My Racial Identify -- do I have one?
Racial Identity
Racial Identity I found this assignment very difficult to complete and carry out – but the best way I can approach it now is to look at it from the perspective of a classroom teacher dealing with teenagers from lower socio-economic backgrounds. I have been working as a substitute teacher in the Gainesville public school system for the past year and it has been an eye-opener to say the least. I can see the differences in behavior, dress and attitude (within the classroom) of those teens who are from (apparently) middle class homes and those who are not – between those who have some interest in a professional future and those who do not. The cultural group I am looking at is made up of teens that are considered potential high-school dropouts. They are assigned to classes like Advanced Reading and/or Advanced Math – which is code for saying these are the kids who can’t read, who can’t add and who don’t care. My stereotype for what I see in these teens cuts across racial or ethnic lines – it’s not a question of color or heritage, but rather of where they might fall on the socio-economic ladder. They shuffle into the classroom with shoes that are too big and too loose – quite often flip-flops, plastic swim or beach sandals or bedroom slippers. (I don’t know why or how bedroom slippers became a “look” but they have. The boys wear pants that are two or three sizes too big with the idea being that the waistline of your pants should fall just below your hips so that you are always having to pull your pants up and so that your underpants are exposed. The shirts are huge –also way too big, although now it seems that the trend is to wear a shirt that may be the right size over a shirt big enough for two people to fit into it. The girls go to the other extreme. There the idea is for the upper garment to be a few sizes too small, way too tight and draw attention to cleavage. Skirts or shorts that skim over the tops of the thighs are de-rigor. Dangling earrings finish off the outfits. Both boys and girls come equipped with I-pods, headphones, and plenty of Attitude – and I do mean Attitude. They show a decided lack of respect for anyone in authority – even the principal of the school. It “ain’t” ever their fault. They never did done it. And what you mean anyway by calling on me.? They don’t walk into the classroom … they shuffle or stroll or just kind of bebop in to the beat of the music on their headphones. When they decide to go along for a while and do some work, there is a flurry of pencil-sharpening, requests for paper and requests for help because they never, never understand what they are supposed to be doing. This is the stereotype that I see and it does impact my ability to communicate with teens who are members of that particular youth culture. I was exposed to this culture by my forays into the public school system. We don’t speak the same language; we don’t have the same perspectives so it is difficult to put our encounters into any type of meaningful context – for them as well as for myself. As to the second part of this exercise, my racial background is white or Caucasian; my ethnicity is Jewish. It is important to me to make that distinction and to identify myself as Jewish – not by religion so much as by my ethnic background. I grew up in Newark, New Jersey in a neighborhood that at the time was primarily Jewish or in the parlance of today, Jewish-American. It is the Newark that Phillip Roth writes about – in fact he is the most illustrious graduate of my high school, Weequahic High. (I am the second most illustrious graduate!). When I was a very young child, I didn’t think too much about my identity in any way because everyone else was just like me. There was an occasional Catholic in the neighborhood – we knew they were different because they went to parochial school and had to wear uniforms. Or there was the cute Italian kid on safety patrol who I had a crush on when I was in fifth grade and he was in sixth. But that was the extent of it. I became more aware of other racial identities during the early days of the Civil Rights movement. A few black families moved into our neighborhood. We did play together and I don’t think any of us kids thought much of it – though I suspect our parents did. And as I grew up, my predominately Jewish neighborhood, changed into one that was racially and ethnically mixed. I think everyone got along reasonably well until the Newark riots – then the lines were drawn and as best I can tell, they haven’t been undrawn to this day. Most of us of Jewish descent (speaking collectively) pride ourselves on being liberals and having a social conscious that sends us down a path “of doing good.” Education has always been something that is valued among Jews – some say it is a leftover from earlier times of pogroms against Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere – the concept being that physical possessions can be lost or taken away from you, but that what you carry within you – in your heart and in your head – stays with you always. Thus the drive for education and knowledge. I do know within my own experience as a second generation Jewish-American, I can count on one hand the people I knew who did not go on to college. The pursuit of higher education was a given. In any case, I believe this sense of Jewish identity has influenced me in all that I do – and in my communications with other people. We or I do not want to be considered racist, prejudiced, right-wing, etc. so we/I will bend over backgrounds to be thought of as liberal, understanding, etc. I don’t know if it is a fault or a virtue, but it is with me to this day – even as a substitute teacher.
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