Talking Points #3

Dennis Carlson: Gayness, Multiculturalism, and Community

Quotes:

1.) “Throughout this century, one of the primary means of ensuring that gayness was an invisible presence in the school was through the dismissal of teachers who were found out to be homosexuals. Early in this century, the dismissal of gay teachers was legitimated as a way of keeping young people from being exposed to improper role models, lechery, and child molestation.”

I cannot believe that gay teachers were fired. Someone who is gay is just a regular person. There is no need to make it 'invisible.' Being gay is a part of our culture so children and adolescents need to be exposed to it. Also, someone who is gay is not an improper role model, they can be even better role models than a straight person. Some children are raised by gay parents and it is wrong to say that they will not be good role models to their children. Just because they like people of the same sex does not mean we should discriminate against them.

2.) “’Bar culture:' although it serves important positive roles, allows gay people only a brief escape from the normalizing community, and in a space hidden from public view, so that in some ways it has helped keep gay people in their place.”

There are many gay bars all around the MA and RI area. They do allow gays to get away from all the rude people and it allows them to go out and have a good time without being picked on or made fun of. As for 'keeping them in their place,' I think it is wrong to think of bars like that. There is a place for gays, and its being apart of our culture.

3.) “Finally a democratic multicultural education must become a dialogue in which all "voices" are heard and all "truths" are understood as partial and positioned.”

This is something I highly agree with. You can not cover up what gay people have to say. It is not something that can be regarded as unimportant. They have every right to be heard, and children have every right to learn about it. Being gay is a part of our culture and is not something that should be ignored and swept under the rug as if it doesn't even exist.

Comments:

I enjoyed reading this, but it also shocked me. I had no idea that gay teachers were fired and that they did not get hired just because they were gay. It disgusts me that there are people out that discriminate people as badly as that. Also, we should not hide the fact that people are gay. If a child is raised by gay parents then it will eventually be brought up in a class and you cannot ignore it because it is a way of life. You also cannot ignore that child because you may make him/her feel as if they are living a negative lifestyle which is not the case. This relates to other texts by showing how discriminating some people in our world can be. And it just disgusts me that people can be that way.

Talking Points #2

Aria By: Richard Rodriguez

1.) "In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness. The moment after the visitors left, the change was observed."
This quote shows how the American society affected this family, by asking them to not speak their native tongue. The Spanish language is what this family used to communicate with each other and these visitors asked them to stop speaking that way. This can dramatically change a family. If they can not communicate the way they are accustomed to, they might stop talking at all. This ties into the article because eventually the family does stop communicating the way they once did.

2.) "We remained a loving family, but one greatly changed. No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness."
This family was once bound by the fact that they only spoke Spanish. They felt a closer bond to each other because they all had each other and nothing else bothered them. But now that they have learned to speak English they don't speak to each other as much. It sounds as if they enjoyed the fact that they weren't like everyone else. They had something that set them apart, and it broke them apart once that one thing was gone.

3.) "They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality."
This shows us that even though we don't think we change people by asking them to speak our native language, we are changing them in a big way. These people start to blend in with the American society and they loose their feeling of individuality. Its seems that by asking people to speak English we are asking them to loose a part of their lives.

Comments:
I really enjoyed reading this story. I liked the fact that it showed a different point of view about things. I never thought that asking someone to speak English could change their lives so drastically. I never thought that learning to speak English could prevent children of another culture from speaking to their parents. In Delpit's article, she says how children must learn things at home in order to survive in their communities. In a way this relates to Rodriguez's story because he did learn English at home, but they were asked to learn English. It is not something they decided to do on their own. They had to be told to speak English at home so they would be able to better in school. Even though they did do better in school, the relationship amongst the family was diminishing. The author says it still pains him to look back on how it affected his relationship with his parents.

Talking Points 1-McIntosh

White Privilege By: Peggy McIntosh

Quotes:
1) "I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will." (Page 2, 2nd paragraph)
This quote says how we don't see ourselves being raised as 'privileged.' Also we don't look at different races and religions as reasons why people do not get jobs. Well, we do now but not when we were younger. This contributes to the text because it is basically the central part of this article. I have never noticed race as being such a big deal until taking this course.

2) "I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes or not answer letters without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race."
This confuses me because even if you are white and dress in second-hand clothes people will see you as living in poverty, no matter what race you are. Also, no matter what race you are and you swear in public people will automatically look down on you and think you have bad morals. So, I do not think that this particular quote has to do with the article and it has no reason to be in there.

3) "Individuals acts can palliate but can not end these problems."
This is very important because it is extremely true. An individual can not change all the racism in the world. They might be able to slow it down but they will not be able to end it. People will always have different opinions and you can't make people think the same.

Comments:
I found this article interesting although it reminds me a lot of things we have already read in class. Like Delpit's article it is about racism and how different races have different privileges. The list that McIntosh introduces is true but all the things are apart of everyday life so we don't notice it. All these privileges that we have are things we take for granted. This was a good read and it pointed out a lot of things I used to take for granted, but I am very thankful for the things I can do.