Watching the movie Freedom Writers made me think about our
class discussion today. Doug mentioned that there will be a significant
decrease in the white/Caucasian population, and I found a photo that illustrates
the population distribution and future projections for the population in the
year 2050:
If the United States becomes more diverse in later years,
how will that change the way we interact and behave? Will become the “salad
bowl”?
Based on watching Freedom
Writers, I think it is our
natural tendency to form walled communities. Over 100 years after the Chinese Exclusion
Acts, America is still experiencing what Takaki calls “volatile” tension
building between racial groups due to “mutual cultural ignorance” (such as the
violence between Korean Americans and African Americans during the Rodney King
race riots in 1992) (494). Furthermore, I remember from class discussions that
schools in the U.S. are more segregated now than they were fifty years ago. If
the U.S. is becoming more diverse and there is no effort spent in understanding
these differences between races, I don’t think there is much chance of us
achieving the “salad bowl” ideal.
In Freedom Writers,
Erin Gruwell sees many walled communities forming at Wilson High School after
the school undergoes an integration program. This new integration program
decreases the amount of white students in Erin’s sophomore classroom, and could
be used as a microcosm, albeit and extreme one, of the future projections of diversity
in America. However, during the first few days of school, the junior English
teacher says to Erin “integration is a lie.” Angry, Erin storms out of the
teacher’s lounge, but realizes the truth of the English teacher’s words. She
stares around campus looking at the cliques forming based upon race. The
integration of the school has not succeeded because students tended to self-segregate
based on race and form walled communities within the school.
How can such an
obstacle be overcome? Erin adopts the mentality holding to the fifth and sixth
tenet of Critical Race Theory: everyone has a compound and complex identity and
because of that all people have a unique story to tell. It is through the stories
of holocaust survivors that Erin is able to connect to her students, garner
their interest, and gain their respect. Erin decides to help guide her students
toward overcoming their “mutual cultural ignorance.” She begins to eliminate
some racial tension by playing the “line game” which allows students to become
aware of their own complex identities as well as the similarities between their
own identities and other students.
Students finally come to understand one another by letting
go of old prejudices, look at their peers unique stories, and eventually
transition away from walled communities and toward a “salad bowl” class
community.
What is required in society to prevent these walled
communities is, I think, the intentional action and effort demonstrated by Erin
Gruwell. If left up to our natural tendencies, we would likely self-segregate like
the students at Wilson High School. But, if we make an attempt to have an open
and understanding mindset about other’s history, become educated and informed
on their background, I do think we can eliminate much of the prejudice and segregation
occurring in modern times. I don’t think racism will ever become a thing of the
past simply because there is more ethnic diversity in America. Racism is a
social, not a biological construction, right? But I do think we can work to
reduce it in the future as long as we are intentional about our actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment