Blog # 8

While reading Kubota’s article “Race and TESOL: Introduction to concepts and Theories, I found the idea that race does not exist to be very interesting. In my Social Foundations of Education class, we recently just watched a documentary on how race does not exist as well. Like the article mentions, the documentary explained how there really isn’t genetic differences amongst people of different “races”. I think that people came up with the idea of race so that they can place people in a hierarchy. A lot of times in history, the darker your skin color was, the lower you were viewed as an individual. In fact, when many people were immigrating to the United States, the government actually used the idea of “race” to determine whether or not people could become citizens. These types of thoughts promote racism and negative views on people who are a different skin color than you are. I do wonder though, is there a difference between race and ethnicity? I mean, I think it’s important to recognize where you came from. If you are African American than I think you should recognize that and appreciate it. Same thing if you are Mexican, Irish or Chinese. In that way I think that “ethnicity” is important and maybe not just a social construction. I think that ethnicity is different from race in that it’s more than just skin color. I feel that the word “ethnicity” relates to language, religion, lifestyle, etc. However, I do find the quote, “However, like race, ethnicity is an equally contentious term with definition and boundary problems (Miles & Brown, 2003). If it denotes sociocultural characteristics, how, for instance, is culture defined?”, found on page 475, to be a very interesting thought. Kubota goes on to give an example about how if Asians immigrated to Peru, and them years later, immigrated to the United States, which ethnic group to they belong to? I not only wonder how they would identify themselves, but then you have to wonder what their teachers or peers would think of them. Are they Asian or Latin American? I actually have a friend whose parents were from Poland, but whose parents immigrated to Argentina during World War 2 to escape the Nazis (they were Jewish). Her parents were Polish, but grew up in Argentina and then later moved to the United States. One thing I really liked about my friend and her family was that they identified themselves with both cultures. She spoke Spanish and her family would practice some Argentinian customs, however they would also eat Polish food and practice their Jewish faith. They didn’t let the idea of “race“ or “ethnicity” define what they believed in, what they practiced and how they lived their lives. Her family represented a mix of cultures and they were able to identify with their multiple small cultures rather than on identifying with one large culture. However, not everyone thinks this way. Many times, students that do not speak English as a native language are viewed and judged by the color of their skin. Inferior thoughts can be placed onto these students because they may have a different skin color. These thoughts are racist and I believe that they help create the idea that people should become as American or “white” as they can. And, a lot of people believe that the first step to becoming American is learning to speak English.