Below I will briefly review some of the topics that I will discuss with my students before, during and after the reading of the SE Hinton novel, The Outsiders. I introduce the topics in a chronological order that I believe will make sense to them and to other students and teachers
Terminology
There is a host of terminology that was introduced to us and was vital to our understanding of the material presented in Teaching about Race and Racism across the Disciplines. I believe that teachers considering utilizing our units will benefit from a review of some of the terminology for their own benefit as they introduce the material to students. We began our seminar this year with a discussion of colorblindness and how important it is to understand and recognize colorblindness as teachers. Being colorblind is not paying attention to race and other culture’s needs. A colorblind teacher might barely touch on the implications of racism and injustice in their subject matter, choosing to glaze over it and give it a nod, so to speak. In his essay, “Pedagogical Interventions in Colorblind Teaching Practices,” teacher/educator Milton Reynolds comments that:
“The dominant culture’s misperception that ‘colorblindness equals justice, encourages many teachers to feel they are effective in their job if they pretend not to notice color and make no explicit mention of race in their course lessons and curricular goals.”1
In other words, colorblindness in education makes teachers less likely to rock the boat, to confront the difficult questions and to face the subtle, modern, silent racism that has seeped into the very fabric or our society. Reynolds goes on to assert that colorblind teachers tend to overlook or skip over “troubling moments” in our country’s history and rather than face the challenging and sometimes awkward discussion of race and racism, to just blow through the era or overlook the blatant racism that existed and in many cases does still exist. Understanding and recognizing our own colorblindness makes us better educators and helps our students to understand why many modern misunderstandings regarding race continue to be an issue in our country.
Another term that we learned early in the seminar was Critical Race Theory. This term was vital to our understanding as we used a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens to examine many disciplines through reading and observation. In “Rethinking Pedagogy to Re-center Race: Some Reflections,” the authors point out that, “The primary aim of CRT scholarship is to make structures of racial privilege visible.2” The authors, Caitlan L. Ryan and Adrienne D. Dixon, point out how important it is for teachers to understand CRT as “educators should use critical reflection to help teachers think about how ‘they come to terms with some of their own issues around race.’”3
In his article “The Structure of Racism in Color-Blind, “Post-Racial” America,” sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva discusses two terms that I believe are vital for teachers and students exploring the units from this seminar; racism and new racism. I believe a discussion of the term “racism” must take place at the beginning of the unit. Have a discussion with students and try to come up with an answer questions about the term racism; what is it? What does it look like? Why does it exist? Bonnilla-Silva introduces the term “new racism,” defined as “the set of mostly subtle, institutional, and seemingly nonracial mechanisms and practices that comprise the racial regime of “post racial” America.”4 This term is also worth bringing up early in the discussion of the unit as it is vital to students’ understanding of the subject matter. This “new racism” refers to the somewhat hidden, institutionalized racism that permeates American culture and can be recognized utilizing a CRT lens.
The Notion of a Melting Pot
For much of the 20th century, many Americans understood the country as a “Melting Pot,” a nation of immigrants from all over the world coming together to melt into or become a new culture, a new society. In this narrative, the United States would take in the “huddled masses” and transform them into someone’s vision of an American, a vision with its roots in the very “founding” of our country. But what is to become of those who make up the melting pot? What must be given up to be a part of the stew? And what are the standards that determine what a citizen of the melting pot looks like and acts like? Author Amy Tan comments, “There is this myth that America is a melting pot, but what happens in assimilation is that we end up deliberately choosing the American things-hot dogs and apple pie-and ignoring the Chinese offerings.5” Tan is pointing out that even in the melting pot, there seems to be a dominant ingredient, an ingredient that the other ingredients must heed to in order to be a part of the dish. This is really what I want my students to see as they take another look at race and inequality through this unit.
The Text
SE Hinton’s classic novel The Outsiders is a story of inequality told from the perspective of a narrator named Pony Boy. Set in Oklahoma in the 1960s, the novel focuses on two gangs (the Greasers and the Socs) who epitomize two separate classes of American children. The gangs live on opposite sides of a river and are opposite in so many ways; the Greasers’ long hair and unkempt ways of dressing and acting are juxtaposed with the preppy Socs who ride around in fast cars and get all the pretty girls. Perhaps Pony Boy himself describes the difference the best as he comments to the reader what makes a Greaser and Greaser and what makes a Soc a Soc.
“We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we’re wilder too. Not like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next. Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have gang fights once in a while.”6
Interestingly, although the boys are on the opposite sides of the social ladder, they are all white. What has made the Greasers “Outsiders” is their inability to fit in the norm, to fit into what the Socs represent in the novel, the “good,” clean cut American of European stock who may get into trouble sometimes but is never understood to be dangerous or threatening to the nation. There seems to be a double standard at work in the society depicted in The Outsiders. Both gangs get into trouble, but only one group, the Socs are ever depicted as “an asset to society.” This aspect of the novel will lead to interesting discussion and insights later in this unit.
Native American Removal and Reeducation
Native Americans quickly became “outsiders” in their own land as settlers moved across this country. Westward expansion and the theft of Native American land prompted many Americans to ignore the problem of Native dispossession and genocide. Scores of tribes and millions of people were killed, moved to reservations, and given paltry government subsidies, or “taken care of”—another American myth. It was not until the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the late sixties and the publication of Dee Brown’s book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee that most white Americans really started to take notice of the injustices brought on Native Americans by European invaders.
From the Pilgrims’ annihilation of the Pequot and the northeastern tribes that helped them survive the brutal winters, to Andrew Jackson’s relocation of thousands of Native Americans during the Trail of Tears, to the 7th Cavalry’s revenge at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, the European Americans’ relationship with Native Americans has been one built on lies, broken treaties and land takeover. By the second half of the 19th Century most of the Native American tribes in the United States had been either relocated or put on reservations. In less than two hundred years the cultures of hundreds of Native American tribes were destroyed and taken over by European Americans. Hunters were turned into farmers, tribes from the southwest were moved to Florida, Teepees and wigwams were replaced with log cabins and tribal wear and native clothing was replaced by Western wear
Eugenics in America
Eugenics was the accepted philosophy that this country could be genetically purified. Reynolds, in Shifting Frames; Pedagogical Interventions in Colorblind Teaching Practice, defines eugenics as a “scientifically based, ideological movement dedicated to the reification of race.”7 This accepted practice of racial purification was an American policy that led to the forced sterilization of thousands of people and, backed by the Supreme Court, led to widespread discrimination reminiscent of practices that took place in Europe during World War II. By the 1930s sterilization laws were in place in 27 out of 48 states as post World War I crimes came more and more to be blamed on immigrants and the underprivileged.8 This is yet another case of our country attempting to create an America out of the people that would be molded to make up its population. In regards to eugenics, the attempt to make a ‘more perfect union, really became a race to create a more perfect human. And the movement had momentum.
“Eugenicists organized fairs and exhibitions to promote their ideas and detailed them in books, magazines, and newspapers. Ministers preached eugenics from the pulpit and teachers incorporated it into their lessons. Eugenicists supplied civic groups, social clubs, and libraries with speakers and free study material. They also arranged a variety of contests to introduce Americans to the principles of eugenics-including the idea that intelligence is shaped almost solely by heredity and is linked to morality.”9
This attempt by eugenicists to spread the word, led to “Fitter Family Contests” across the country. At county fairs around America, families of purified eugenically worthy families were put in contests like livestock and fruits and vegetables. Family members were checked physically and mentally as to their worthiness or the fitness for the contests. Winners were given medals and recognition in the fairs that was highly sought after. The Fitter Family will be the focus of a culminating project highlighted in the Lessons section of my unit.
The 21st Century Border Crisis in America
Finally, I believe utilizing current events on our southern border will also help students to rethink how we as a nation are treating each other and how we as a nation make immigration decisions based on race and equality. News clips and current events can be utilized here in order to have discussions on what is going on with our southern border and why some are treated as outsiders and others are not.
