Not White, but American Values

 

I have not blogged since June, but I found a response paper that I had to write for a class and realized that it would make a good blog post. We had to respond to something we found that would piss people off. I responded to the first time I was perusing the website of the National Museum for African American History and Culture and found an infographic about characteristics of whiteness. When I first saw it, I knew that it would ruffle feathers. In class, we were learning how to write coherent responses quickly. We were given 15 minutes to respond to a prompt.

 

The infographic came up on Twitter this week and I was reminded of this response.

 

In my Diversity and Inclusion class, I compare U.S. cultural components to some of the other cultures that my students may see in the classroom. I use some of the resources from Peace Corps training. My presentation aligns characteristics about time, family structure, communication, status, and future orientation to American characteristics. So, I had to chuckle when I saw an infographic about these characteristics connected to being white on the website of the National Museum for African American History and Culture. Years ago, I had remarked that the school curriculum paints a picture that the characteristics of what is American is not black, so common American values are associated with being white. The infographic flooded my brain with those thoughts.

 

While completing an observation, I witnessed an exchange where a fourth grader had completed a U.S. symbols activity by saying that he was proud to be white and listed the reasons why. The worksheets were supposed to be part of a bulletin board presentation so needless to say there was “concern” about what he wrote. My solution was to ask him to explain. Simple enough. He said I am proud to be white because white people are…. You know the list. Well, his teacher continued to question him and he eventually changed it to “I am proud to be American”. Characteristics of American culture have always been associated with the white race. Let’s not pretend that this was not implied in the stripping away of African culture and the subjugation of Africans into property to be bought and sold. Slaves were not Americans. They were not people as they were property.

 

When students learn about concepts such as individualism, power, competition, and justice in context of American history; they don’t see Black people and don’t equate those characteristics with Blacks. Black is associated with overcoming and with perseverance, but those aren’t necessarily American traits. The school curriculum does not put any emphasis on freed Blacks. They are described in contrast to slaves. For students to really understand the concept of freedom among Blacks, they need examples and non-examples. Prior to legal emancipation, an understanding of living free during the period of slavery is not a common theme in the school curriculum.

 

How do we change this? Well, infographics like this are shocking. They wake people up and get them to question. If the title said “Characteristics of Americans”, we would have taken it for granted like I do every semester when I contrast American culture with the other cultures that may be new to our American classrooms. The word “Whiteness” was jarring. That word was constructed in contrast to Blackness, but its deconstruction requires us to question. It requires us to think about how stained that white had to become with the black to truly become American.