Identity in Classroom

I have a few students who constantly tell me about the lack of diversity in the school. They combat this by always identifying themselves as Hispanic in a joking manner. They are never serious about it, but say things like “Is it because I am hispanic” and then laugh. When I read this chapter “Locating Yourself for Your Students” by Priya Parmar and Shirley Sternberg I thought about them and their relationship to me and the rest of the school.

In this chapter, the authors argue that it is important to address one’s identity, as a teacher, to the students. From their experiences teaching they have found that identifying who you are as well as what you know and don’t know helps students respect and understand you more as a teacher. 

In the chapter Sternberg writes about an instance when she had to talk in front of an all-Black and Latino/a class of high school students. She came out and said, “I’ll bet you’re wondering what a frizzy-haired Jewish woman is doing up here talking to you about hip-hop”, and one girl responded by turning to the rest of the class and saying, “No she didn’t”. This student had never heard a White person call his/herself White before. Sternberg never called herself White; she called herself Jewish. It is interesting that this girl hears Jewish and she automatically hears White. This is stereotyping at work. We sometimes, subconsciously, stereotype others, but what if we were all honest with our identities to begin with? Would we still stereotype or would we be more understanding of cultures we know nothing about. Many people stereotype because that is all they know. This particular student, subconsciously, seems to think all Jewish people are White, but besides that she is right though. I do not think I have ever heard a White person refer to themselves as White before. I certainly have heard Black people refer to themselves as Black as well as Hispanics. So why are White people not identifying themselves as White? I do not know the answer to this question, but to be honest, as a white person,  I do not always point out the fact that I am White in fear of distancing myself from my students.

This chapter shed some light on the fact that if we were all more comfortable talking about who we are in terms of our culture and race we would all feel closer due to the fact that there would be more understanding between people and perhaps less stereotyping. Little children are constantly asking why because they are curious. When did people start getting so afraid to ask why? This is the problem my students are facing in a primarily white school. They make the joke about their race before anyone else can. I am not sure if it is a defense mechanism or not. I do not speak for them, but I want to create a classroom environment where there is no need for these jokes and everyone feels comfortable to talk freely about themselves without fear of being judged.