White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise

Reviewed by George Perez

“White Like Me” is written by Tim Wise, a white man, who writes about his experiences and uses some of it to describe the unfairness that black people have in society. The author comes from a background of privileges that he says have been bestowed upon him but have been deliberately withheld from people of color. Being from this type of background, he feels that it is odd for him to speak out against this practice. He explains that it is shocking to see white people talking about race from the perspective of a person of color because it hardly ever happens. Institutionalized white supremacy is kept a secret; it is not something that is discussed openly. Racism is ignored and not acknowledged as a social issue.

The book explores what it means to be white from the author’s perspective. He wrote this book to shine a light on the topic of racial inequality that is occurring in society and why it happens from the white perspective. White privilege is real, according to the author, and is important enough to discuss. The author wants to make clear that he is actually referring to a privilege not based on wealth, since he did not grow up rich. He is referring to the many advantages that he received growing up that were not made available to people of color.

Time Wise splits up the book into three main points. The first discusses that to be white is to be born into belonging. The legitimacy associated with a white person is not questioned as much as it is for a person of color. For example, where one lives and goes to school is not something that a stranger would question as far as if it were a good neighborhood or a good school. The author states that to be born into this exclusive club, is to be born into a system that has been set up to benefit only its own members. The system bestows privileges onto its members because it wants for them to continue to be the dominant group.

The second point that Tim Wise makes is that this dominant white group will not only just receive benefits but will continue to reap the benefits of continuous racial privilege. The benefits don’t stop and a white person can expect to continue to have an edge over people of color. The author states that there are several components to this situation. For example, whites have access to better schools, housing, and job opportunities than people of color. He says that there are also psychological components that affect people of color and do not affect white people, such as having one more thing to worry about (the way that they are perceived in society). Wise makes a very important point about this psychological disadvantage, to be a person of color is to be constantly having to disprove society’s stereotypes.

The third point that Tim Wise makes is that besides having these privileges, however they are attained, to be white is to deny having these privileges and to keep the cycle of unfairness going. The author clarifies that he means to say deny and not ignorance for a reason. To be ignorant is to involuntarily lack the knowledge on a subject. However, the author feels that because whites refuse to discuss racism and discrimination, they are willingly ignorant and therefore they are in denial. The author gives us an example dating back to the 1960s where racism was more openly seen and even legal. He talks about how polls showed that most whites felt that every American had equal opportunities regardless of race.

Tim White offers three more points, which offer a way in which we could resist the ongoing system of white supremacy. His first point states that whites can actually just resist engaging in unfair activities, but to do so would be extremely difficult. The fear of alienating other whites and the lack of role models who they can follow is an obstacle to real change. The author believes that it is critical to learn how to resist, when to resist, and what to do and not do in the face of social injustice. Although it will not be easy, it is vital to real change in society for people to acknowledge that there is inequality and then consciously make decisions to even out the playing field for people of color.

The second point that he makes is that commitment to resisting the inequality can help us make a difference but we may also make mistakes along the way that can further reinforce racial inequality. Tim white states that sometimes we actually collaborate with racism when we are trying to resist it. It is common to make mistakes when we are trying to change the way that the world operates around us and it will not be easy to commit to those changes in the first place.

The third point is that whites actually pay higher costs in order to keep this system going. It is for their own sake to change their ways and this will benefit them in the long-run too. Whites pay high amounts of money to live in certain neighborhoods and send their children to certain schools. They pay this amount to keep their children isolated into this system of supremacy and give them the advantages that they were also given.

Finally, Tim Wise feels that there is a chance that whites can find redemption from racism and injustice by struggling against it. To free oneself of this burden of racism and denial, is to become liberated from the cycle of oppression. The victory itself is only one reason for fighting against racism, but there is redemption in the struggle too. While one is fighting to make their community a fair place for all people, one may obsess over the results and lose track of the purpose for their struggle. Besides, struggling to make society equal for all people is something that may inspire others and make a very big difference in the perception and the lives of the people of color.

I enjoyed reading this book because it offered a perspective that I never heard of before. It made me think about how society may be altered to be more giving to those who are white. It also made me think about how they feel about what is going on. Do whites actually think about the inequality that exists or is it something that is brought up by people of color? And if it is brought up by people of color, are they being listened to? The most memorable quote in the book was: “What about Oprah.” She is a person who whites look at and feel is an exemption. Her incredible success is something that some whites may point to as being proof that people of color have the same opportunities as everyone else. This type of practice is something that helps keep whites in denial and continue the cycle of institutionalized white supremacy. Time Wise wants whites to acknowledge that there is unfairness and to actively oppose the injustice.

The Jesuit Relations

The Jesuit Relations is a compilation of different stories about different fathers who were missionaries to the new world. These men volunteered for their assignments to the new world knowing the dangers that were there. One father in particular after being abused and nearly put to death by several Indians having survived the encounter went back to Europe and then asked to be re assigned to that area again! What did these men have, to go and continuously spread their beliefs? I think they had resiliency because they programmed that effort into themselves. These men believed in something bigger then themselves that allowed them to endure the hardships of torture, language barriers, dangerous animals and situations.

The Future of Race

By: Nabeel Fargo

It is always important to understand many important aspects about one’s life as well as the history, and in this essay we will be exploring the future of scientific understanding of what Race is, but before we begin exploring the future of race we need to know the real meaning of race, or in other words its definition according to our society today. And so what is race? The term race refers to classifications of humans into populations or groups based on various factors, such as their culture, language, social practice or heritable characteristics. On the other hand, the biological definition of race is a population of interbreeding species that develops distinct characteristics differing from other populations of the same species. Especially as caused by geographical isolation. What we can draw from both definitions is the fact that race classifies groups based on several factors that distinguish a certain race from another. For many people and for many scientists the history of race is clear. However, the future of race is not clear enough for many others due to the fact that the future cannot be determined by the human mind.

One of the many interesting things that I came across was a theory that explains what will happen in the future as far as race at large, and this theory is called the race of the future theory, this theory states that due to the process of miscegenation which is the mixing of different ethnicities or races or interbreeding, in marriage, cohabitation, or sexual relations, all the races are blending to become one race in the near future which also results in a very important issue of identity confusion where people will not be able to know their family history or where they are originally from. One key word which I think is quiet important and should be highlighted is miscegenation, and the definition of this word according to Webster’s dictionary is the mixing of races; especially through marriage, cohabitation, or sexual intercourse between a white person and a member of another race. I personally think the race of the future theory is the most accurate theory out there as far as science goes. However, I do not completely agree with the fact that there will only be one race in the future due to miscegenation.

What I also found interesting in my simple research about the future of race was the fact that almost all scientists agree that at some point in the future there will only be one race due to interbreeding, in other words almost all scientists agree with the race of the future theory suggesting the occurrence of only one single mixed race. On the other hand, Other scientists believe that the idea of having only one race will not take place any time in the near future because God will intervene or He will not allow that from happening. At the same time a small number of scientists believe that the world will end in 2012, Thus there is not enough time for the development of having only one mixed race in the near future due to the lack of time.

One of the leading figures in the study of race and its future was Count Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi who distinctly advocated race mixing, and one thing I found quiet interesting in his book Praktischer Idealismus which he wrote in 1925 was where he talks about the race of the future and explains specifically what it will most likely be, “The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today's races and classes will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its appearance to the ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals.” (Kalergi, 87). I personally do not understand what Kalergi bases his argument on when he says the future race will be very similar in its appearance to the ancient Egyptians. However, his predictions for the future have still not been fully fulfilled yet but many agree with Kalergi mainly because in the United States, according to recent studies reveal that the proportion of Multiracial American children is growing. Interracial partnerships are rising, as well as transracial adoptions. In 1990, about 14% of 18-19 year-olds, 12% of 20-21 year-olds, and 7% of 34-35 year-olds were involved in interracial relationships. And what was interesting about this study was the fact that the number of interracial relationships 10 years later, increased by 6-8 percent for all 3 groups. Another aspect which many forget to think about is the fact that having one race could mean that we will be facing many dilemmas in the near future due to the mixing of races, and one of the main dilemmas that we are going to face in the future according to Dr. Henry Gates is identity confusion, where people will not be able to know their origin or where their own families came from.

In conclusion, the future of race to me seems very unclear from a scientific perspective due to the fact that we see how the number of people who are intermarrying is increasing and the mixing of different races is also increasing, however, I believe that there are several circumstances that could play a big role in determining what will happen or take place in the future as far as race. I was personally interested in exploring the future of race because I tend to hear people question the future of race and I see how there is still not an answer that could satisfy all the questions asked about race and its future. Clearly this subject of the future of race is still undergoing a lot of studies and research but at the same time I believe that although the number of intermarriages or miscegenation is increasing, the world will never reach that point of having one single race that is a mixed race of Eurasian-Negroid, similar in its appearance to the ancient Egyptians. This topic helped me learn several new things about race and how it is viewed by scientists and other individuals in our society today and how race will be viewed in the future.

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

By: Kyle Lynch

Do you believe it to be true, that today’s youth is “dumber“than ever? Well, John Taylor Gatto believes so, and he says and feels strongly that it is all because of the school system. John Taylor Gatto, the author of the book “Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling” was actually a teacher for twenty six years. He taught at all different types of schools at all areas such as private schools, public schools, schools in rich areas as well as schools in rural areas. Now, his book was not just something he sat down and wrote in his free time, the stories in the book were actually printed copies of speeches he has made, publically. Gatto feels very strongly about the schooling system and how it is ruining the lives of the present generation. He makes the assumption that the world is left in our hands and basically it will crumble.
Gatto makes the statement that the present generation is not humble and basically throw our elders and younger children under the bus. He says that we tend to ignore the elderly people, not giving a care about what they say or what they may need. Also, we shun the little children out because we think what they have to say is irrelevant or just not important enough for our time. And the reason for this is… the schooling system. He also talks about how America has the most divorces in a year. America has the most suicides in a year. He also states that America is at the bottom of nineteen nations in reading and writing. This is all because of the schooling system. One of the reasons is because the textbooks aren’t challenging and everything in textbooks is “dumbed” down to the simplest form.
He goes on further in the book to explain how children now days don’t do things because they want to. For example, children in grade school, usually within the first three to four years of school, are taught that whenever they do something good, they should get an award. As they grow up, they still tend to believe that they need compensation for their actions if they do something good or they will not do it at all. I can even apply this to myself, I remember when I was a little child, and I would always try to finish first or be the neatest whatever it may be, just to get that gold star on the chart. It seemed to me at the time that those gold stars would be all that I lived for. He is saying that we do things mostly because we HAVE to, not because we WANT to. Even to this day I can apply that theory to myself. I do not like my job, and if I had the choice I would not work, however I need that paycheck every two weeks. So in a way Gatto’s theory is correct in a sense.
One thing that Gatto says is a main contributor in the actual school setting is school bells. Gatto uses the analogy that school bells are the “devil”. The reason for this is because once the school bell rings, the children are no longer in control of the teacher. The teacher can be in the middle of a lesson that can be very important and what do you know…. The bell rings. So not only does the students get left in the middle of a lecture, the teacher may not have left off where they wanted, preventing them from keeping up with the lesson plan. Thus putting the teacher and the students behind which can cause a rush in material later towards the end of the school year.
Overall, this book was a real eye opener, especially for me. The things that Gatto were explaining can correlate to what is happening today. The situation even got too much for Gatto to handle so he decided to retire after dedicating his life to teaching for twenty six years. I would recommend this book for; parents, students, teachers, everybody. I was actually grateful for receiving this book to read and I give John Taylor Gatto five stars.

YELLOW: Race in America Beyond Black and White By Frank H. Wu

When people think of racism they right away go back in time and think about the time of slavery. They conclude that it is done with and that it is no longer encountered in the world today, (at least not in America). On the contrary, racism is still done today and mostly in America. Even though it is the most diverse country is has the most racism as well. In “YELLOW: Race in America Beyond Black and White,” the author Frank H. Wu writes about all the racism and discrimination done in America towards the minority groups. He brings up three main topics, but I believe there are four, through out the book. They are; the model minority myth, foreigner syndrome, the problems in America, such as immigration and racial profiling, and the last one is a resolution brought on to be a mixed race movement.
In the beginning the author brings up model minority myth with foreigner syndrome. As the book opens up with a story of his childhood and how he was known as the little Asian boy from the show “Johnny Sokko.” The author is brought upon, at such a young age, racism. Little kids were not aware of what they were doing because they were too young to understand. Because of this, some parents didn’t pay care to this problem because they were the ones teaching the kids. At one point in the book Frank Wu was asked by a parent, “What are you? Where do you come from?” Of course he was too young to understand that he asked the same question back but the parents just walked away. This was just an example that I thought was pretty important because adults would discriminate young kids even though the kids didn’t know what was happening. As I continued to read the book I realized that there is such a thing of model minority myth. That today in our time, we look at the Asian Americans and somehow dislike them because they are all successful. They all somehow go into the same career of medicine and overcome every other race. In my opinion this is done, only because we let it happen and get into our heads. If we really wanted to we could have all sorts of doctors and a large majority but right away we just don’t realize that its our fault for not wanting to do so because Asian Americans already beat us to it. It is as if we were referring to them as “they” instead of “us” because they are Americans and are a part of our country.
Furthermore, the author brings up the idea of foreigner syndrome. He brings up an important fact that we need to focus on. Asians have a distinct appearance among the rest of us. They have their appearance of foreigners because of the roots they carry. Like other races, their roots change over the generations, but somehow with Asian decent, they stay looking the same. One point that he brought up was the attack on Pearl Harbor and how right away Americans had no confidence on anyone that looked Japanese. I believe that was an unfair thing to do because Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Japanese are all different. It is like saying someone is Caucasian when they are Irish. Just little things like these are what need to change in our world to reduce discrimination and racism.
As the author continues with his main topics, one I thought was interesting was the problems we face with race here in America. I say this because not many people pay much attention to this problem. Not long ago, maybe a couple years ago, he mentions the violence and discrimination he encountered. How, when he lived in a white community he was never accepted. That he viewed too much racial violence as he grew. Especially among blacks with whites, even blacks with Asians. That when the topic of immigration set forth that brought about more tension between the races. As he brings up this topic he does include other minority groups, but doesn’t bring them up as much as I thought he should have in the whole book. It is as if he only brought them up when he didn’t know how to put the Asian Americans into that topic. The author has many facts written in the book and I like how he adds himself and his encounters as examples. How one time at the Canadian border he was stopped and asked questions because of the way he looked. They believed that because of the way he looked, he was a suspect and that he was part of the Japanese group that was sending information to them.
The author adds more and more facts to what he is trying to explain, he finally brings up a point on how to have a resolution. The way he brings up this point is with racial mixed marriages. How many Asians began marrying whites to help themselves out. He even mentions how some Asians women married white men so their children can have a better start, once they are older. I believe this is a bad way to think in life because it seems like we are just fighting with every other race. How we just need to look at the bright side as well as work together to bring up our race and fight discrimination.
I didn’t enjoy reading the book as much as I thought I would have, only because I thought the author was going to focus a bit more on every other minority groups. I was hoping for him to have more examples and details on the problems they faced. Overall the way he brought up examples of Asian Americans was good because somehow it is kind of the same for the other groups. I just believe that by doing so, he could have made the book a lot more interesting and enjoyable to read.

Yellow by Frank Wu

All-American Asian by Mervin Liongco
America is known around the world for being a melting pot of culture. It’s difficult to find any place in America that isn’t multicultural. Yellow, by Frank Wu is a social commentary on how America treats and reacts to Asians. However, Wu expands the ideas of racism to not only Asians, but also all other minorities in America such as Mexicans and people from the Middle East.
The book begins with some comical Asian stereotypes. As I read the book and being of Asian descent, I frequently found myself saying, “Hey! That does happen!” For example, when the kids at school talked about Pokemon, they all had this notion that I would know everything about them because my being Filipino somehow related me to something of Japanese origin. Wu explains that it’s pretty frequent that Asians are believed to be other Asians. To the majority of America, Japanese people are Chinese, Koreans are Chinese, and Filipinos are Chinese. Aside from being mistaken as Japanese, I’ve also been mistaken as Chinese. However, mistaking Asians for other Asians isn’t just common to Asians.
Wu also points out that people of Central American descent are often confused as Mexicans, but these people in actuality could be Salvadorians, Guatemalans, or even Hondurans. This all stems from people’s ignorance of other races and how to differentiate from other races. However these things can’t necessary be helped because people will always be most familiar with who they spend the most time around. This also brings about the idea of discrimination.
In America, because racial discrimination has become such a taboo topic, it has evolved into something better called rational discrimination. What differentiates racial and rational discrimination is the fact that rational discrimination leaves out any sort of racial factor involved with reasoning. Rather, rational discrimination deals with behavior that is frequently witnessed. For instance, Wu generates this example. Rather assume a group of men is rowdy because they are black, one would look at a factor such as how they dress, i.e. baggy pants, and then assume they were rowdy. Clearly, no racial factor was involved. However, this sort of reasoning poses many dangers to human interaction.
If all judgment were based purely on rational reasons, all opinions would fall under some sort of extreme. People with nice clothes would be rich, and people with trashy clothes would be poor. People who sagged their pants would all be gangsters, and people who wore hard rimmed glasses would be good at math. As extremes as these examples are, if rational discrimination would take over all thinking, this is how people would be viewed. As bad as this sounds, discrimination isn’t actually a bad thing, according to Wu.
Discrimination is a natural self-defense mechanism that’s engrained into human nature. We instinctively integrate information into our lives in order to preserve ourselves. If we see a rowdy group of people, it is within our best interest to stay away in order to prevent any unnecessary antagonizing. In regards to race, Wu says discrimination is inevitable. People are always going to believe that Asians are phenomenal at math, and that black people are natural born athletes and singers. Which brings another issue to light: positive stereotypes.
Now, the idea of a positive stereo really should appeal as a good thing. However, Wu looks at it like a ball-and-chain. They don’t actually encourage people to excel, but rather they restrict people of their true potential. This is because when they’re expected to good at something and they aren’t, they feel they didn’t live up to the standards of their race. Take Asians for example. They’re renown for their abilities in math and science. Therefore, there is instant pressure for them to pursue a career in the medical field. I’ve seen many times over, people pursuing dreams that people create for them. If people didn’t create positive stereotypes, the dreams of others would only be influenced by themselves. Asians parents also hold high expectations for their kids.
One of these main expectations is in regard to marriage. In a hierarchy of preference, Asian parents prefer their own race, then other Asian, then everything else. Most Asian Americans however don’t really care and don’t see race as a reason to marry or not marry someone. This really is for the best because it means people marry because they love someone, not just because they’re the same race.
In reality, all of these pressures are not healthy for any body of people. Racism will only serve to stifle the growth of mankind. Rather than base ourselves in a world of stereotypes, rather, we should work to create a word where no ones’ abilities are doubted, everyone lifts each other up. Wu says that in order to abolish racism, we must not be blind to race. Being blind to race robs people of their identity. Instead, we embrace all races and just love regardless.

White Like Me By Tim Wise

Dalea Kandela

It is a book written by Tim wise, who is an antiracist white male. Wise was highly interested in the racism issue against colored people and its connection to the lives of white people. after long examination Wise discovered how the racial privilege had shaped or formed most of the while American`s life. This book is divided into six sections, born to belonging, privilege, resistance, collaboration, loss, and redemption. Through these chapters or sections, Wise wanted to open the eyes of people, or more specifically white people to the racial privilege that may not be aware of, by telling stories or incidents from his live. Wise blames the institute or the society that shaped this racial privilege. In this essay I am going to tell some chosen stories from the book that through it wise makes his point, and point to the little or small stuff, that we sometimes do not pay attention to.

One of the first sentences that showed me the road in which wise is heading to in his book is when he said, that a person would lose his innocence once he is born white. He also mentions that our society is so blended with race and its role in the national life, that it has become so hard for people to not collaborate with none dominant communities. One of the main points that he emphasize on is that even if white people enjoy a closeness to colored people, this closeness would still be complicated because it is controlled or shaped by the institutional structure. Wise used to attend a lot seminars concerning racism, and in one of those seminars, he met a women who was crying and she wanted her daughter to be friends with Latino, black, and Asian, and she didn’t want her daughter to be racist, and she wanted to fight racism, however Wise asked her about how would her daughter fight the institutional racism in keeping this friendship. To make it clear for the women wise tells the women his story. Wise tells the women that when he was little in school, he used to be friend with all the colored people, and now he is friends with none of them. Wise says that our friendship did not last not because I became a racist or they changed, but it is because of the institutional racism, that was shaped by their school, in which the white student were separated regularly from the colored student, which made him grow distant from his friends.

When Wise was a sophomore in high school he joined a club that was going against the school and the apartheid movement. The apartheid movement is a policy to separate people of different races from each other, and it was practiced in South Africa against colored people. So the school that Wise was attending had done some investment with companies that support and prompts apartheid. In 1988 Wise became the president of that group, and after toughly studying books that had to do with the places that invest with companies that violate human rights. Sp in 1989 Wise with his group demanded or pressured the school for an ethical investigation, and in order to convince them wise went on strike for about four days. Wise succeeded in reaching his goal. However all what he did didn’t satisfy him, and he felt that there is something missing. The truth is that there was something missing actually and in was the participation of colored or black people in their organization. Their organization went from fifty fifty colored and white to one hundred percent white, and he blame himself as a white person for that, because they were very dominant and hasty in making decision without consulting the black people who should have the main voice in discussing racism subjects.

 “Even if you are not racist, you inhale it no matter what.” that is one of the statements Wise made to start a new idea. In this section Wise talks about his family and how they dealt with racism. Wise mentions that his parents were not racist, but in their weak moments, they would hurt. To make it more clear, for example his mother when she is lonely and depressed she would start cursing and become racist. However the story that Wise on the most his his grandmother`s story in explaining his view. Wise`s grandmother who lived in the thirties in which people were very racist toward colored people, and at that time Wise`s grandmother stood in her father`s face against racism. Later on when his grandmother got old and go lost her memory to the point in which she was not able to recognize any member of her family, however she was able to recognize and curse the nurses helping her who were colored. So as Wise was telling the story he was amazed by the fact that his grandmother still remembers the racism issue although she had forgot everything.

One of the other things or points he emphasize is how the rules in the country segregate or bias in favor of white people, and one of the stories he mentions is from his life. In his story he talks about how the police used to ignore the partying or incidents and they do not arrest white people while in black communities they arrest people for simple or unworthy stuff. Wise mentions a lot of these incidents or comparisons in his book, and one of the points that he shows through these stories is the white privilege, because as he used to observe these points he would publish a paper about it and he get a lot of responses from people around him, so wise says that if it was a black guy publishing such paper, no one would have paid attention to him. So Wise showed how racism privilege can play a big role in or life

In conclusion, Wise in white like me wanted the people to turn their eyes to the truth that most of us are denying. In his point of view, we need to admit to the complication and confront with the contradiction with our eyes and hearts open, to the reality or racism privilege. Facing this reality can make our life easier and denying it is the worst thing. So we must not ignore this reality for our own benefit, and be willing to sacrifice.  

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Abigail Sanchez

Dumbing Us Down was a great book it says what it has to say in very little amount I enjoyed it and I did feel like Mr. Gatto’s opinions were valid in of which for the most part school is not helping up but hurting us in the end. Since it is not taken so seriously. But for a better understanding he is some background of the author.

Mr. Gatto taught for 26 years in New York City public schools, a number of these years in Harlem and Spanish Harlem.  But his “heart” is in Monongahela, a small riverside town in Pennsylvania where he spent his early years.  He describes the town as “an altogether wonderful place to grow up, even to grow up poor,” a place where “independence, toughness, and self-reliance were honored,” and where, he says he “learned to teach from being taught by everyone in town.”

A year and a half ago, the public school system lost Mr. Gatto, and along with him it lost much of the smokescreen that had enabled it to remain so remarkably unchallenged over the years.  Just after receiving the 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year Award, Mr. Gatto announced he was going to quit because he didn’t want to “hurt” kids anymore.  “Government schooling,” he charged, “kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents.”

Reading the book the seven lessons in the book really stood out and were the following. According to Gatto’s observations, the seven lessons taught in public schools from Harlem to Hollywood Hills, are these:

1. Confusion (The natural order of real life is violated by heaping disconnected facts on students.)
2. Class Position (Children are locked together into categories where the lesson is that “everyone has a proper place in the pyramid.”)
3. Indifference (Inflexible school regimens deprive children of complete experiences.)
4. Emotional dependency (Kids are taught to surrender their individuality to a “predestined chain of command.”
5. Intellectual dependency (One of the biggest lessons schools teach is conformity rather than curiosity.)
6. Provisional self-esteem (“The lesson of report cards, grades, and tests, is that children should not trust themselves or their parents, but should instead rely on the evaluation of certified officials.”)
7. One can’t hide (Schooling and homework assignments deny children privacy and free time in which to learn from parents, from exploration, or from community.)

Gatto exhibits great confidence in the ability of human beings to educate themselves.  But even if we agree that government schooling is the biggest impediment to this natural process, is it really the only problem? Why doesn’t a book as thought provoking as Dumbing Us Down address the other forms in which a centrally controlled society assaults the intellect of its members?  For example, learning how to survive, to get along in life, is a basic part of any person’s education.  In the modern American system, this process is sabotaged in welfare offices where people with material needs are taught that you don't have to earn the necessities of life, and in lawyers’ offices where people with problems getting along with each other are taught that litigation is the way to settle differences.  These are just samples which are shoved into the path of self-education.  And the age-segregated workplaces, along with lack of apprenticeship training, which Gatto rightfully deplores, are in my opinion as much the result of labor laws as is mandatory schooling.

Perhaps Gatto intended to challenge us into making our own observations on these issues.  Perhaps he also is right to imply that the root of such problems lies in government schooling.  If people’s minds were not propagandized and controlled from youth up, they might indeed find paths independent of those “institutions and networks” which says Gatto, constantly compete “for the custody of children and older people, for monopolizing the time of everyone else in between.”

As for solutions to the state of our educational system, Gatto at one point advocates a voucher, or school choice system, which would still be sadly deficient because of its dependence on government funds.  His real thrust, though, comes out beautifully on page 79” “Break up these institutional schools, decertify teaching, let anyone who has a mind to teach bid for customers, privatize this whole business—trust the free market system.  I know it’s easier to say than do, but what other choice do we have?”

Sure, it’s a radical proposal, and Gatto doubtless has his enemies. However, there’s a part of every one of us that thrills to his appeal to unleash the infinite possibilities within the human mind.  And most of us can’t help asking ourselves questions, such as, “Where did we ever get the idea that education means just the same thing to one person as it does to another?”  Even more relevant: “How did we ever come to accept that any one group’s version of education should be forcibly imposed on every American child?”

Reading Dumbing Us Down with an inquisitive mind is a whale of a learning experience, and it doesn’t take long to do.  The book is only 120 pages, every one of them delightfully original. I would recommend this book because it does make you stop and think for a second of what it is that is going on and what you are putting either yourself as a student or your children it was entertaining and very well written.

Ana Gonzalez
Dumbing Us Down
John Taylor Gatto is an author and great teacher who sees education way differently than those who are actually teaching in this time of period. The book Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling is based on John Taylor Gattos speeches rather than on a short story. He restates his purpose over and over again in every speech he has written and spoke. John explains that the new time of era of kids are not learning anything, but just knowing how to go to school and forgetting everything once they hear the school bell to be able to go home and do the things they wish to do. In college, students only attend college dorming to live the full college life and do not really want to be there. College students only study to continue the purpose of parents wishes or life’s purpose rather to seek what they really want for life.
This great believer who is called John Taylor Gatto quit teaching because he could no longer take part in a system that destroys lives by destroying minds. In every school he taught, pretty much everything was the same process within learning the same thing so he rather taught his students confusion, class position, indifference, emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, provisional self-esteem, and one cannot hide.
In one of John Taylor Gattos speeches, "We Need Less School Not More," states so many true facts that only those who have lived life can relate to it. He states that by extending the school day or year, we would not understand the difference between communities and networks or families with networks. Strongly disagrees on networks being able to be described workable substitutes for families and that school will cost a lot of money. At every paragraph he finishes he restates this sentences, “People should think of less schooling." More ever, John Taylor compares how losing weight and attending school is pretty much the same. Losing weight is not going to last because in a short time you will get it back and comparing to networks, both are just temporary "work-outs" that people suffer with. Aristotle, a specialist, did a discovery on how people argue with drs, lawyers, ministers telling them what they want instead of accepting what they get is not working, but are trying to fight for it. For example, people really want to be able to start a dinner from scratch and cook every little thing rather than going to restaurants or fast food places and getting their food defrosted, but one of the causes that this does not happened is because people are lazy and do not have time.
John Taylor describes that people should accept that school as networks create a large part of the agony of modern life and that students do not need to be taught by officially by certified teachers in schools to be consider a good education because in the end, it all depends on the student if he/she wants to retain the information given. Another example of not really needing to go to a certified school so that once a kid graduates he/she wants to experience college life, so there goes the "certified" education because John strongly believes that it is an awful way to renew those associations.
Explaining this book more, John states that a community is a place in which people face each other over time in all their human variety, good parts, bad parts, Therefore, a person will never get happiness if they listen to what others say trying to please them after the fashion of schools rather than pleasing themselves and that this can tell what kind of life you’re going to live.
After reading this paragraph, it really made me think because John's statement opened my mind because if you really want to live up your life you have to do it by yourself and not what others are telling you because at the end who is really living your life, you or them? I strongly would say that in this time of period, there are more followers then leaders and this is going to destroy our dreams.
He once belonged in networks himself, but those that do not require all the extra energy. In other words he did it for himself. John rather would what kids to spend all the school time with their parents to learn about each other rather so later on their strangers are not living under the same roof and not wasting their time on school. Networks can divide people; first by themselves and then from each other and later make them lonely. As for this paragraph described in the book, he wants to repeat it until we get sick of it and listen to him. The difference between communities and institutions is that communities have natural limits; they stop growing or they die, we live in a world of rewards and punishments: A's, F's, bathroom passes, gold stars, etc. are given to learn the good and bad.
Ending this great book, he quoted, "Trust in families and neighborhoods and individuals to make sense of the important question, "What is education for ?""

YELLOW “Race in America Beyond Black and White” by Frank Wu

Frank H. Wu wrote an interesting book called “Yellow”, which brings an important topic on the issues of races in America. We go beyond the colors of black and white to bring in new colors, red, yellow, orange, etc. The point being that America needs to realize there are more colors to the spectrum of race.
The book helped me to understand a little of how harmful generalizing races can be. Positive ones and negative ones still hinder races because if you don’t live to those standards society tends to disclaim you from that race. Like in the book he talks about how he doesn’t think he’s the smartest guy in the world, or good with computers, does that mean I’m not Asian. People tend to generalize Asians to being doctors and technicians, but the book convinced the reader to see much more than that, to see the Asians as people who are passionate at what they do. Take Jackie Chan, Michelle Kwon, Lucy Lou, or Bruce Lee, they aren’t’ doctors but people who are good at what they do.
Another thing that this book helped me to see was how society today has left everyone thinking that looking Caucasian is what makes you look beautiful. A great example would be to look at the media and see what they think defines beauty. Other races even straighten their hair, nip and tuck the structures of their bodies to try and achieve this look. And speaking about looks Frank Wu brings another point of how Americans perceive Asians. He talks about how a famous magazine Article from World War II made it a Sport of how to tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese people. They came up with answers like facial features and body structures.
Frank Wu wrote the book in a way that, instead of writing a story of his life, he persuades the reader to understand the issue as if the whole book was one big research paper. He breaks the book down to eight chapters each expressing a deep and well thought out point. The reader is left with a reassuring truth that what frank Wu is writing is fact, because at the end of his book he provides all the sources he ever used to making this book. At the Beginning of the book he started kind of slow in order to get the reader to understand the things that he is saying. Because in everything that he wrote he wrote it like a step-by-step process, somewhat like a series of events. To conclude this book should be in the homes of Americans everywhere because this is a great meaning of what it is to be an American; the ability to accept different people no matter their race.

Domestica

By:Brenda Wells

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo embarked on a goal to listen to the stories and trials of immigrant workers in the United States. She specifically focused on the domestic workers who clean and care for a job. Pierrette interviewed countless women from either Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America to understand the difficulties of the job or the life revolving around it. She also was able to interview a few people who hired domestic workers to clean their homes and care for their children. Pierrette touched on a subject and a style of life that few have even thought about. Cleaning homes and babysitting can be easy, depressing, back-breaking, and much more from the stories these immigrant workers tell. And the people who employ them sadly sometimes do not even consider the job that immigrant workers to in regards to cleaning and caring for their children is a full-time job. In this book, the lives of immigrant workers, the job, the feelings, and the actions of the people who hire them are descriptively written about.

Immigrant people go through difficult and strenuous journeys in order to cross the border to the United States. Most of the immigrants who come to America had left their country because they needed to earn money somewhere to care for their families back home. The women that were specifically talked about in the book Domestica, had at times left their children back home. Many had described the process of finding a job in the America difficult and laborious. Most people want to work in an environment that is not back-breaking and hard on ones mindset, yet the only job available for immigrant workers are jobs just like that. Finding a job for an immigrant who is male is a lot more difficult than finding a job for a woman. The need of having an in house nanny and housecleaner is one of the jobs that are often what immigrant women first start in. This job as a nanny/housecleaner is also one of the jobs that most immigrant women resent the most. One of the main components of this job is living in with a family and providing care for their children. Many immigrant women describe this job as the least family friendly and most isolating job. For example one women described her experience in depth about the family she had stayed with when she newly arrived to the United States. She had said that they had put her in room that was on the other end of the house. They never really talked to her and ignored her when she was around. She was a silent figure in the home expected to clean and care for children with a real low wage. The family invited her to eat their food from their home, but never once did they invite her to have dinner with them. At times they would even label the food as to which was allowed to be eaten or not. Caring and cleaning for a home is one of the most isolating jobs for newly arrived immigrants. It hides them away from immigration police yet it takes away the vibrant culture that these women had been part of.

Breaking into the domestic work of a housecleaner is a job that could be easy to do or be complex. House cleaning is a job preferred by most immigrant workers for many reasons. Being a housecleaner, one can have the ability to pick their own hours, decide how many times they are going to work during the week, the job allows working mothers to come home instead of being a full time nanny, and the pay can be a lot better than other work that immigrant workers find. Much of the way these immigrant women obtain houses to clean is through having people recommending their services, through agencies, and or through the good old flyers and newspaper ads. Many employers sometimes exploit the recommendation system for housecleaners. On many cases an immigrant’s services are cheaply sold to their neighbors and friends. Many immigrant women have talked about how some recommenders tell the price they had hired their housecleaner and they pass on the amount to others. This hinders the ability for some immigrant workers to increase their pay or their pay is at an extreme low. This practice is fairly common phenomenon and if the women does not want to accept the low wage, there are hundreds of others who would. Agencies also are a big help to immigrant workers who are looking for jobs in housecleaning. Many though complain that working for these agencies causes them to loose the little wage they have. Sometimes they end up with employers who treat them badly and many immigrant workers request never to work for someone of their own background or Jewish people. It has been known among the immigrant community that these particular employers are a lot harder and judgmental to work for. Using ads and newspapers can also have its own difficulties for immigrant workers. Some resort to this measure because they do not want to go through the difficulties of agencies and also because they do not have that many sources that could recommend their services to others. Immigrant women use this method with extreme caution because they could be called by anyone and sometimes the people who call can be of trouble. Sometimes though, immigrant workers get calls from their ads or flyers for people who want them to do an overload of work. For example; one immigrant women talked about how she answered one of those calls, showed up at the door to the individuals house and was given forty dollars to work. The pay was low but she needed it and upon walking in she noticed how disgusting and filthy the home was. Forty dollars was not enough for such an awful job and she put the money back and left for good.

Work in the United States is at point where its extremely hard to find jobs. Many jobs such as working at McDonalds are not even open to some. Being a nanny/housecleaner or a housecleaner is a job with many trials and troublesome factors. It a job taken up by many immigrant workers in the United States. These jobs are important for the women who do them and employers of these domestic workers should respect that ideology also.

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

As most of the world knows, the President of the United States of America is Barack Obama. Now, of course, everyone has struggles throughout their life, but looking at the President now it seems as if he was always as self-assured as he is today. However this is not the case. Obama has been through more trials, growing pains, and confusion than one would initially imagine. His book “Dreams from My Father” gives you a glimpse into Obama’s life. It let’s you see the many different things that he went through that helped transform him into the President that we see before us.

Obama was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii with his mother. Even though he was named after his father, he only saw him once in his entire life. When Obama was really little his father left to pursue other dreams in Africa. In middle school his father came to visit while the family was in still in Hawaii. During that time Obama remembers seeing his father relaxed only one time. Obama recounts his teenage years as what most other teenagers go through growing up in adolescence. The typical stuff like the drivers license, acne, and raging hormones. The thing that set Obama apart from most other teenagers was his tendency to think rather deeply on everything he experienced. It just so happened that it was also around his high-school years when he started to really experience racism.

Now, Obama’s mother is Caucasian and his father was African. So when it came to identifying with one particular race Obama recalls jumping in between the two.

“As it was, I learned to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds, understanding that each possessed its own language and customs and structures of meaning, convinced that with a bit of translation on my part the two worlds would eventually cohere.” (Obama, 82) In this book Obama talks about his friend, who he calls “Ray,” and the many different things that they encountered together. In fact his friend had a lot to do with Obama embracing the African side of his heritage. Obama talks about how he and his friend made up “half the population” of black students in the school, and everyone else was white. This being so, he looked desperately for a place of belonging.

Due to many hours after school and during the summer on the basketball court, Obama became a decent ‘baller. He could hold his own against the university students even while he was still in high-school. Naturally, he looked to his fellow basketball teammates for a sense of belonging, but even that didn’t work out too well. The reason you ask? There were white and black people on the team. This seemed to cause a false sense of camaraderie in Obama’s mind. This is because they would all be working together on the court but as soon as they would hit the locker room his fellow black teammates would start to talk about the white people as outsiders. Obama was torn. Whenever he tried to identify with the white people he would feel as though he were not being true to himself. Conversely, at when he would hang out with his friend Ray as well as other black people, he would sometimes feel like he was on the outside looking in. He didn’t like how some black people would treat their oppression as frivolously as a light switch. “Our rage at the white world needed no object, he seemed to be telling me, no independent confirmation; it could be switched on and off at our pleasure.” (Obama, 81)

What Obama also found irritating was the tendency for people who identified themselves as “multicultural” to become annoyed when you called them black. “They talked about the richness of their multicultural heritage and it sounded real good, until you noticed that they avoided black people.” (Obama, 99) It was becoming increasingly apparent to Obama that to be anything other than white was negative. “We were always playing on the white man’s court…by the white man’s rules.” (Obama, 85)

He read many different books looking for numerous ways to validate his new understanding of life. This mentality was troubling for Obama and it essentially drove him to become a little more than just the social drinker and smoker. Not wanting it to affect his grades too much, Obama’s mother tried to talk him out of his new-found outlook on life. However, despite his threats to his mother that he would end up like his grandfather, he went on Occidental College where he continued his inward battle to find his place in life. It was here he first experienced the power he had to capture the attention of a crowd with powerful words and a demanding voice. This was also the place that gave Obama the opportunity to further his education in New York. While he was living there he dropped his “recreational” drinking and smoking habits and started to turn his life around. He had a new goal in his life; he was realizing what he was missing. “What I needed was a community, I realized, a community that cut deeper than the common despair that black friends and I shared when reading the latest crime statistics, or the high fives I might exchange on a basketball court. A place where I could put down stakes and test my commitments.” (Obama, 115)

Even though I am not a fan of Obama politically, after reading this book I have a new respect and understanding of what he has been through and how that affects his life now. I would recommend this book firstly to anyone who lives in the United States, so that they can have a new understanding of Barack Obama as well. Secondly, I would recommend this book to anyone who feels like they don’t quite have a place where they belong. Obama is a real inspiration to keep moving forward in life, and to never stop searching for a better understanding of life.