Dear Mac Members:
Recently, I had an incident in the classroom that left me in a quandary. I
won't go into specifics, but it made me think it would be good to put
together an anthology that would feature stories on incidents involving race
in the classroom. I believe this would make an interesting publication and
would serve as a much needed dialogue around issues of race and diversity in
the classroom and perhaps on university campuses.
So often I have experienced what Prof. Willingham talks about in her piece
as I have discussed issues of race and diversity in the classroom. It can
be a very difficult task. Some white students will fold their arms in
defiance and others may even show their anger and belligerence in their
discussion. Often just the presence of a person of color in the classroom
as an authority figure is a problem for some. Let me know what the rest of
you think. Of course this would make a good panel as well. Please, let me
know what the rest of you think. Prof. Pearlie Strother-Adams
-----Original Message-----
From: FOR THE MINORITIES AND COMMUNICATION DIV. OF AEJMC
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Journalism Department
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 9:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Perspectives: Improving Race Relations One Journalism Class At A
Time
Dear MAC Member:
My university diversity officer sent me the article below. I thought some of
you might be interested in reading it. --- Lillie Fears
Current News
Perspectives: Improving Race Relations One Journalism Class At A Time
By Breea C. Willingham
Sep 28, 2006, 06:56
I was standing in line in the Dollar Tree store recently when a
blonde-haired little girl who looked to be about 5 years old flashed a
toothless smile at me. ³Hello,² she said. ³You have a black face. How did
you get that black face?²
Iım usually quick with a comeback, but the girl caught me off guard. After
pausing for a few minutes I simply replied, ³I was born with it just like
you were born with your white face.²
³Oh,² the little girl said, and went about her business.
Imagine that little girl in my classroom 13 years from now. I recognize that
little girl in a few of my students.
Iım an African-American faculty member on a predominantly White campus in a
town where less than 5 percent of the population is minority.
Many of my students are from White suburban communities or small towns,
where diversity is not an issue because there is none. For many of them,
their first experiences with minorities and discussions about race happen in
my classroom.
Getting my students to talk about race is challenging, at best, on most
days.
And on the days when my students write papers where they call Black people
³coloreds² or say the majority of crimes in the United States are committed
by Black men, that goal seems more frustrating than attainable.
The biggest challenge for me is figuring out how to use those frustrations
as learning tools and examples of precisely why diversity is needed across
the curriculum. Just as newsrooms across the nation celebrate Time Out for
Diversity and Accuracy once a year, journalism educators need to be reminded
why they have to bring these issues to the classroom.
Iıve always been passionate about issues dealing with race, ethnicity and
diversity, and how they relate to the media. I covered these matters as a
reporter for the Times Union in Albany, and I work hard to incorporate them
into my courses.
For instance, during an exercise in my ³Women, Minorities and the Media²
class I drew four columns on the blackboard and labeled each one
African-American, Asian American, American Indian or Hispanic. I then asked
the students to call out stereotypes for each group.
The students had no problem calling out stereotypes such as ³lazy,² ³like to
eat fried chicken² and ³canıt speak English well.² But when I drew a fifth
column for White people and asked for the stereotypes, the students were
hard pressed to find any. I repeated the exercise asking for positive
attributes for each group; the lists for the minorities were considerably
shorter.
At the end I asked my students why it was so easy for them to point out the
negatives and not the positives. They all blamed the media for portraying
negative images of minorities.
I try to teach my students that before they can even begin to report on and
write about race-related issues, they have to be willing to talk about them
first and confront their prejudices.
Teaching that lesson isnıt always easy, and I even became discouraged when I
read course evaluations from last fall semester where some students
criticized me for talking about diversity too much in class.
But then I read one studentıs paper in the spring semester. ³Because of this
class I feel better prepared to deal with many social issues and situations,
especially race, on a day-to-day basis,² the student wrote. I felt an
overwhelming sense of satisfaction knowing I at least reached one.
My efforts so far have taught me that adding diversity to the curriculum is
more than just adding a new course to the roster, and simply having a
³Women, Minorities and the Media² course is not enough.
Iım learning itıs more about changing the way students think about and look
at diversity issues, and challenging their biases. Professors also need to
learn before they can deal with these issues as an educator; they need to
acknowledge and challenge their own biases.
Although I have my moments when I feel like I want to give up trying to
teach diversity to the next generation of journalists, my passion for the
issue wonıt let me.
And on the days when I feel my efforts are in vain, I remember the advice a
colleague recently gave me: ³Youıre the only education some of these
students will ever get on race issues. I donıt know if thatıs more
frustrating than consoling, but I see it as a legitimate chance for you to
make a difference in some of their lives and in the world around you. Yeah,
it seems small-scale, but if the worldıs gonna change, itıs going to be one
person at a time. At least youıre doing some good things to try to initiate
that change. Keep at it.²
And so I do.
Breea C. Willingham spent 10 years as a reporter for papers in the Carolinas
and New York State. She is now a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure
University in Allegany, N.Y.
İ Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
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