race, education, and disability post reading

I have found the material about learning disabilities, emotional disturbance and mental retardation really interesting. Going over how schools, in particular teachers have the power to determine if a student has a learning disability. Also I am glad to be aware of how we tend to think of disablitly as a physical set back and not as a problem “within” a person. After reviewing how standardized tests are what help determin if a studen has a learning disabiliy or not, I am upset about the fact that some students have special needs that arent met, whch can lead to a misdiagnosis. For example we can take a student whos first language could be something other english and has difficulties understanding questions on the standardized test, leading to them aswering questions wrong. Just like when we had the guest speaker talking about domestic violence in class, when she handed out those slips with questions on them in defferent languages, most of us couldnt answer them. If we were to apply that concept to these student and put ourselves in their shoes, most of us would have been labeld as learning disabled. Another point that I thought was interesting was the point of learning at the “normal” level. Since we are in college and enrolled in non-special education classes we can be considered a normal learning student. A great point is who is to say that we are the norm. I would like to challenge that in comparison to other people we can be considered “slower.” Lets take student who really excell in school and go to colleges such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, NYU and are considered “genius',” what if we were to consider those incredibly smart students as the norm because of their test scores, we who may have scored lower and werent able to get into said colleges may be thought of as learning disabled. To make my point, this ideology of what the normal learning rate is, can be skewed in either direction, placing some people in a lower rank or higher rank dependning on where that normal area falls. To incorperate how race, class and gender play into this roll, we can take into account that most diagnosis are determined by white female teachers in grades k-12, who are typically in a middle class rank and believe that their point of view of what normal is applies to everyone. Factors arent considered when you take a lower class asian student who's first language was chinese for example, and can understand whats going on in class, but may have difficulty writing and reading. I feel as though those two subjects are what can hold a student of color back from achieveing what is considered the normal learning process. Unlike math, which is a universal language, writing and reading in a different language than what you are used to, can weigh heavily on how you respond to questions. If a teacher cannot realize that student of color may need more help on these subjects in order to advance in their studies, they may be placed in a special education program which can be difficult to get out of, therefore not allowing the chance to prove thie capability of learning at the same rate as “normal” students.   

week 8 pre reading

A learning disability is, “a condition giving rise to difficulties in acquiring knowledge and skill to the normal level expected to those of the same age.” To be mentally retarded is to be mentally delayed, like having the brain of a two month old in a ten year old body. Also to be emotionally disturbed means to be any mental disorder not caused by detectable organic abnormalities of the brain and in which a major disturbance of emotions is predominant. These categories are specialized towards people with special needs who are behind on where they need to be mentally, therefore being put into special programs at school. These programs consist of students who would fall under the three categories and are put together in one classroom where a teacher of sorts attends to their special needs. To explain how people of color are over-represented in special needs programs is difficult. They way I look at it, we can refer back to privileges, or in this case lack there of. Lets say we have a poor lower class asian family living in a rural area where it is douced with radiation, or infestation and you have a pregnant young girl living in these conditions. Malnutrition to the baby can lead to serious implications. In relating these learning disablities in people, we have to go back to as early as the person bing developed in the mothers whomb. We can take into account the people of color are generally living in bad conditions where environmental factors can lead to a learning disablity or due to low income and high demand for providing for the family, we can include the lack of being able to provide necessary things that are beneficial to the development of a normal baby to the equation. I also find it interesting on how some people who dont necessarily know how to speak, read and write english have to take a test in english to prove they are “normal.” Just like when we had the guest speaker this past wendsday hand out questionairs in differnet languages that most of us could'nt understand and decided to either not answer or take a wild guess at what it was trying to ask us. This scenario is very realistic to many and can determin how their lives will proceed in the case of being placed in a special needs program or not. Thats just crazy! We need to put ourselves in their shoes in that sort of situation more often to realize how we tend to assume that because you are poor or an immigrant and dont speak great english or have access to basic neccesties, doesn't mean you are less of a person than what the normal is.

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post week 5

Besides being hilarious, the video “Shit white girls say to black girls” is a comedic take on unmasking colorblind racism.  In the video we see a black girl depicting a white girl using colorblind towards her imaginary black girlfriend.  I could compare this video to one of the scenarios we read out loud in class that said, “I can’t be a racist, I have a black boyfriend.”  This insinuates that just because a white person is in contact with a person of color regularly that the said white person is relieved of all things that can lead so someone believing they can be racists.  It’s a sort of outlet that some white people use in order to avoid being labeled as a racist.  When in reality those white people still use colorblind racism.  In the video we see the “white” girl talking to her black friend addressing a lot of underlying assumptions about black people.  For example she asks if black face is still a thing and uses words like ghetto and nappy in order to come off as relatable to a black person, when in reality it’s just stereotyping.  I believe that this video was made to exemplify how white people think their justification of having a black friend allows them to be colorblind racists with no official title of being racists, due to their one black friend. 

                To be a colorblind racist is to be an undercover racist.  These undercover racists are to gain from this outlet.  They are able to keep the power behind their racial hierarchy structure by using colorblind racism.  Like in the video mentioned above, white people are able to have an excuse to be racist by associating themselves with people of color in order to disguise and stray away their label of being racist.  The way we can rebuttal this is by becoming aware and educated on how often this occurs in our everyday lives.  I can say that just from this past week of learning about colorblind racism, I have noticed more than ever how it does exist everywhere.  Just last night I went out for a drink at Q Bar in the Castro and noticed an African-American man waiting by the bar for 5min to purchase a drink as he kept getting ignored by the white bartenders to attend to a group of three white guys.  Finally the only Latino bartender attended to the black man.  An example of what the white bartender could’ve said in order to avoid being labeled racist and use colorblind racism to his advantage could be “sorry I didn’t see you standing there, it’s just so dark in here.”  Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.  I believe that by having a black president, we are moving towards a more educated and accepting country where racism and discrimination is diminishing.  That makes me happy.   

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