The Whiteness Project

After going through and listening to every persons' point of view within The Whiteness Project page, I realize now that I too have never thought of my race as a factor in my every day life. I have never been denied something and thought that maybe the reason was because of my race, I have always thought of other factors in place of that. Dow states in an interview about the Project,  "I think it would be interesting for people to look at it and examine why perhaps some of those things that they may even agree with or wrestle with, why it makes them so uncomfortable,"  As a white woman who has grown up in a suburb of a small state where white people took up the majority of the population, I never  thought about my race, or anyone around me for that matter, being able to adversely affect someone's everyday life. After reading the whole interview and seeing that there were people talking about how they lost job opportunities because the "minorities filled em'" even though they were highly qualified for the position, it makes me wonder how many white people actually blame people of different ethnic backgrounds for things that are completely out of their control. There was one woman who I did agree with a statement she made, she said that, as a tattooed woman, she gets looked down upon just as black people do when they walk into a store; neither of them are greeted, they are just looked at as if they are already suspects of shoplifting. I have had that happen a few times when I am in stores with my brothers or my father, we are all tattooed, mine are just hidden and whenever people see my dad who is covered in tattoos, or my brother, with a name tattooed across his chest, people stare and employees in stores have actually followed them around because they appear to be "bad people" just because they have tattoos. One of my closest lifelong friends, Roxy, a beautiful, extremely tall, very dark colored woman once told me that when we were at a store one day, while I was trying something on, a worker came over to her and just stood there watching her without saying a word until I walked out and started talking to her about the outfit. When we were walking away, Roxy had looked back at the employee and she said that the girl had her jaw to the floor, as if she had never seen a black woman and a white woman who were friends before. It is truly saddening to see that people to this day still believe that they are entitled to anything just based on the color of their skin or their physical attributes. My philosophy on life is that if you want something, you have to earn it; nothing should EVER be just handed to you if you are fully capable of achieving it all on your own. Although yes, there were a few people within the stories that made some good points, I still do not believe that someone's race or anything about them physically should be a deciding factor when deciding where they belong in their own lives.  

Secret Education in the Media

Christiansen's article "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us", in my mind stands as a rude awakening to those of us who think that children (and even adults) are immune to take the things we read about and see within the media to heart. As future educators, I feel as though it is our job to find ways of educating our students without allowing the media to affect their ways of learning negatively. Within any children's story, there is always stereotyping and minute details that could promote negative feelings towards any specific race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion that may be overlooked by young readers. After reading Christiansen's article, I feel that educators need to take closer looks at the readings they provide their students with, and think more about what details the students will get out of them, whether it be positive or negative.

I feel that the "secret education" within the media has become not-so-secret anymore considering all of the violence and hate towards certain cultures and sexual orientations that is seemingly always on the news. I feel as though children are like sponges, everything that is said or done within earshot of them will be subconsciously absorbed into their memory and will eventually start to shine through. Although there can be some very positive things that may come out of reading and learning about the current society, I think that there are some things that should be left unsaid around children. I also feel as though there needs to be WAY more books about children of different races and family backgrounds, etc. because children that don"t feel as though they fit into society's "norm" tend to have lower self confidence levels and it isn't fair to them to only see the stereotypical "Christian, white, blonde haired, blue eyed" characters within every show on T.V. and all throughout their books. Recently, thankfully, there have been more children's shows and books with main characters of color or different religions and so on. As society becomes more accepting of people that don't fit the "norm", I feel that there won't be as much fuss about the "secret education" anymore.