Disparate Attitudes Towards Minority Students

In our two articles this week, we consider how the educational system is designed to keep Black students marginalized, even as other minority students exist and yet are ignored.  It is eye-opening to look at the efforts put into rationalizing discrimination against Black people while putting other minorities on a pedestal (or at least not putting in the effort to keep them down).

Michael Dumas, author of “Against the Dark: Antiblackness in Education Policy and Discourse”, begins by discussing an issue of National Geographic that imagines a future where whites are no longer the majority. The magazine’s article, “The Changing Face of America” by Lise Funderburg, depicts people of mixed race, and suggests that in the future it will be difficult to discern a person’s racial and ethnic heritage just by looking at them. Dumas quotes Funderburg, who writes, “‘perhaps we’ll be forced to reconsider existing definitions of race and identity, presumptions about who is us and who is them’” (11). It is an optimistic idea, that someday the ‘other’ will no longer be defined. An issue that Dumas finds with this is that even as our society becomes multiracial, dark-skinned people will cease to exist. 

Dumas invokes the term ‘antiblackness’ to describe society’s attitude towards Black people, and how their historic position in slavery has persisted 150 years after the abolition of the practice. He says that “the slave endures in the social imagination, and also in the everyday suffering experienced by Black people” (14).  One of the passages that struck me in particular is where he discusses the fact that society has never had a moment where it transitioned from considering Black people as slaves to considering them Human. In fact, the very idea of antiblackness focuses on the exclusion of Black people from the label of Human. This practice has been perpetuated even into the 21^stcentury, where Jared Sexton argues that there is an even stronger boundary not between Black and white, but “‘between blackness and everything else’” (15). As our society grows more diverse, we have found ways to continue to oppress Black people, such as residential segregation, which has a direct impact on schools. 

As we discussed in class, schools are populated by those who live in the district. The practice of redlininghas historically been used to keep non-white people in certain areas, meaning that they will populate certain schools. This has allowed white people to manipulate districts to serve their desire for segregation even as it was made illegal. Dumas challenges modern educators to question these practices and to be ready for “honest and very specific conversations about Black bodies, blackness, and Black historical memories in and of the school and local community” (17). It is up to us to change the way our schools are run and repurpose our policies and discourse to raise up the Black community rather than push it down. 

In contrast to the experience of Black students is that of Asian American students. In her article “Beyond Black and White: The Model Minority Myth and the Invisibility of Asian American Students”, Jean Yonemura Wing studies several Asian American students at Berkeley High School. She aims to unpack how their experience differs from the “‘Model Minority Myth,’ which says that Asians comprise the racial minority group that has ‘made it’ in America through hard work and education, and therefore serve as a model for other racial minorities to follow” (456). Wing’s studies show the negative sides of this myth that many people ignore.

Historically, Asian Americans have had a different experience than Black Americans.  Some of the myths perpetuated by the perceived model minority status include: all Asians are high achievers academically; all Asians excel at math; Asian culture highly values education; there is less or no racial discrimination against Asian Americans. What Wing uncovers is a diverse group of students from different backgrounds, with different abilities and differing family values. They speak of the ways that they are discriminated against; how the presumption that they are predisposed to be ‘smart’ actually creates obstacles. One student expressed anger about a teacher mispronouncing his name and then dismissing the correction. Another told about being students being rude to her because they assumed she was smarter than they were. 

What strikes me about this article is that I have seen this myth perpetuated in my own life, and I never realized that it was a problem. I always thought that people assuming good things about you was a positive. Wing’s study shows how wrong I was. It’s important to realize how our students can be affected by comments we may think to be inane, and that even if we believe we are complimenting a student, we may just be reinforcing a stereotype. 

In the following video, Shannen Kim explains her experience in education:

Behind the Model Minority Myth

Her story shows how damaging the Model Minority Myth can be to students as they grapple with figuring out who they are and what they want to do with their lives. As educators this is something that we need to be aware of. Not only are we responsible for educating students, but we need to help them become the version of themselves that will make them happy.