Mango Street
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone once remarked that the reason Japan's citizens are more intelligent is because their society is racially homogeneous. He even said that Black and Latino cultures don't encourage academic achievement.
I brought up this point in my American literature class, because I'm tying The House on Mango Street to sociology this semester. In small groups I asked my students to do two things: 1 - analyze what Nakasone means 2 - react to his statement.
Here's the part that kills me: My proud, amazing, beautiful, wonderful, Native American, students - removed their culture from their critical thinking. While it's good to look at the world from different perspectives other than your own, they simply left theirs out in favor of one that seems more intelligent. Their discussion started with contemplating what our society would be like without diversity. Soon they realized that many conflicts just wouldn't exist and people wouldn't be marginilized. I guess what sort of freaked me out was that they used the sample homogeneous culture as Caucasian European instead of Native. What is wrong with our society that my students can't see their culture as a possible dominant culture? I'm also not assuming a dominant culture is even a good thing.
So after we talked about minority groups, poverty, and institutionalized racism, I asked students what they thought we gained by having a diverse country. They had no serious answer. This means, I am going to push the issue. Big. Time.
I'm beyond excited for this unit. I know students walked out of my room with their heads spinning, in a good way. The facts were loud enough to cause shock, they learned a new discipline, and they are reading a fabulous book by Cisneros tonight.
I love this class...so much.
I brought up this point in my American literature class, because I'm tying The House on Mango Street to sociology this semester. In small groups I asked my students to do two things: 1 - analyze what Nakasone means 2 - react to his statement.
Here's the part that kills me: My proud, amazing, beautiful, wonderful, Native American, students - removed their culture from their critical thinking. While it's good to look at the world from different perspectives other than your own, they simply left theirs out in favor of one that seems more intelligent. Their discussion started with contemplating what our society would be like without diversity. Soon they realized that many conflicts just wouldn't exist and people wouldn't be marginilized. I guess what sort of freaked me out was that they used the sample homogeneous culture as Caucasian European instead of Native. What is wrong with our society that my students can't see their culture as a possible dominant culture? I'm also not assuming a dominant culture is even a good thing.
So after we talked about minority groups, poverty, and institutionalized racism, I asked students what they thought we gained by having a diverse country. They had no serious answer. This means, I am going to push the issue. Big. Time.
I'm beyond excited for this unit. I know students walked out of my room with their heads spinning, in a good way. The facts were loud enough to cause shock, they learned a new discipline, and they are reading a fabulous book by Cisneros tonight.
I love this class...so much.
