A Multicultural Education
In The White Boy Shuffle, Gunner initially lived in Santa Monica and went to an “all-white multicultural school”. They were always taught not to judge anyone based on the color of their skin, or just to be colorblind. The 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Cegeny, wore that shirt that went along with this colorblind ideology, but she seemed to pay special attention to all the non-white kids in the class, which doesn’t seem super colorblind. Just in general, the multicultural education they get seems to have good intentions but it’s sorta off and doesn’t really work. Gunner ended up being more whitewashed than multicultural which is super obvious from when he moves to Hillside. He really didn’t know anything about his own culture or I’m guessing any other cultures, even though he had a multicultural education.
Up until 4th grade, I went to Southview Elementary in Jackson, Ohio which was a majority white town. I was the only muslim & brown kid there (other than my sister), and one of the few non-white kids in the entire school. Luckily no one was ever racist or really rude or anything, but there was a bit of that out of place feeling. My mom especially felt left out and didn’t have a lot of friends because she felt like she didn’t fit in or anyone would understand her, but she did say that everyone was nice to her. She remembered a lot of questions like “you don’t feel hot in your clothes??” because she wore full sleeves & long pants & a hijab, even in the summer (gasp). My dad would get questions & comments assuming he was from India like “oh yeah we like Indian food, we’ve been to that Indian restaurant and the food is nice”, but my dad didn’t really go to that restaurant and wasn’t Indian. He’d also get “why do you have a beard” and “do all men in Pakistan have beards?” (actually, a lot don’t). other things people would say to my parents are “hey your English is pretty good” and “is it safe to visit Pakistan?”. None of these questions are really offensive or racist or anything, at most just ignorant or curious, so maybe a multicultural education would have done them some good.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t as cool or funny or smart as Gunner in 3rd grade, but I do remember feeling pretty good about myself when I would get to mess around during music class while everyone else was singing Christmas songs. But I also remember feeling awkward sometimes when I pulled out my lunch or “I can’t do ___ because I’m muslim” or “no I didn’t go anyplace cool like myrtle beach over break, I just went to Pakistan and got sick”. I also don’t remember any sort of multicultural education, unless having to exercise to the YMCA in the morning counts? None of my teachers wore a shirt like Ms. Cegeny’s but lucky for me some would single me out on the rare occasion where we talked about other cultures or religions. No one ever told me to be colorblind (which I think is a good thing), but I also don’t think having no sort of multicultural education is a good thing either.
I don’t think either Gunner’s or my elementary education was good at dealing with nonwhite kids in a majority white school. The colorblindness ideology sucks because it ended up just erasing other cultures and just left a white one. Also, while preaching that they didn’t “see color”, they obviously still did. Good intentions but it didn’t work. My school, on the other hand, sorta just ignored it, which also sucked. I guess my point is a multicultural education would be nice if done right, where you acknowledged different cultures without trying to erase them.
I completely agree!! I call the multicultural teachings- "white multiculturalism" because that is what it feels like it is. White culture (or stereotypically white american) is at the epicenter of everything. Like you said, I know it is impossible to sing all holiday type songs from every culture, but instead of focusing so much on the Christmas songs, in a true "multicultural" teaching, students would equally learn all different kinds of songs and traditions from different cultures in class. So the multiculturalism does not really seem like it, again like you said. I totally agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Likewise, I have never been taught to be colorblind, but I've heard people say that they "don't see color" which makes no sense to me as 1. you can physically see color and 2. that implies that you are just ignoring centuries of oppression and racism etc. I think that in my education, attempts were made to be "multicultural" (whatever that means) but it was still always super whitewashed. Good post!
ReplyDeleteI totally relate to this. In my elementary school, we never talked about multiculturalism, or at least not that I remember. I don't remember ever talking about race in terms of our class or the present time, just like the civil rights movement and slavery. Sometimes I feel kind of like I don't really know Korean culture either, and I related pretty hard to Gunnar and how he felt when he first got to Hillside. When I go to Korea, I feel like everyone knows that I'm Korean American and I definitely feel like I don't fit in. Maybe if I had been taught from an early age that there are in fact different cultures, I wouldn't be struggling as much as I am with figuring things out.
ReplyDeleteIn the same way, I feel like even outside of the classroom there's a pressure to be white. Specifically, in the 2010s when I was in elementary school, a lot of the "popular culture" was centered around white American culture. Nowadays I feel like people of color are getting so much more of the recognition they deserve and are becoming somewhat "mainstream" because white America has also begun appropriating their stuff. I guess I'm just wondering if we've made any progress since the 90s and to be honest, I don't think we've made much.
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