I know that my title isn't exactly grammatically correct. Let me explain why. Those are lyrics. Whenever I hear someone refer to things being black or white, I immediately think of the old Michael Jackson song, "Black or White." It is a song that I used to listen to a lot with my brother and sister. We would put the CD in and listen to this song over and over and dance and sing. Whenever I hear black and white, it always takes me back to these memories. However, this song has nothing to do with Puerto Rico or what my post will continue to be about.
Clara E. Rodriguez wrote an article titled Puerto Ricans: Between Black and White. She talks about many racial issues about Puerto Rico. As I was reading her article, there were a few things that stuck out to me, which is what I will discuss in this post. The first thing I found interesting is when she was talking about Puerto Ricans being stuck between black and white. She says that Puerto Ricans are not identified with either race, especially in a biracial society such as the United States. This causes them to feel caught between black and white, which can end in them connecting with neither. For some reason, much of our identity is based on our race and how that plays into our every day life. In Puerto Rico, race is based on more than just color of skin. It is based on facial features, class, color, and hair texture, according to Rodriguez. This allows for a wide variety of races of Puerto Ricans rather than what the United States falls back to as a biracial culture.
Another thing she mentioned was one-way integration vs. two-way integration. One-way integration is the "norm"in the United States. This means that blacks are usually sent to schools where the majority of the population in the school is white. It doesn't go the other way around. Rodriguez also refers to this within the culture as a whole with the example of in the United States, a black family doesn't adopt a white child but it does happen the other way around. I find this very interesting to think about because being an education major, it made me think a lot about how this plays into education. Only recently has education begun to be more open with including different races in education. Before, students learned based on stories about white Americans. It was a very one-way integrated system. I think that things are changing and it is getting better, especially with the experiences I had during my student teaching. I was able to see how this is slightly changing with stories and lessons not only based on white Americans as well as not only white American teachers. I hope to see this continue to improve because I think that it is also important for the white American students to realize and think about the other people in the world and not look down on them.
These were just things from her article that struck me. It always surprises me how shallow it seems the United States can be sometimes. I know that doesn't mean everyone but when I see things like this, it makes me hope that things continue to change.
Krista,
ReplyDeleteThe song you talk about at the beginning makes me think about all the old songs I used to listen to with *my* brother and sister when we were little. We danced around and sang, too. Ah, the joys of childhood...
This article sounds like it was really interesting! I haven't ever seen a title be given to this idea of one-way v. two-way integration before, but I can definitely see it happening all across the USA. In my own school, blacks/Latinos/asians/eastern Europeans all endured one-way integration.
I think that schools now are becoming much more two-way integrated. Or at least, I hope they are. Multi-cultural education is definitely making a rise, and I think that is helpful for students and teachers of all races/ethnicities.
Krista, reading the article by Clara Rodriguez titled "Puerto Ricans: Between Black and White" was also very revealing for me. Growing up in the United States, I was always taught the impact that race and physical features have had on the history of this country, even to this day. Learning about Puerto Rico, then, and how the identity of Boricuans revolves around their culture rather than skin color was very intriguing. The United States could learn a lot from Puerto Rico.
ReplyDeleteHer definitions of one-way and two-way integration were also very intriguing. I grew up in a rural, white society, and therefore never really came into contact with that much diversity. I think, though, that school systems and teachers today are doing a better job of incorporating the history and traditions of more cultures in the U.S. education system now, which is a step forward.
Krista, I was glad we could reread this article for our mini-research homework for class because it brings up some really important points which you go on to mention in your post. Understand Puerto Rican culture is really important in understanding Nuyorican culture - reading this article in the context of Bodega Dreams was helpful for me in thinking about the characters and Spanish Harlem.
ReplyDeleteI felt foolish when I realized that being brought up in the U.S. has made me think about race based on only skin color - it just didn't occur to me that in other places race could be defined by things like facial features, class, and hair texture. I think it's really important for me to keep reading different kinds of literature and expand the way I think about issues such as race and ethnicity.
Krista, I'm glad you made Clara Rodriguez's article the focus of your post. She clearly has some helpful perspectives--as the comments on your blog post show. Until we have "two-way" or "multi-way" integration in our schools, we won't really have equality. "One-way" integration is based on an assumption of inferiority/superiority rather than on the belief that both cultures have something valuable to contribute to each other.
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