Background Info: I'm a half-white and half-Mexican girl, but I'm often perceived to be completely Mexican.
Situation: It's the beginning of my junior year in high school, and I walk into the career center to see about information on potential universities, scholarships, etc. As I walk in, the counselor looks up at me and says "The tutoring center is across the hall." I mention to her that I'm actually here to pick some information on college, and by the look on her face, she is surprised. So without asking important questions like, What kind of college? Where?, she hands me some pamphlets on nearby community colleges. Looking at the pamphlets, I think to myself, "I'm one of the top students at this school, shouldn't I be getting more options other than Mt. SAC and Chaffey. Where's the colleges like UCLA, CSU-Long Beach, etc.?"
- Would this interaction be different if I was different race?
- Has this ever happened to you?
- Please share your thoughts and questions about the impact teacher/counselor stereotypes have on students' expectations of themselves and their attitudes about school achievement.
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I think Michelle should have asked the counselor politely why he/her thought that she was looking for tutoring because the best way to fight prejudism is to address it when we meet it. In the same way as the teacher in one of your other post addresses the ignorant man who thought that teachers did nothing by answering his rude question in a polite and respectful way. In this way Michelle might have helped the counselor realize that he/she was thinking stereotyped about Mexican students. We shall not accept stereotypes but we have to realize that it is only human to make them. It is our way to order a very chaotic world. We make different boxes and try to get some kind of order out of a very messy world. Everyone has these stereotype ideas whether we will admit it or not and this is the reason we shall debate them politely when we meet them in stead of ignoring them because they often do more damage than they do good. It is also important to realize that people who have these stereotyped ideas maybe are not aware about that they have them. We are all influenced by the surrounding and tend to take on the ideas that our bodies have. People do not necessaryly have to be rude on purpose or maybe they are not aware at all that they are rude. Maybe they are aware but do not know how to change behavior. This is why we should try help them by debating their prejudism in stead of ignoring them.
ReplyDeleteMy mother visited the South States in the 60’ties and went to the human right marches together with the black students. She has told me that many of the white students males as well as females wanted to join her but that they did not dare. These white students were not evil but just afraid. It was much easier for my mother to join because she was a foreigner from Europe. When my daughter was one and a half years old we where walking at the street in the town where we lived. Most people in my town are Danish and those who are not Danish are Asian or from Yugoslavia so she had never seen an afro- European man before my friend visited our house together with her Afro-European boy friend. This boy friends name was Jesper and my daughter did not make any remarks on his skin color of about his hair being different. Actually I did not think that she noticed it at all until I walked at the street with her some weeks later and we went by this afro-European man and my daughter pointed at him and said Jesper. She did not think he was Jesper, her vocabulary was not so big, so this was her way to say this man looks like Jesper in the same way as she pointed old men out in the street saying granddad and old women she called grand mom and so on. Stereotyping is our way of making order in a very confusing world and not nessacary something we do to be crude or discriminating but when we realize that we act that way we should of course change. On the other hand no change will happen if we do not debate discrimination when we meet it so Michelle in stead of asking your question in this blog you should have asked the counselor very politely why he thought that you were seeking tutoring, I hope you do not get angry with this answer, it is of course only my opinion
I agree...somewhat. I used to think that stereotyping was definitely a cognitive--moreso than a prejudicial--mechanism. Putting things in boxes automatically in a chaotic world. But the problem is that the boxes are self-perpetuating.
ReplyDeleteSchools all have people who are willing to advocate on behalf of students, and I think students are increasingly able and willing to politely ask questions like Tanja suggests above.
But, a warning is that much of the harm is done behind the scenes rather than blatantly as it is here. Counselors don't always go the extra mile like they might for families with whom they have existing relationships and share a language. "Fair" doesn't mean equal and treating everyone the same, but putting extra, sometimes inordinately extra, work, in areas where students are most needy.