GALVESTON, TEXAS: MARCH 18/24
Carol's students are attempting the conversation Barak Obama requested. They are discussing their attitudes to race and sharing experiences. I suggest that we are educated by Hollywood. I tell of the image Herefordshire High School students gave of Mexicans: fat, sweaty, big moustaches, big hats, comic accents.
A student relates his surprise at being shown home photographs of upland meadows by his Ecuadorian girlfriend. Hollywood Ecuador is sweat, bugs and jungle.
The class has run 30 minutes over time. Kai's babysitter is waiting.
Showing posts with label Texas A and M. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas A and M. Show all posts
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
TEXAS A & M
GALVESTON, TEXAS: MARCH 18/24
I am nervous. I sit in an upright chair with my back to a blackboard. Fifteen students face me. This is an Afro-American literature course at Texas A & M. I have an untidy mind. I waffle about Latin America.
Carol interrupts. She says, "Simon believes that Americans are obsessed by race. Do you agree?"
People in the US are reluctant to discuss race in mixed racial company. A brave blond student in the first row raises her hand lower than shoulder height. Others follow. All agree. A medium brown student in his mid twenties tells of a white co-worker asking what Black people were like.
"Like me," he said.
"Normal Black people."
"I'm a normal Black person."
Yeah, but you're not a proper Black person. You're educated was the unspoken comment.
A Latino student talks of an Anglo boy making her feel that she came from a different planet: asking how her family lived and what they ate at home (only beans and rice?).
A black student from a military family tells of switching from a majority white high school to a largely Black high school where her fellow students accused her of talking white.
She replied, "I'm talking English."
None of the students had listened to Barak Obama's speach.
Weird...!
I am nervous. I sit in an upright chair with my back to a blackboard. Fifteen students face me. This is an Afro-American literature course at Texas A & M. I have an untidy mind. I waffle about Latin America.
Carol interrupts. She says, "Simon believes that Americans are obsessed by race. Do you agree?"
People in the US are reluctant to discuss race in mixed racial company. A brave blond student in the first row raises her hand lower than shoulder height. Others follow. All agree. A medium brown student in his mid twenties tells of a white co-worker asking what Black people were like.
"Like me," he said.
"Normal Black people."
"I'm a normal Black person."
Yeah, but you're not a proper Black person. You're educated was the unspoken comment.
A Latino student talks of an Anglo boy making her feel that she came from a different planet: asking how her family lived and what they ate at home (only beans and rice?).
A black student from a military family tells of switching from a majority white high school to a largely Black high school where her fellow students accused her of talking white.
She replied, "I'm talking English."
None of the students had listened to Barak Obama's speach.
Weird...!
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