Camden’s Blog

Taco Night at my school is called International Night.  We have had a different version of it every since we started it 5 years ago.  I stress different but not new and improved.  The upside is we do ask students to participate with dances, songs, and poetry and to wear clothing from their culture and we are a very ethnically and nationally diverse school.  Also, there has been an attempt to represent food from different countries – though it lack authenticity and sometimes countries are represented and we do not have students from those countries.  Most notably are the many nations in Africa from which we have students from that are seldom represented.   The most striking aspect of Gorski’s article for me is that of intent, or what he says may be lack of intent with these functions.  His point is that although the intention may have been to engage in a “multicultural awareness” activity, the actuality promoted racial superiority by presented a distorted sense of marginalized groups and their otherness.  This issue of intent reminds me of when I was a police dispatcher and we were experiencing a natural disaster – a firestorm in the Oakland Hills.  We were very busy and experienced a constant barrage of reporters calling in trying to get information.  I worked for a small agency that was very involved in the disaster.  One reporter called in and said “I do not mean to bother you” and I responded, “You may not mean to but you are in fact bothering me.”  This is how I feel about these so-called well-intended acts of intercultural activities and instruction.  Gorski also challenges us that inaction is just as insidious as unintended action.  We need to examine our philosophies, motivations and world views that underlie our consciousnesses when we teach the adults of tomorrow.  Are we preparing them to go out and compete in a  “global economy” and in effect reproduce this economic exploitation and globalize poverty?  Or have we already done this?  If we have or if we are, we do so by not teaching them to challenge and question the very systems that reproduce poverty in our world.  Do we intend that?  No, but we are in fact doing it. 

Trackback URI | Comments RSS