Being Multi-Racial

33 Photos That Prove There Is No One Way To Be An American Family

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/03/what-the-american-family-looks-like_n_5552409.html

The American family looks different than it did 50, or even 10, years ago.

The number of children living with two married parents has steadily decreased since the '80s. A 2012 Pew study found that 2 million dads stay at home with their kids -- a statistic that is also climbing. Around six million kids and adults have an LGBT parent. Minorities make up 37 percent of the population, but will increase to 57 percent in 2060. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2043, no group will make up a majority.

It's clearly time to celebrate all of the families in this country. So to ring in the Fourth of July this year, we asked our readers for family photos that represent the real America. The images we received include a single mom by choice who adopted her son when he was 2 years old, a military family with a dad who is in active duty in the Air Force, and a Sikh family who takes an annual road trip to Washington D.C. to celebrate the Independence Day.

Transforming Curriculum Philosophy

We must transform our minds before we can transform our curriculum.  My coaching is about helping teachers become more familiar with multicultural concepts, the language we use without even knowing it, and some specific vocabulary needed in order to have conversations around racism and privilege, in order to look at one's own work with new eyes.

~ Claudia A. Fox Tree

We are charged with educating for the next seven generations.  Infusing an anti-bias orientation into thinking - one that effectively nurtures a curiosity about, and a respect for, differences - is critical.

The “sandwich” approach to planning lessons is essential.  Planning should have 3 parts (not necessarily in this order, but certainly present in some way, with "good stuff" surrounding the "oppressive stuff") as much as possible.

Part 1

• Understanding the concepts (vocabulary) in order to have informed conversations, such as: Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination.
• Raising awareness of the contributions of under-represented (marginalized) groups, particularly BEFORE they were oppressed (civilizations, inventions, "discoveries," achievements, etc.)

Part 2

• Problems/Issues/Oppression - What is "lingering" to modern times?
• Raising awareness of the issues faced by under-represented (marginalized) groups throughout history. - How did groups resist and fight against their oppression?

Part 3

• Role Models/Action plans/Proactive Activity. - We still exist in the contemporary world!
• Understanding and practicing ally behavior (i.e.: active bystander, advocate, etc.). 
• Power/Privilege (Institutionalized Stereotypes, and Prejudice, Discrimination), and Ally.  - How can you use the areas where you have advantage and control to help others?

Racist, Sexist, and Class Oppressive Societies are Created Over Many Years

Racism is not defined as "individual acts of meanness."  All "-isms" are defined as a SYSTEM which advantages one group over another (sometimes this "advantage" is defined as "power").  Just as sexism advantages men over women and classism advantanges those "who have more than enough" over "those who do not have enough," racism advantages people of white European descent over people of color.  The term "people of color" is a political phrase grouping folks based on such categories as marginalization in society, ethnic minority status, and lack of power in the larger social structure of laws, politics, land owning, corporations, etc., not actual skin color, or actual "numbers" as the word "minority" might imply.

These ADVANTAGES or "privileges" are best defined by Peggy McIntosh in her paper , "White Privilege:  Unpacking the Inivisible Knapsack." http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf  They are not asked for, often unknown, and notoriously not noticed, however, they DO EXIST.  Power and privilege is created within a societal system.  Those that have it, don't typically notice unless it is pointed out.  Those that do not have it, know all too well what it looks like and what they can and cannot do or have access to.

A SYSTEM is when cultural norms benefit one group over another, as when Christian observances are marked on a calendar (or officially taken as a day off), but the same benefit (privilege) is not given to Jewish observances.

A SYSTEM is when laws (or rules) directly benefit one group, and not another.  Laws are particularly problematic because their impact can continue for generations.  For example, if your ancestors were taken from their land (African), or their land was taken from them (Native American), or they were not allowed to buy land (people of color) because of "red lining," then the advantages of owning land, building equity, using that equity to create a business or send a child to college, were not available.  The impact of land owning (or lack of it) trickles down from generation to generation.  

This video has an excellent summary of some legislation that advantaged people of white European descent, while disadvantaging people of color - and land owning is only a small part.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFjKQVZLk1g

What A Week Of Groceries Looks Like Around The World

What A Week Of Groceries Looks Like Around The World
http://fstoppers.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world

Click the link for photos of different families around the world

Cataloguing Human Skin Tones

Black and white? We know humanity is far more diverse than that. Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass’ ongoing series Humanae has the lofty goal of recording and cataloging all possible human skin tones. From her many samples so far, we see an incredible spectrum – one which places us far closer to one another than we’re often led to see.

Read more at http://www.visualnews.com/2014/03/11/every-human-pantone-color-angelica-dass-finding/#S2AtVJTqqP8MLTs8.99

Black and white? We know humanity is far more diverse than that. Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass’ ongoing series Humanae has the lofty goal of recording and cataloging all possible human skin tones. From her many samples so far, we see an incredible spectrum – one which places us far closer to one another than we’re often led to see.
Read more at http://www.visualnews.com/2014/03/11/every-human-pantone-color-angelica-dass-finding/#S2AtVJTqqP8MLTs8.99

Black and white? We know humanity is far more diverse than that. Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass’ ongoing series Humanae has the lofty goal of recording and cataloging all possible human skin tones. From her many samples so far, we see an incredible spectrum – one which places us far closer to one another than we’re often led to see.
Read more at http://www.visualnews.com/2014/03/11/every-human-pantone-color-angelica-dass-finding/#S2AtVJTqqP8MLTs8.99

Black and white? We know humanity is far more diverse than that. Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass’ ongoing series Humanae has the lofty goal of recording and cataloging all possible human skin tones. From her many samples so far, we see an incredible spectrum – one which places us far closer to one another than we’re often led to see.
Read more at http://www.visualnews.com/2014/03/11/every-human-pantone-color-angelica-dass-finding/#S2AtVJTqqP8MLTs8.99

Black and white? We know humanity is far more diverse than that. Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass’ ongoing series Humanae has the lofty goal of recording and cataloging all possible human skin tones. From her many samples so far, we see an incredible spectrum – one which places us far closer to one another than we’re often led to see.
Read more at http://www.visualnews.com/2014/03/11/every-human-pantone-color-angelica-dass-finding/#S2AtVJTqqP8MLTs8.99

Black and white? We know humanity is far more diverse than that. Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass’ ongoing series Humanae has the lofty goal of recording and cataloging all possible human skin tones. From her many samples so far, we see an incredible spectrum – one which places us far closer to one another than we’re often led to see.
Read more at http://www.visualnews.com/2014/03/11/every-human-pantone-color-angelica-dass-finding/#S2AtVJTqqP8MLTs8.99

QUOTES FROM Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

by James W. Loewen. Simon & Schuster, 1995

"Historically, American Indians have been the most lied-about subset of our population" (99).

Did Europeans "civilize" the Americas? Actually, anthropologists tell us that "hunters and gatherers were relatively peaceful, compared to agriculturalists, and that modern societies were more warlike still. Thus violence increases with civilization" (101-2).

"..textbooks cannot resist contrasting "primitive" Americans with modern Europeans" (102).

"In what ways do we prefer the civilized Third Reich to the more primitive Arawak nation that Columbus encountered? If we refuse to label the Third Reich civilized, are we not using the term to imply a certain comity? If so, we must consider the Arawaks civilized, and we must also consider Columbus and his Spaniards primitive is not savage" (102).

"Europeans persuaded Natives to specialize in the fur and slave trades. Native Americans were better hunters and trappers than Europeans, and with the guns the Europeans sold them, they became better still. Other Native skills began to atrophy" (103).

"..because whites "demanded institutions reflective of their own with which to relate," many Native groups strengthened their tribal governments... New confederations and nations developed.. The tribes also became more male- dominated, in imitation of Europeans.. [there was] an escalation of Indian warfare... [the slave trade helped] to deagriculturize Native Americans. To avoid being targets for capture, Indians abandoned their cornfields and their villages" (105-6).

"Europeans did not "civilize" or "settle" roaming Indians, but had the opposite impact" (107).

"…from the start in Virginia.. settlers fled to Indian villages rather than endure the rigors of life among the autocratic English. Indeed, many white and black newcomers chose to live an Indian lifestyle... some Natives chose to live among whites.. The migration was mostly the other way, however.. Europeans were always trying to stop the outflow. Hernando De Soto had to post guards to keep his men and women from defecting to Native societies... right up to the end of independent Indian nationhood in 1890, whites continued to defect, and whites who lived an Indian lifestyle, such as Daniel Boone, became cultural heroes in white society" (109).

"Not one American history textbook mentions the attraction of Native societies to European Americans and African Americans" (109).

"According to Benjamin Franklin, "All their government is by Counsel of the Sages. There is no Force; there are no Prisons, no officers to compel Obedience, or inflict Punishment." Probably foremost, the lack of hierarchy in the Native socieites in the eastern United States attracted the admiration of European observers. Frontiersmen were taken with the extent to which Native Americans enjoyed freedom as individuals. Women were also accorded more status and power.. than in white societies of the time" (109-110).

Lt. Gov. Cadwallader Colden of New York in 1727 said, "Here we see the natural Origin of all Power and Authority among a free People" (110).

"Indeed, Native American ideas may be partly responsible for our democratic institutions. We have seen how Native ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality found their way to Europe to influence social philosophers such as Thomas More, Locke, Montaigne, Montesquieu, and Rousseau... Through 150 years of colonial contact, the Iroquois League stood before the colonies as an object lesson in how to govern a large domain democratically" (111).

"Both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention referred openly to Iroquois ideas and imagery... As a symbol of the new United States, Americans chose the eagle clutching a bundle of arrows. They knew that both the eagle and the arrows were symbols of the Iroquois League... John Mohawk has argued that American Indians are directly or indirectly responsible for the public-meeting tradition, free speech, democracy, and "all those things which got attached to the Bill of Rights." Without the Native example, "do you really believe that all those ideas would have found birth among a people who had spent a millennium butchering other people because of intolerance of questions of religion?"" (111-112).

"For a hundred years after our Revolution, Americans credited Native Americans as a source of their democratic institutions... When colonists took action to oppose unjust authority, as in the Boston Tea Party.. they chose to dress as Indians, not to blame Indians for the demonstrations but to appropriate a symbol identified with liberty" (112).

"Indian warfare absorbed 80 percent of the entire federal budget during George Washington's administration and dogged his successors for a century as a major issue and expense... [in many cases] the settlers were Native American, the scalpers white" (116).

"All the textbooks tell how Jefferson "doubled the size of the United States by buying Louisiana from France." Not one points out that it was not France's land to sell--it was Indian land... Indeed, France did not really sell Louisiana for $15,000,000. France merely sold its claim to the territory... Equally Eurocentric are the maps textbooks use to show the Lewis and Clark expedition. They make Native American invisible, implying that the United States bought vacant land from the French... [Textbooks imply that the Indians were naive about land ownership, but] the problem lay in whites' not abiding by accepted concepts of land ownership" (123).

"The most important cause of the War of 1812.. was land-- Indian land... The United States fought five of the seven major land battles of the War of 1812 primarily against Native Americans... [a] result of the War of 1812 was the loss of part of our history. A century of learning [from Native Americans] was coming to a close... until 1815 the word Americans had generally been used to refer to Native Americans; after 1815 it meant European Americans... Carleton Beals has written that "our acquiescence in Indian dispossession has molded the American character." ... destroyed our national idealism. From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy, we exported the ideology of white supremacy. Gradually we sought American hegemony over Mexico, the Philippines, much of the Caribbean basin, and, indirectly, over other nations... We also have to admit that Adolf Hitler displayed more knowledge of how we treated Native Americans than American high schoolers who rely on their textbooks. Hitler admired our concentration camps for Indians in the west "and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination--by starvation and uneven combat" as the model for his extermination of Jews and Gypsies" (123-126).

Yet we "still stereotype Native Americans as roaming primitive hunting folk, unfortunate victims of progress" (132).

For more on this topic, read Helen Hunt Jackson's famous indictment of Native American policies, A Century of Dishonor.

Also, see her fictional account of the racism Mexicans and Indians both endured at the hands of White and Mexican settlers, Ramona.

More quotes from the book are here:  http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/First_Thanksgiving_LMTTM.html

Thanksgiving quotes from the book are here: http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2007/11/lies-my-teacher-told-me-everything-your.html

GREAT LESSON PLANS FOR THE BOOK HERE:  http://liesmyteachertoldme.wikispaces.com/home

Photo Gallery: 20 Memorials to Native Americans
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/gallery/photo/photo-gallery-20-memorials-native-americans-155013

Put the Shoe on the Other Foot… On Being Multiracial

What is the Difference Between Deutsch and Dutch? Holland and Netherlands?

From http://www.visualnews.com:  Other things you’ll find out are how New Zealand got its name; the old name of Australia; why we call the Pensilvania Dutch “Dutch” even when they are from Germany; and why part of the European Union is actually located in the southern Caribbean. Seriously, there are some strange things going on with this low lying nation, and marijuana smoking is not even close to the biggest part of it. Join us now on this great journey which (if you’re like us geography geeks), will have you itching to explore all things Dutch sooner rather than later.

Girls' Bedrooms

Bedrooms around the world.  http://www.visualnews.com/2012/11/12/a-girl-and-her-room-girls-bedrooms-around-the-world/?utm_source=VisualNews&utm_campaign=a3dfbd6853-RSS_EMAIL&utm_medium=email

The Voice of Hawai'i

Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai‘i http://pidginthevoiceofhawaii.com/
This movie profiles the language of Hawai’i’s working people in its rise from plantation jargon to a source of island identity, pride, and controversy. Born on sugar plantations and spoken by more than half of Hawai‘i’s population, Pidgin captures multi-ethnic Hawai‘i’s heart and soul. Once again under attack by educators and bloggers, will Pidgin survive?

Teaching About Diversity - A Beginning

Teaching "Diversity": A Place to Begin http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3499 We all want children to grow up in a world free from bias and discrimination, to reach for their dreams and feel that whatever they want to accomplish in life is possible. We want them to feel loved and included and never to experience the pain of rejection or exclusion. But the reality is that we do live in a world in which racism and other forms of bias continue to affect us. Discrimination hurts and leaves scars that can last a lifetime, affecting goals, ambitions, life choices, and feelings of self-worth.

The Climb by Kalolin Johnson

10 year old, Kalolin Johnson sings The Climb by Miley Cyrus in TWO LANGUAGES - Mi'kmaq and English.

Exit Studio

Exit Studio http://www.exitstudio.com/web-content/pages/bookvideo.html:  Puerto Rico and the Caribbean is a region full of rich culture, blending influences from the native Arawak people, Africans brought as slaves, and European voyagers and missionaries. Exit Studio's products explore some of these themes through books, videos, and hands-on activities. Here you can learn more about this colorful place where art, music, and language mix in fascinating ways.  Teacher tools here:  http://www.exitstudio.com/web-content/pages/classroom.html

50 Examples of Stereotypes

These examples of racial and ethnic stereotypes cross nationalities and religions too. Asians, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Russians, Jews, Canadians, Arabs, and many more.  Listen to the music attached to each set of images.  Think about the following questions?

• Did you recognize the music or image associated with the group?
• Where (and when) did you learn it?
• Do you have other images or songs for this group, or has your experience been limited to the visuals/music you see/hear here?
• What happens when an entire group of people is only known by a particular image, song, dance, or symbol?  
• Can a group of people be captured that easily?
• What can you say about "Americans"?

Stand by Me by Playing for Change

Playing for Change performs Stand by Me.  In this video, you can hear and see a multicultural experience.

The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie

Chimamanda Adichie describes the danger of a single story. This video demonstrates the importance of multiple stories and perspectives.