Saturday, October 20, 2012

Pre-Reading Blog Week Eight

Statistics show that students of color are overrepresented in special education courses.  I think this can be attributed to the fact that people of color have consistently been oppressed over history.  In class we have talked about white privilege and white supremacy and all of these ideas of hierarchy that exist within our society.  Whether it is based on social, economic, or political status, there has always been a favoring of White people over others.  When society is structured to better help a particular interest group, of course that group will reap the greatest benefits.  People of color end up facing disadvantages in society that continue to arise due to the fact that their struggle is greater by no reason other than the fact that they are not White.  With all of this disadvantage in society that is directed towards people of color, it has been found that more people of color live in poverty than White people.  With this continued oppression, it is harder for people of color to overcome and liberate themselves from the oppression.  

Connor’s quote deals with the idea of higher authorities structuring society in a way that better represents the dominant White culture.  By creating these terms and definitions to group others, we are then separating them from what is seen as “normal” in our society.  This grouping is a social construct because creating the idea of “normality” is always biased towards one group or another.  There is nothing that makes the grouping normal other than the fact that those higher in power, who are able to use and abuse this power, have created it to be normal.  So in a sense, what is described as normal is just a bias of those who created the social organiztion in the first place.  An organization designed to put people of color in their place, and to allow those of the manufactured “normal” race (White) to be in power.  

When it comes to testing for learning disabilities, language and cultural background definitely have a significant role when it comes to a child’s ability to learn.  For a student born in the United States and whose first language is English, learning in a classroom where the main language is English should be easy.  However, for those who are born out of the United States, or are born here but don’t have English as a first langueage, of course learning would be much more difficult for them.  This may then make them better candidates for classification under a learning disability, not due to the fact that they are not as smart as another student, but simply a reason of race, culture, and language.  

1 comment:

  1. Hi Mauro,
    This blog does such a nice job of putting white supremacy into conversation with constructions of normalcy. I would push you, however, to try linking white supremacy to other forms of privilege such a gender privilege, class privilege and ability privilege (especially for this week's topic!). You do an awesome job of explaining why whiteness is normal, but how about what we consider 'normal' in terms of ability? You are onto a great start when you discuss how language can play a role, see if this analysis can be expanded in the readings for this week?

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