinn, preschoolers love stories and new words and rhythm. I wouldn’t be so sure that children arent picking up on negative stereotypes tied to race – after all, a modern version of the white doll/black doll experiment showed the same phenomena of black children choosing white dolls as the “good” doll, and regardless of their home environment, the TV doesn’t show enough of people who look like them in positive leading roles.

    In my mom’s preschool classroom, they talk about black heroes year round, and dont’ wait until January. It kicks in high gear in January for MLK day, of course. And they recently had a BD party on Feb 4 for Rosa Parks.

    They also cover Garrett Morgan, Benjamin Carson, Jackie Robinson, and others. They tell specific stories and chants. My mom recently got some great feedback from a parent about one of the 4 year oldswho told the family pretty much EVERYTHING she had learnedin school…. including how white people and black people had different water fountains althought it was the same water, how Rosa Parks didn’t want to give up her seat when she paid for it (most of my mom’s kids are lower income and are really familiar w/ buses, so they get this one immediately), how during the boycott (and this particular kid remembered that word) lots of white and black people walked instead of riding the bus to make it fair for everyone, and how MLK said that what was inside was more important than what you look like, and that the rules were “stupid” (the only time and context theycan use that word in class, so they revel in it) and needed to change.

    In short, they pick up on A LOT.

    I agree w/ you that connecting them back to “Africa,” the entire continent, is misguided. One, it lumps the entire continent into a monolith, and 2, it kind of negates the African diaspora – the fact that many of us have roots in the Carribean, and that most of us have mixed heritage.
14. Amanda C. Whelan says:

    February 8, 2010 at 11:08 pm

    “I agree w/ you that connecting them back to “Africa,” the entire continent, is misguided. One, it lumps the entire continent into a monolith, and 2, it kind of negates the African diaspora – the fact that many of us have roots in the Carribean, and that most of us have mixed heritage.”

    Very well put. I was very disappointed when during a Question Time debate with white supremacist BNP leader Nick Griffin, Bonnie Greer, Deputy Chairman curator at the British museum stated “all of us are descended from Africa.” I know she meant well and she made so many great points but it negates the individual experiences of different races and cultures and it makes American anti-racists look cartoonish and ineffectual.

    The BNP is rising because working class white Brits have had problems understanding their place within mass immigration which has seen parts of London radically shift in as little as two generations from almost all white to almost all brown. A blanketed statement like that adds nothing to any fair solution that gives all races a place at the debate table.