Trainor: The Emotioned Power of Racism

This ethnographic study provided some disheartening observations.  Growing up in North Orange County at a predominantly white, upper middle class, wealthy high school, I related a lot to what Trainor observed at Laurel Canyon.  Yes, my school was more diverse, greatschools.org shows that my high school is 65% white and I had friends of other ethnicities, but we were taught, similar to the students at Laurel Canyon that our destiny was in our own hands if we maintained the right attitude.  I never really thought about much about this because I knew I would get a college degree and work in education since my mom married into some money and we were able to stay in this prestigious district (based on city of residence).  I never really thought about all those students that didn't have those opportunities due to financial difficulties or different backgrounds until I worked at a community college.  We had money ever since I was seven (when my mother remarried) and my stepfather was highly educated and I was conditioned to believe that if I worked just as hard as he did, I too would be successful.

Trainor states, "Students internalized these emotioned rules and put them to unintended, and sometimes racist, uses.  For example, for students whites were seen as having an appropriately instrumental view of life; they understood the importance of tests, learning how to write, doing well in school, whereas people of color, in students' estimation seemed not to understand the connection between hard work and a good attitude" (97). As embarrassing as it is for me to admit, I think I fell into this as a high school and college student.  Never would I call myself racist, but I was emotionally conditioned like the students Trainor is observing.

What I take from this study is that as hard as it may be, as teachers, we need to step outside of what the school's M.O. may be, similar to Elizabeth who was stated to have too much passion.  We need to be aware of emotional education and be diligent in not promoting such close mindedness.  Why do people feel what they feel and how can we guide this are questions we should be answering.