Teaching Diversity

I just recently watched the film Crash for the first time a few days ago. Although many of the vignettes in this film are meant to be shocking, I found myself not so shocked by a lot of the prejudices that occurred in the film. It sometimes feels like the focus of diversity as teachers in Baltimore City is strictly on black-white relations. I was most particularly drawn to the dichotomy between Cameron (a wealth black male) and Anthony (a poor black male). It seems to me that economics, class, and race are at times completely inseparable. As a student of School Reform, then, how do we discuss and teach diversity within our schools to the “Anthony’s?” I use this topic of the film because I see a lot of my students finding it difficult to wade through the inequalities that they see everyday. I’ve heard students comment before on how “unfair” it is how poor our school is. There’s a chapter in Kozol’s Savage Inequalities that depicts the irony between a school named after Martin Luther King, Jr. and the conditions in that school. It is true, that such a leader who fought for civil rights, should adorn some of the most segregated and urban schools. This film, in its popularity, should allow us to jumpstart a conversation about diversity within our school communities. In an environment that usually lacks racial diversity (my school is 99% African American), how can these conditions continue? How can such segregation be allowed to exist?

Teaching high school-ers, they are in their socially formative years, where they struggle to find their own identity in the face of a dominant mentality. For most of my students, they are in an adolescent stage where they are struggling between their own identity and a larger, more pervasive mentality. They want to become independent and discover who they are in terms of interests, yet feel pressured to become part of a certain group. This relates to Cameron’s story, in that his role is defined by a society that is predominately white and wealthy. However, Cameron is much older than my students, and can negotiate between these conflicts of character. Nevertheless, my students, in their adolescent development, sometimes have trouble negotiating their identity with the dominant one they see around them. In this sense, they are surrounded by images of white wealth, and notice the difference in their own lives. Similarly, the character Anthony very much represents the “modern, hip-hop” culture of black youth; he notices the prejudices and stereotypes that other people may have about him. Like my students, some of them understand this and some of them do it. Overall, how can we be transparent with our students about inequality and race? Kozol, in his book, writes about a report from the Community Service Society (taken from an official from the NYC Board of Education), that remarks “that there is ‘no point’ in putting further money ‘into some poor districts;’” Kozol goes on to write that “the perception that the poorest districts are beyond help still remains,’ and perhaps the worst result of such beliefs, says the report, is the message that resources would be ‘wasted on poor children.’ …Children hear and understand this theme—they are poor investments—and behave accordingly’” (Kozol, 99). Ultimately, I want to instill in my students that they are worth the investment, that they can change the community around them. But, as one single teacher, it is not enough. There is an imbalance in the way we use testing to mechanize student achievement in school districts; and this testing is inextricably linked with funding. To change our students belief on not just their own race, but their inherent belief in success, there needs to be a systemic change which allows for the “Anthony’s” of Crash to rise above their situation.