that’s racist!

i’m sitting in suzallo cafe, trying to work on a paper, when a white female student approaches me and asks if i speak english.  my blood pressures suddenly spikes.  i think to myself — “well, at least i’m gonna have a great story to share after this…”

“yes,” i emphatically reply.  she asks if i’d like to participate in a study.  i wonder if i should let her know some of my thoughts regarding her initial question.  i decide not to, and agree to the study.  

it’s a word study game.  the letters a, e, t, s, l, r and s are on top of the page and my instructions are to arrange the letters to make as many words as possible.  i write words down at a torrid pace, but i only fill up 16 of the 20 blank spaces.  i ask if i’m being timed and she says no, i can finish whenever i want.  

so i stop.

then, she hands me a few more pages with a questionnaire. first, some interesting biographical info.

how american do you feel? how much do you identify as an american? when you were twelve, did you want to be an american? is it important that people see you as american?  

the new conspirators

in my reflection seminar, we read the dissertation of a uw phd candidate that looked at how poor, ethnic minority kids are socially ostracized in schools by students and teachers. the paper shared story after story of racist acts, and sadly, these were all recent examples around the seattle area. schools are supposed to be a social justice-oriented institution… they should give all students equal access to power, especially students of minority groups who historically have been denied access.  

the dissertation found that schools actually serve the opposite function.  despite being a foundational pillar of any democracy, our schools help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  how bizarre…

i’ve been reading a book called the new conspirators by tom sine.  a very well-researched book that definitely stands out to me as one i’ll want to revisit often.  on education, he says:

the public education system contributes to the widening gap between rich and poor in the united states. in the shame of the nation, jonathan kozol documents that over the past twelve years, american public schools are resegregating america.  unlike other western countries that fund public education through taxes, american public schools rely on local levies; consequently wealthy school districts often spend twice as much per pupil as poor school districts.  this means that the growing number of children who attend poorly funded urban public schools have less of a chance of going on to college than their suburban counterparts who attend highly financed schools with cutting-edge technology.  as a consequence, some, like their parents, will be stuck in dead-end service jobs that don’t pay a living wage.  frankly, this new global economy is going to leave growing numbers of the poor behind in all countries if we don’t discover how god might use our mustard seeds individually and collectively to be an expression of god’s compassion for the marginalized.  

[the new conspirators: creating the future one mustard seed at a time, by tom sine]