Hi I'm Rae, and I am weaseling my way into the Graduate
Program here at UMass Lowell. I just graduated this spring with a BA in English
(Literature) and a minor in Education. I have always known that I wanted to
teach from a young age. Playing "school" was my favorite thing as a
child, whether I was the teacher or the student. I decided to teach high school
English after having an amazing
high school English teacher my Sophomore year, who really made reading and
learning fun in the school setting. I also am a very avid reader; I can thank
my parents for instilling that love in me before I could even read myself. I
will read anything, although sometimes I hate being told I have to read
something J
Looking
at the different articles we had to read for the week, I noticed one that I
have certainly heard of before. McIntosh’s article, “White Privilege: Unpacking
the Invisible Backpack” was something that I have certainly read before and in
my previous class, we actually made our own backpacks (I cannot quite remember
exactly what was in mine annoyingly enough). I really enjoy this article
(except for the grammar) because McIntosh brings so many different ideas to
light that many people, especially me, don’t think of, down to the Band-Aid!
When I thought about how this would affect my classroom someday, I
thought back to my own experiences in school. I was the minority in my high
school. In my graduating class of thirty (15 girls and 15 boys) there was only
5 “white” girls, but I don’t think it mattered that we were the minority, there
was still racism going on when I look back on it. As Omni and Winnant mention
in their article, “the absence of a clear ‘common sense’ understanding of what
racism means has become a significant obstacle to efforts aimed at challenging
it” (135). Teachers and students alike may not have been openly favoring
certain students, but it was there because of the avoidance of the topic. It
was there because we were taught to ignore “white privilege” as McIntosh puts
it (1). The fact that there is no definitive definition as to what is racist or
what it should be understood to be makes it hard for people to change their
thoughts and actions.
I think all of these articles on race confirm my background knowledge,
that it is a touchy topic and that it is something that is going to take a lot
of hard work and elbow grease to figure out, but we need to be willing and
ready to put in that effort for an answer to this problem. No one should be
tiptoeing around the issue it is all around us. Look at the government; it took
many many years to swear in our first African American president and even then
there were thousands of people against it. When we look at political leaders,
majority of them are white and male. I feel as though change needs to be made
on a large scale, but the best place for us to start is in our schools and
classrooms. As cheesy as it may sound, our kids are our future; we need to help
them become the future of this country for the better.
