Casey Fichtner

Reflection 1 – Race, Ethnicity, and Colorblindness

Ever since going to graduate school, I have become immersed in conversations about

race, racial inequity in education, and my own participation in racial discourse being that I am a

white female teacher. This week has allowed me to reflect on some of what I have learned as

well as some new ideas I have developed.

Since posting on the course discussion board I have been thinking about the reference

that I made about one of my students seeing himself within a text because the character was

like him. I have been thinking about this a lot because this particular student is a white

presenting African American male. I have been thinking about his specific choice of words when

he discussed the book. At first, he called himself an African American, then he adjusted his

statement to, “well I have African American parents.” I have thought about this a lot because

while presenting as white, he initially identified with Jackie Robinson on the basis of skin color.

When expressing his personal connection to the material, this student felt obligated to adjust

his racial identity away from African American. I have begun to wonder what the impetus to

this self-adjustment is. We celebrate ethnicity a lot at my school, but we so frequently limit

conversations about race to Black History month. How does limiting conversations about race

and ethnicity to specified times of the year inhibit brown and black children from seeing

themselves within the greater context of the world? How does limiting racial conversations to

discussions about skin color that exclude cultural identity, also limit children from seeing

themselves represented within their own racial/cultural backgrounds?

This week, I have also reflected on how badly many white people feel about specifying

that someone is black or brown. This anxiety was discussed in the Strauss article and then
shared with others on the discussion board for this course. Many white people confidently use

terms such as African American, Latino, etc., but whisper the words black and brown as if they

are bad words. I can even recall some discussion board comments from this week that reflected

this type of discomfort. While I believe that identity should be determined by the person being

identified, I also believe that treating black and brown as derogatory terminology has

repercussions. Such treatment of these words reverberates until children begin to see the

words as negative and then, in turn, begin to see themselves as negative. When Alex Kajitani

stated that he wanted children to call him buy his full name, he spoke to this point. Ethnicity

and race should be discussed, identified, and welcomed.

This week has left me thinking about one other main point: colorblindness. White

people, even when we are trying not to be, are colorblind. I do not have to think about my

whiteness unless I choose to. This means, that unless I am constantly aware of my own

presence as a white female (which even when I am trying to be, I am not), I am acting

colorblind. Even after graduate school, and this course, I will still exist in a world that does not

view my whiteness as othered. My whiteness will only be presented to me in situations in

which it holds power over another, and even then, only if I choose to see it. This is why

including ethnicity, culture, and race in classroom conversations is necessary. It is the only way

to step outside of this de facto standard that excludes and oppresses black and brown people

by stating that we are all equal. In order to truly create an equitable society, classrooms need to

acknowledge race and ethnicity through inclusion, acknowledgement, and conversation. This

leaves no room for colorblindness in education, even though it already exists.