Teach For America

My 21 year old cousin, a recent college graduate from the University of Texas, is a new participant in Teach For America. She, guided by her idealism, requested to be placed in one of the most high risk areas in the country, as rated by the program: Inner city Oakland, California. I just received an email from my mother, updating me on how Amanda is doing in her position as a 7th grade teacher for an especially troubled group of kids. My mother reports that she is having an extremely tough time and cries on the phone to her parents, my aunt and uncle, nearly everyday. Apparently her class consists of a group that has been together since the third grade, and not a single teacher they've had has lasted longer than 6 weeks! Amanda is supposed to have an aide, but there is not enough support to supply her with one. Just the other day, one of the male students started to beat up on one of the girls in the class. Amanda sent him to the office and they sent him right back.

In our last class discussion we spoke of how difficult it must be for someone to break out of the mentality that they have been raised with and that they experience in their home life everyday. How hard it must be for one, who is struggling to simply survive day-to-day, to go beyond that life and be motivated by another aspect, such as education. We all talk about this in class, and we believe in hope and ideals for these young people, that maybe someone can show them the way out of that life. However, it seems so much different to see it first hand. My cousin is seeing this, and I wonder what her thoughts are now.

We discussed how there are inner city minorities that do make it to bigger and better things, and do not fall back into the "ghetto mentality", the drugs, the violence, and why, if they can do it, can't everyone else? I hear about my cousin and her class and think back to how vulnerable and sponge-like I was at 12 and 13. I was influenced by everything around me, my peers, my parents, my teachers, movies, television. These kids in Oakland are soaking up all that they see in their everyday lives at home, at school, after school. If the only one trying to push them in a healthy direction is my young cousin Amanda...well, that just isn't enough. Which leads me back to the original question in our last class: what do we do?

While I was reading...

During my travel to Fairhope, Alabama for a wedding this past weekend I began reading a cutesy novel, pictured left, to pass the time. It is a mindless work written from different points of view, including that of a wedding planner, demanding bride, laid back groom, and snobby older wedding guest. One can imagine my surprise when I came across a quote in the book from the snobby older wedding guest that pertained to our previous class discussion on Wilson's quote of the poor blacks endorsing the stereotypical image. In the book, the character has just arrived to the wedding reception and is noticing that the servers, bartenders, and greeters are all African American.

"I'm surprised any person of color would acquiesce to fill such a post. If black men don't want to perpetuate stereotypes, they shouldn't accept inferior jobs."

While this is one way to look at the situation, I feel that a job is a job. If this is the easiest way for someone to make a living legitimately, then, by all means, serve away. It is unfortunate that in many industries the minority population is seen as a certain type of worker. It seems, especially in the South, that the minority is viewed as a servant or back of the house employee. The quote from the character rings a bit true, in that it seems as though poor blacks ARE, in fact, endorsing the stereotype by accepting these jobs and not working to become something in a higher position. However, as I wrote above, if this is the only way to earn a living and provide for a family in a legitimate way, then it should be applauded, and not seen as endorsing a stereotype, but doing quite the opposite.