Allan Johnson (Sarah's Example)
- "The bottom line is that a trouble we can't talk about is a trouble we can't do anything about" (13, "Privilege...").
- "Talking about power and privilege isn't easy, which is why people rarely do" (15, "Privilege...").
- "Unless you live in a culture that recognizes those differences as significant and meaningful, they are socially irrelevant and therefore do not exist" (21, "Privilege...").
Teaching student about the important of their cultures. The class "recognizes those differences as significant and meaningful". (Shown Below).
Towards the end of my service learning visits, my class was finally exposed to an activity regarding their different cultures. My teacher did a week long activity called RICE. They read a book called "Everybody Cooks Rice"; this was a way to teach them about cultural diversity in a creative way. I wasn't expecting there to be any sort of discussion about diversity, but it was a nice surprise. Johnson would have appreciated this. He says that "talking about power and privilege isn't easy, which is why people rarely do", but it is something that people should do. It was a way to teach the students that all countries make rice, but they all make it in different ways. They use different recipes and different flavors. Similar to how people are from different cultures, and they have different appearances and customs; they are still people. The class decorated their door with different rice recipes from different countries, they even brought in rice dishes for people to try, and they also looked up their different ethic backgrounds. They talked about which countries that their family came. Johnson would have preferred that they explicitly say the words, but the student figured out which country their rice dish came from. This "trouble we can't talk about" became something that this class was able to find a way to talk about. In a school that is 90% diverse, it is important that this subject about diversity and difference was brought up. The students can now "live in a culture that recognizes those differences as significant and meaningful", they exist and they are out in the open. The students will not have to be suddenly exposed to it later in life; of course they will learn more along the way in a more explicit way. This RICE activity was a good way to expose them to diversity at a early age.
Connections-
This was an example that made me also think about McIntosh and Unpacking the White Knapsack, who speaks about white privilege. By speaking about the RICE activity and acknowledging other cultures, this totally wipes away any type of white privilege in the classroom. Especially because of the fact that there is only one white kid in my classroom. By having the students talk about, and get excited about their cultures, was a great way to eliminate white privilege or other signs of dominance because of culture. In my classroom the quote from "White Privilege Knapsack", "unless white people actively pay attention to it, whiteness will go unnoticed and unacknowledged". White privilege is something that I have never seen in my class, which I think is worth mentioning.
This was an example that made me also think about McIntosh and Unpacking the White Knapsack, who speaks about white privilege. By speaking about the RICE activity and acknowledging other cultures, this totally wipes away any type of white privilege in the classroom. Especially because of the fact that there is only one white kid in my classroom. By having the students talk about, and get excited about their cultures, was a great way to eliminate white privilege or other signs of dominance because of culture. In my classroom the quote from "White Privilege Knapsack", "unless white people actively pay attention to it, whiteness will go unnoticed and unacknowledged". White privilege is something that I have never seen in my class, which I think is worth mentioning.