In lieu of the fact that I'm going to be on vacation with limited internet access, I'm posting my comments here for week 3 discussion for later posting.
Growing Up With Segregation by DelpitI have to say that while I was initially moved by Delpit's letter to her daughter some years ago when I first read it, today I'm just left with a lot of questions and marginal notes. If memory serves me correctly, Delpit's daughter is biracial/multiracial. I can't help but wonder why that's not mentioned in the intro paragraph.
I am struck by the fact that although Delpit recognizes the discrimination in her neighborhood she still chose to stay and raise her daughter there...why? Even though her parents met with racism, Lisa chose to live in an area where she wasn't wanted or welcome. I often wonder about people who consciously choose to be the first to integrate...what is their motivation? Is it just a desire to have the best or is there an underlying desire to have what was for so long forbidden? IDK. I don't know that I would choose to be the first to integrate so I can't speak for Delpit's reasoning.
She brings up issues that are still problematic for African Americans today, but moreso, in the inner city - police brutality, police harassment, poor/inadequate healthcare systems, inadequate schools, stereotyping. Her closing remarks about the middle schooler reminds me of an adage I grew up hearing - "
If you want to hide something from Black people, put it in a book!" This is one of the sentiments addressed in the 90's film, "Higher Learning." It's clear to me that one negative thing that's come out of institutionalized racism is low self-esteem in Black children (i.e., thinking white dolls are prettier, thinking white people are smarter, etc). I suffered symptoms of this phenomena myself growing up.
What I can see and struggle with in our alleged "integrated" society, is the negative effects of integration on the Black community. Once the suburbs and better neighborhoods were an option for Chicago's elite in Bronzeville, they spread out and left the inner city...taking their educational standards, jobs and standing as role models with them. In their place, were left the hard-working middle class, new migrants and the lower class. As the working classes did better, they stayed in the city, but left their original neighborhoods too - leaving behind criminal elements to serve as role models for impressionable youth. I recognize that I've attempted to sum up 50 years in a paragraph, but I think you get the gyst of what I'm concerned about -
Why is it that under segregation the Black community and Black family structure was stronger? Why did both seem to disintegrate with integration?While I disagreed with or was concerned by some aspects of her letter, I can relate to the first sentence in the last paragraph - where she is told to excel or do better than the white kids in her class. I was told this often growing up and in turn, have said it to my students of color (to my female students also). It's the idea behind WEB Dubois' "talented tenth." It's the idea that by a few of us doing well, we can serve as examples for the rest. This served as a means to the development of strong Black families and communities following Emancipation. I don't feel this is a bad sentiment, but it does explain the desire of a people to get ahead and stay ahead in a world that seemed to be against them.
That was the Way it Was Supposed to Be by DyerI was not surprised by much of what Dyer wrote. Living and growing up in segregated, all-Black neighborhoods in Chicago it was the assumption that most if not all White people felt this way about Blacks. I can't say I was ever expressly taught this at home or at school, but it was implied in the frustrations of the adults that I encountered and the amount of pressure put on me and my generation to go out and "show the world what Black folks can do", so to speak.
Some of the stereotypes he outlined are not different from ones highlighted on Good Morning America ten years ago in their "black-white study". They are not that different from the negative perceptions played out in Hollywood films or in today's violent video games. The media perpetuates these images. They always have. The problem now is that the very people that are the brunt of this kind of negative imagery have now co-opted the ideas of their critics - contemporary celebrities of color, in many cases, are more than happy to take on the stereotype, exaggerate it and celebrate it. I can't imagine how confusing that must be to someone like Dyer.
The thing I'm left with in reading Dyer is that he says his tree of racism is dying...not completely dead. I can respect and appreciate his candor. I think it's much more realistic to admit that racism will never completely die out or go away. It's something we always have to continue to work on.
