I experienced a few pivotal moments; these moments were a connection to my Intro to Latinx/Chicanx Studies class. There is one point where Ms. Kirby talks about cross-cultural teaching for the first time. She talks about being nervous in her teaching and thinking about white parents monitoring her more closely as a teacher than black parents (p. 23). She describes this as showing how deeply white supremacy is in the black community in particular. This is true for the Hispanic/Latinx community as well. In our class book, Harvest of Empire, the author talks about Puerto Ricans and the story of “assimilating” in America. The author mentions a poem, ¿Y tu abuela, dónde está? by Fortunato Vizcarrondo. The poem reminds all Puerto Ricans that black blood runs through them; however, being in America, they began to develop antiblack attitudes. The author describes it as "some rite of passage to becoming authentic Americans”. Ms. Kirby talks about suffering self-identity crises, which is also very common in the Hispanic/Latinx community as well. In the Harvest of Empire, the author talks about how Hispanic/Latinx is a buffer to the black-and-white society. For Puerto Ricans, they possessed a racial identity of losing their culture and language to “assimilate” in a white or black world. For Mexicans, they face having roots in American soil before America existed but still having to battle being fully recognized and understood. These are some of the topics that we discussed in my class, but I can see the connections between the black and Latinx community. There is a sticker I have seen with the phrase “tu lucha, es mi lucha” which means your fight is my fight. Ms. Kirby mentions George Orwell to refer to something. I have not read his book but know of them. In my search, I found 1984 mentions cult of personality, which coincidentally is the title of a song by Living Colour. Through some quick google searching and deep-diving into the lyrics, I realized it wasn’t a happy coincidence, but intentional.
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AuthorHello, I'm a senior at St. Edward's University. This blog is dedicated to Teachers College Press teaching social justice series. Archives
November 2020
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