Notes on "We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools

Ch. 1

Howard gives further details of his past, chief among them his “baptism by fire,” in which parts of his neighborhood caught on fire during rioting in the 1960s.He talks of his associations with activists, including the Black Panthers. He also talks about his immersion experience with aborigines in Australia.

Ch. 2

This is where Howard finally starts to discuss tangible, detailed theory, though this chapter fails to give us any practical applications. He introduces four aspects of the issue of Social Dominance: the Minimal Group Paradigm, which suggest that humans tend to favor their own group and find something wrong with other groups; Social Positionality, which includes subjective dimensions (“how I see myself/how others see me”) and objective dimensions (social position is terms of observable measures, including income, education, and job title); Social Dominance, with the following four assumptions:
1. In social systems, hegemonic groups are at the top and negative reference groups are at the bottom
2. These groups at the top are disproportionately male
3. Oppression is linked to these hierarchies
4. Social hierarchies are a survival strategy,

and “Privilege and Penalty,” which says that dominant groups often receive certain privileges, which aren’t usually earned.

Howard also brings to light all of the horrible things that Europeans have done to marginalized groups in the past, including spreading disease, starting wars, and using missionaries to destroy cultures by way of spreading the gospel.

Ch. 3

Howard goes on to give examples of hegemonic groups and the reasons they do what they do. He says that dominant groups are the architects of their own reality, and that three major processes are included in dominance: the assumption of rightness, the luxury of ignorance, and the legacy of privilege.
I’m confused by Howard’s assertion that “the actual deficiency (of students’ misbehavior or failure to contribute in class) lay more with us educators than with either American Indian students or their families.” I don’t agree that the problem with students’ motivation lies 100% with the teachers. Also, Howard makes this claim, yet does nothing to offer pragmatic suggestions as to how we as educators are supposed to correct this “deficiency.”

Howard also says “…we too often attribute failure to the culture and characteristics of the child rather than to the inherent structure of dominance in the larger society.” This may be true in many cases, but what about the failure of some white children to excel in their studies?

I do, however, agree with Howard in chapter 3, when he states that “Hegemonic groups tend to construct reality in ways that reinforce, protect, and legitimize their position of dominance.” This is especially true of American politicians today, with the war in Iraq and the actions the Administration are performing which call into question the extent of our civil liberties.

It’s also interesting in chapter 2 when the author recounts that European Christians in the 1500s labeled all of those outside of their religion as “infidels,” which is what Muslim extremists are calling us Americans today.

Ch. 4
Howard gives a long-winded analogy between navigating the Colorado River and teaching in a multicultural society. He proposes that we as White educators must contribute “honesty, empathy, advocacy, and action” to the education process.

He then recounts personal narratives for each of the aforementioned contributions. Howard also reiterates the notion of “White privilege,” and that we must continuously be aware of it. Perhaps most valuable in Chapter 4 is Howard’s Five Key Areas of Learning:
1. To know who we are racially and culturally
2. To learn about and value cultures different from our own
3. To view social reality through the lens of multicultural perspectives
4. To understand the history and dynamics of dominance
5. To nurture in ourselves and our students a passion for justice and the skills for social action
(Howard, 81)

Ch. 5
Howard notes that most of us do not see ourselves as being White. Chapter five is devoted to the stages of black racial identity development, as well as the stages of white racial identity development. He gives more time to the latter, as we can see here:

The Stages of Black racial identity development:
1. Preencounter—distance from own racial identity
2. Encounter—exposure to racism
3. Immersion/Emersion—anger towards Whites or anything White
4. Internalization—“pro-black” attitude; less defensive
5. Internalization-Commitment—securely-rooted in one’s Black identity
(Howard, 86-87)
The Stages of White racial identity development consists of three developmental tasks:

1. Acknowledging the reality of White racism
2. Engaging in resistance to racism’s many forms
3. Developing a positive connection to White racial/cultural identity

Six Stages in developing White racial identity:

1. Contact—initial contact with other races
2. Disintegration—acknowledgement of our Whiteness
3. Reintegration—embracing the notion of White superiority
4. Pseudo-Independence—questioning the justifiability of racism
5. Immersion-Emersion—moving away from wanting to help others and moving towards changing oneself and his fellow Whites in a positive way
6. Autonomy—race is no longer a threat
(Howard, 87-94)

Ch. 6
Howard and his wife construct a model of multicultural growth. The crux of this model is the three White identity orientations:

1. Fundamentalist—Places the individual within the first three stages of developing a White racial identity.
2. Integrationist—Which places the individual at stages four and five of developing a White racial identity
3. Transformationist—Placing the individual at stage six of developing a White racial identity
(Howard, 100)

Howard breaks each of these orientations down to affective and cognitive properties, which to be honest, was a bit tedious.
Ch. 7
Howard finishes the book by using doubletalk and making clichéd analogies. He again asks that White educators strive for change in order to “shift the tide of racial dominance.” (Howard, 116) He seems to want us all to become activists, as though anyone has the time for that.


Personal Notes
I wasn’t really confused by anything in the readings this time. However, I walked away from this book with very little. I can appreciate that we must be aware of having special, almost invisible privileges, and that is something I hadn’t considered prior to reading this.

To summarize my feelings on this book:

Racism cannot be broken down into diagrams and stages so easily. Many of the points the author presented (about being empathetic, or to question racism) are nothing new. What may be noteworthy is that Howard attempts to present his cause to educators, rather than to mainstream society. This is wise because we as teachers are on the front lines of the battlefield that is racism and intolerance.

Howard may have found his niche in the education market, because most uneducated people wouldn’t be prepared to lend an ear to his message: That we must embrace cultural differences and question the superiority of our own culture.