SocialJustNess

Chapter 1) “‘Good students’ were obedient students, students who followed orders. The assignments were so easy that all obedient students got good grades, but I gave plenty of bad grades to students who were not obedient, who did not do their assignments. Obedient students were not kept in from recess, but most days there were one or two disobedient students kept in from recess. Obedient students' parents were not called up to school, but on one or two mornings a week I met a parent of a disobedient student who had been summoned to school at 8:30 A.M before classes began. Obedient students did not get suspended, but disobedient students were suspended at my request at the rate of about one a semester.” (Pg. 4) Should disobedience = bad grades and suspension, or are these students disobeying because they are bored or unchallenged in class. Is it really disobedience or is it more relative to an outstanding issue? Chapter 2) “The working-class children were learning to foll...

The Problem We All Live With - This American Life By:   Ira Glass and Nikole Hannah Jones “While Normandy is falling apart, over at Francis Howell, none of the things that parents were worried about came true. No one got stabbed. Test scores did not drop-- at all. And at least so far, the influx of black students hasn't caused white parents to flee. Mah'Ria's thriving. Where the transfer law forced integration, it's working.” - Jones “The US Department of Education put out data in 2014 showing that black and Latino kids in segregated schools have the least qualified teachers, the least experienced teachers. They also get the worst course offerings, the least access to AP and upper-level courses, the worst facilities.” - Glass One connection I can make to both quotes is from working in the Admissions Office. Test scores, of course poorly performing schools, have statistically lower scores. However, students of color are consistently scoring lower t...

“The Silenced Dialogue: Power Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children” Delpit, Lisa “Those with power are frequently least aware of - or least willing to acknowledge - its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence..”  (Delpit, 26). As we discussed in class last week, the first step in promoting equality in acknowledging the existence of prejudice and privilege that you hold. This is especially important for the white teachers teaching nonwhite students because Delpit argues that since they are not as aware as teachers of color, they do less to help make those students feel welcome and included, ranging from seeing students that look like them in picture books to being treated differently based on having a different writing style, like the Native American woman example. “It was the lack of attention to this Concern that created such a negative outcry in the black community when well-intentioned white liberal educators introduced "dialec...

The two texts that I will be discussing in this blog post are “The next time someone says 'all lives matter,' show them these 5 paragraphs” by Kevin Roose and “Deconstructing Privilege” by Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman. In, “Deconstructing Privilege” Armstrong and Wildman argue that we are so afraid to acknowledge racism in today’s society, that we become colorblind or try to decompress the issue by creating an all-in movement like “All Lives Matter.” “The real issue is that, while strictly true, "All Lives Matter" is a tone-deaf slogan that distracts from the real problems black people in America face.” (Roose, 2019, p.1). This quote is very important because it shows that using the word “all” instead of “black” is extremely harmful and even a microaggression within itself because it is erasing the importance of the message and invalidating a whole group of individuals. Of course all lives matter, but that is not the point of the movement. Wit...

“PRIVILEGE, POWER, AND DIFFERENCE” by Allan G. Johnson Page 2 “Problems of perception and defensiveness apply not only to the language of race, but to an entire set of social differences that have become the has for it great deal of trouble in the world.” Page 7 “The simple truth is that when I go shopping, I'll probably get waited on faster and better than she will. I'll benefit from the cultural assumption that I'm a serious customer who doesn't need to be followed around to keep me from stealing some. thing, The clerk won't ask me for three kinds of 10 before accepting my check or accepting my credit card. But these indignities that my whiteness protects me from arc part of her everyday existence. And it doesn't matter how she dresses or behaves or that she's all executive in a large corporation. Her being black and the realtors' and bankers' and clerks' being white in a racist society is all it takes.” Page 15 “The trouble a...

Welcome to my blog! My name is Vanessa Ruggieri and I am an Admissions Officer at Rhode Island College. I am currently wrapping up my Master of Business Administration program with a concentration in Human Resources at the University of Rhode Island and will then apply to the URI/RIC Joint Ph.D. in Education program this winter, which is why I am taking this course. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, going to Broadway performances (or local, I’m not picky), online shopping, working on my side business promoting safer skincare and makeup, and spending time with my friends and family!