Intersectionality

 Intersectionality 

Kimberlie Crenshaw

Samantha Marsella

Extended Comments

    In this week's blog post I am writing an extended comments post on Liv S blog. She makes some really great points about stereotypes. Certain jobs were made for men that only men could do and some females could do some. With it being hard for females to get a job as it is, it made getting jobs harder for black females. The first stereotype that we have is that males go to work and females stay home and take care of the children and the house. But as time went on females wanted to work and not be forced to stay home. The problem then turned for black females because if you were a person of color than it was going to be hard for you to get a job never mind if you were a female.

    Liv then makes another great point about having a voice. Many people would not stand up for themselves because they were afraid of the consequences. I agree that if you don't have a voice then you can't stand up for your rights. If no body stood up for themselves then women wouldn't have jobs right now. This then leads us to not allowing people to be educated because if you are not educated then you can't have certain jobs.

    In the video it gives us a real-life example of intersectionality. It shows three different people one with a disability, one from another country, and one that was raised in a white family. The one that was raised in a white family has nothing to worry about because she knows she will go to college and get a good job while the other two have to fight to even pay for their education or a job. This video is trying to show that identities matter and who you are can affect your life and what you get in it.

Below is a link to a video about Kimberlie Crenshaw herself and how she came up with intersectionality.

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I want people to think about being someone of color or someone with a disability and how it would change their way of life. And how it would change getting a job or education. Do you think it would be as easy and would you be treated the same as you are now? Writing this blog made me think about these things and I don't think it would be as fair as it was for me now.

Culture

What to Look for in a Classroom and Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Kohn

Samantha Marsella 

Reflection

    When reading the page about What to Look in a Classroom it made me think about what my classrooms were like in elementary, middle, and high school. Most of my classes were set up where the desks or tables faced the front of the room. So that we could all see the teacher at the front of the room. They didn't make it very engaging and honestly, I didn't feel the need to talk to my classmates sitting that way. I love that in this class we are either in groups or a circle and this makes it more fun and makes me want to talk to other people. I have never felt so comfortable to talk or engage in a class and that's why I love this class. Another thing that I loved in elementary school was seeing my work on the classroom walls. Any art or science projects, it didn't matter how well you performed on it everyone's work was up. But as the years went on in high school, teachers would take pieces of writing or work that students did and show the class how well they did on it. The intention of showing kids how something is supposed to be done is fine, but it made kids feel bad if their work was never shown in the class.

One thing that really stood out to me in the Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy video was them saying that the schools expect the children to adapt. Instead, the schools need to adapt to the children. One example that comes to my mind is adding special education classes to help children that need a little more help in classes. When I was in middle school, I was not good at comprehending the things I read. My parents had contacted the school to test me and see if I needed help with certain things. I went down to guidance one day and they made me do a bunch of tests. But when the results came back I didn't have anything wrong with me. They figured out though that I couldn't remember long stories or lots of information. My teachers were right there when I needed them and let me stay after school with them to help me understand better.

    

Why do schools think that all children are going to automatically meet the requirements? Going into a class the teacher doesn't know how you best learn or what subject is your strongest suit. This brings us back to people assuming things about others and their culture. Because what if a student was from a different country and just moved there. We don't know every student's story and won't know it until we get to know them.

Below is a link to show people there is a lot more meaning to just what a classroom looks like.

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Amazing Grace

 Amazing Grace

Jonathan Kozol

Hyperlink

    This reading, it first talks about people living in South Bronx and how everyone is pretty much poor. Whether they go there with some money and leave with nothing. Many families don't have heat in the winter and it can get dangerously cold so they have systems in place to give families heaters or sleeping bags. This is where there is the largest amount of poor people but where the most segregation is. Five out of seven children get reduced lunch because they are classified as poor. But as the reading goes on Kozol writes about the different diseases that people get and what drugs they do. And even how unsafe it is to live there. He writes about the number of people that are killed every day. People even know what streets they can't go down at night because there's no escaping death. In this video below it shows the city and what bad shape it is in.

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    In this second part of my blog, I want to take a little turn and write about how South Bronx has changed and what the mayor has done to change it. In the 1970s the nation became a symbol of urban degradation and the city's neediest people. But then-mayor Koch put in a housing renovation program, fixing thousands of apartments and building new houses. There is always the concern for first-time homeowners not being able to pay their mortgage. Matthew Lee was a building superintendent and assisted with this by using the Federal Community Reinvestment Act to force banks into spending millions on fixing up the Bronx. Below is a link that talks more about what is being changed in the Brox nowadays.

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT; Looking Back, Looking Ahead, Bronx - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

    It is great that a place can start off so bad and make it hard for people to live in, but I am glad that people are trying to fix it up so it becomes a better place for people to live in and hopefully attract more people. What are some ways that people in the community could help with these projects? And what are some ways that people can find better paying jobs and get out of being one of the "poorest" in the Bronx?

Other People's Children

 

Other People's Children

Lisa Delpit

Quotes

    In this reading, Delpit writes about the issues involved in the classroom. The first quote I want to write about is, "I try to give them my experiences, to explain. They just look and nod. The more I try to explain, they just nod and nod, just keep looking and nodding. They don't really hear me" (Delpit 22). She expresses that no matter what she says and how she explains it these kids just agree. There is no debate back and forth as do they really understand the concept or is it something they were told to not speak about. Many black children are taught by their parents the dos and don'ts when talking to white people. 

    The next quote I can relate to when I was younger is, "She also can't go for a walk alone at night without thinking about her safety a lot more than I would- without planning what to do in case a man approaches her with something other than good will". I agree with this quote because even when I was younger my parents told me not to go out alone at night. They would always say to me that nothing good happens after midnight. A lot of us kids grew up with our parents telling us it wasn't safe and put that in our heads that bad things can happen from an early age. It's okay to say that in order to keep your kids safe but in reality, you put a bad name to some of these genuine people.

    Lastly, "When I told this gentleman that what the teacher was doing was called a process method of teaching writing, his response was, "Well, at least now I know that she thought she was doing something. I thought she was just a fool who couldn't teach and didn't want to try""(Delpit 32). It is sad that people can judge people of other color so poorly. We all learned to never judge a book by its cover, and we still do that now a days. Just because this teacher may have been a different skin color than you doesn't mean she's any less intelligent than you. Get to know the person first and if it comes down to you still not liking them at least you know you gave it a shot.

Here is a ted talk about the diversity in the classrooms.

Affirming Diversity In The Classroom Why it Matters to Your Students | Nadiyah Herron | TEDxCSUSB - YouTube

Comments: 

       Everyone deserves an equal chance at living, getting a job, going to school, etc. There is no need to treat people with different ethnicities or skin color any differently. These people are going through the same life, but we are making it harder for them, so let's stop and embrace the wonderful people on this planet.