Jennifer Trainor's article is a pretty simple study. She went to Laurel Canyons high school, which is 97% middle-class white kids. However, throughout this essay, she tries to at least give them the benefit of the doubt about their wealth. One family lives in a mobile home, while others live in a pretty educated home. There's a lot of trash talk in this article especially from students who are not racist, but very hegemonic about class status. In a less-confusing Marxist terms it means that they are not racist by race, but rather knock down lower-class people. This includes all "white trash" and colored people.
Trainor argues that racism in the class room is therefore not as clear-cut as we might imagine. She also argues in very Althusserian terms that ideologies both racist (and even anti-racist) organizations cause racial problems. The one example that really stuck with me from the beginning was the Miya Angeluo responses. Some seem to say that she's making an excuse for people not to be individuals who have responsibilities etc. etc. Of course, many students, Trainor implies, are influenced by their parents and families treatment towards race. One example comes to mind from a girl who tells her parents that her uncle keeps using the "N- word" so much and even from an early age she felt as if it were a bad word. What we must remember is that students can often change a story or flat out just tell us b.s. as long as it makes them shine. Now, I'm not saying she could've known that the word had bad connotations, but it seems pretty odd they she gives that argument.
Finally, I'd like to say that Trainor's essay isn't as helpful as we might want it to be. She comes from a similar background that these students do and her experience with race is limited therefore. When Trainor encounters it as a teacher, she seems to react. This is a good example perhaps of how people who have felt apart of a culture, suddenly realize their otherness. However, this may be more helpful than we might imagine. Maybe people can become more aware, more conscious about their social identities and that the ideologies behind them can affect the way we think about racism in general. This is perhaps the best thing we can take away from this essay. What is not as helpful, which my sound derogatory is that this essay focuses on a specific white-centered group of students. Statistically it's not the best nor is it the best way to look at just one group of people.
On a final note, I'd just like to ask: how many times do the students use the word "like" in this essay?
Yeah....racism is such a hard thing to address and analyze in general...how to deal with it, where it comes from...on some level i do applaud the attempt that Trainor takes in such a broad analyzation...on another, she does lack an even greater in depth look at racism...for instance, is it not in some way racist to say "the n word." Its not as if that phrase stands alone in the cognitive process; instead it immediately correlates to the word 'nigger' within our lexicon (as its intention is). And thus, is "the n word" not in some way patronizing as it is racist. And how do we address that?
ReplyDeleteGood post, i agree. But just wanted to add a few thoughts.