Confronting the White Culture:

The Multicultural Perspective

Lea Ambion
Jan Drabek
CarolAnne Rozelle
Peter
Rowan
Matt

University of Washington Bothell

 Our group was made up of three men and three women. Our
racial makeup included one Filipino-American, one Korean-American,
three Whites, and one of mixed race: White/African American/Native
American. Each group member had varying degrees of personal
connection with We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know (Howard,
2006). The Asian members particularly did not feel a “deep
connection” with the text, since the focus on White teachers did not
specifically apply to them, while the rest of the group felt a more
personal connection with the book. On the whole, emotions did not
run high among group members concerning Howard’s actions and
statements. The group seemed interested in approaching the text as a
tool for understanding and expanding our multicultural awareness.
The strongest emotions were in reaction to the statement “If English
was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for my kids” (p.
62) made by a parent in the book. We were shocked at this parent's
false assumptions. Regarding our group, the text was to a large
extent, preaching to the converted, in regards to openly accepting
other races and cultures. We were more interested in the details of
“what we did not know”. Within these details the group clearly did not
offer resistance to learning about racism. It was in the arena of
talking about racism that Tatum’s “Sources of Resistance” (Tatum,
1992) most came to bear.
Howard defined the “Luxury of Ignorance” as the notion that
being in the dominant positions, White perceptions are assumed to be
“right” and White people willfully choose not to see it any other way.
It is something that is only experienced by the dominant race, in this
case - White people (p. 62). We all agreed that our childhood
education had been a glossy, superficial product that did nothing to
contradict the “luxury of ignorance”. Our Filipino member, Lea,
articulated her childhood view as one of Tatum’s “Sources of
Resistance”, that of "United States as a just society” (p. 5). Lea was
taught and fully accepted that America was the land of opportunity
and acknowledged that her family represented the American dream
that could be realized by all. There was a basic agreement that we
had all shared this view at one time, but prior to this multicultural
class we had shed this assumption and it was not causing us to resist
talking and learning about racism. Within our education however, we
all had examples of chinks in the hegemonic presence of white
perceptions. Through individual teachers and society at large, our
“luxury of ignorance” was challenged. We likened these challenges to
removing layers from our eyes which allowed us to see more clearly,
an apt metaphor that has enough layers that we will always have ways
to improve ourselves, yet more layers to be questioned and removed.
It was our group members of mixed or non-White racial backgrounds
who ran up against White perceptions. Perhaps most poignant was an
experience Peter, our Korean-American member, had in the second
grade when his teacher asked him if he wanted to be white, like
everyone else in his class. Clearly the White members of the group
had never had a question like that posed to them, the assumption
being: who would not want to be part of the dominant white culture?
CarolAnne related to us how she had been called “Cabbage Patch,” a
crude attempt to stereotype her mixed race appearance. Lea too
experienced White perceptions when she was asked by a person of the
White decent whether she was attending a large Asian cultural event.
This misguided person assumed that Lea would be attending simply
because she was Asian. Clearly for the three Whites an understanding
of “luxury of ignorance” was internal; they never really crossed its
path. They were more likely to make assumptions similar to the one
made of Lea, of generalizing behaviors on a college campus based on
a groups’ behaviors. Peter pointed out that sometimes such
assumptions are born out of the fact that groups may have their own
behaviors that appear homogeneous. For example, the Koreans and
Korean-Americans all having student identification cards that show
their group association and may even gain them perks and special
treatment at local businesses and restaurants. Peter even pointed out
that with membership in the Korean Student Association, one could
get priority seating at a restaurant. With a sense of history,
knowledge of Camp Harmony and the Japanese internment, none of
the White members took the offensive attitude toward this anecdote.
Perhaps this was because we are well along in our racial identity
development.

The conversation over racial identity development offered us all

a dramatic illustration of how assumptions related to race can work
themselves into our thinking and acting without our even being aware
of it. Our mixed race member, CarolAnne had been raised in a White
home in a White community and she felt that for the most part she
had grown up a member of the dominant culture. Both the Asian
members of the group also felt that they had never felt the full weight
of the White dominant culture bear down upon them. They perhaps
felt ambivalent about their inclusion in the dominant or non-dominant
White culture. It was from this understanding that we embarked upon
the attempt to relate where in the racial identity schemes, offered by
Howard, we placed ourselves. We all took individual steps toward
placing ourselves in the appropriate stage of development, for some of
us this was complicated by the fact that Howard discusses several
ways of categorizing steps in racial identity. Howard offers Helms and
Pipers' six stages in the development of racial identity (p. 92) as well
as his own model of White identity orientations (p. 110). We were
unsure if we were expected to integrate the two or use one
exclusively. Group members began to talk aloud, while flipping from
page to page trying to establish where they thought they stood in their
identity development.

The White members of the group felt as though they were

progressing along the stages of the White racial identity. Rowan felt as
though she was firmly in the Pseduo-independence stage but moving
to the immersion/emersion stage (p. 96). Howard said you are in the
Pseduo-independence stage "when we acknowledge White
responsibility for racism and confront the fact that White people have
intentionally or unintentionally benefited from it" (p. 96). Being able to
discuss race in this course and having many races represented in her
class, Rowan feels as though she is making her way through the
stages of racial identity. Matt felt as though he was at the
Immersion/emersion stage as he felt that at this point in his life he
was looking for ways of dealing with being proud of being White
without having feelings of racism that seemed to be present in the
past, though he admitted that at times he still struggled with
arguments with others that are at "lower" stages of the development
scale so he may be at the Pseudo-Independent level as well (p. 96-
97). Jan placed himself between the stages of Immersion/Emersion
and Autonomy. Most of his interactions were in a situation like our
group, multicultural yes, but no one feels they are bearing the weight
of white culture or imposing it. He feels that teaching will probably
cause him to encounter racial issues more directly therefore allowing
him to practice attitudes of the Autonomy stage. Within Howard’s
model having questioned the legitimacy of Western hegemony Jan
stated that he is clearly not mired in the integrationist stage but is
hesitant to call himself fully transformationist. The greatest help for
Jan has been his experience in construction where he had most direct
contact with other races and the effect his role in the dominant culture
was clear in his position as a manager. The reality of the fact was that
Whites generally were in positions of authority and ran the sites and
minorities generally worked the more menial jobs. Jan's life in general
(excluding his construction experience) has been exclusively within the
White dominant culture which he thinks limits his ability to easily enter
the Autonomous stage.

As this conversation progressed, an element of confusion

entered the conversation. CarolAnne and Lea agreed they identified
themselves as in the “internalization stage” (Tatum, p. 12). This was
met with more page-flipping, head scratching and then the questions:
“What page are you on? Where is internalization?” The answer was
that they were placing themselves in the stages of Black, not White,
racial identity development. They pointed out to the rest of us that it
could also be regarded as stages of “non-White racial identity
development”. It was not even just White assumptions at work here,
Peter had also been placing himself in the White identity development
stages too. He had a difficult time deciding if he even belonged in the
white racial identity development stages, but ultimately decided based
on what he believed others would have expected. With the new
perspective, Peter realized that the internalization stage felt most
appropriate for him as well. Four of us had walked right into that
assumption, and we had a good laugh at ourselves for making that
assumption. This clearly demonstrated to each of us that we had
unfinished work of removing more layers of our assumptions.

Within non-White identity development, Lea, CarolAnne, and

Peter all placed themselves in the internalization stage. During this
stage, the person’s “attitude becomes more expansive, open, and less
defensive” (Cross, 1971, pg. 24). “Internalization is characterized by
a greater willingness to interact with members of other groups,
including Whites" (Howard, p. 91). Peter felt he was part of this
internalization stage because he felt much less defensive about his
race and more open to interact with other members of different
groups. He initially felt less defensive about his race when he began
to accept other people’s views on minorities and was soon conditioned
to simply ignore racial comments. After taking various multicultural
education courses, Peter has come to the realization that these types
of comments and actions cannot continue to go untreated. Today,
Peter feels less defensive about his race and is open to interact with
other racial group members, but is doing so from a different
perspective. A perspective that is not conditioned to simply accept
derogative actions towards other racial groups. Lea placed herself
comfortably within the internalization stage however, at times finds
herself back an the encounter stage when she experiences ignorant or
blatant comments regarding people who are non-White. Comments
like these remind her that racism is very much still present in society
and racism cannot be simply willed away. She is able to slowly return
to the internalization stage as she continually encounters people of the
dominant culture who show respect for differences in cultures.
CarolAnne also located herself in the internalization stage however,
she did not express having gone through the Immersion/Emersion
stage. Because CarolAnne did not have a deep connection with either
the African American or Native American groups, she did not actively
seek out opportunities to affiliate herself with those communities and
therefore, felt that she did not experience the immersion/emersion
stage. She has a positive sense of her own racial identity, is
comfortable interacting with different races, and feels that she is
accepted by the Whites and other races.

Having considered the first two questions it was clear that we all felt
we had unfinished work on our journey of racial development. A White
member, Jan, had noticed that when faced with both CarolAnne and
Lea offering less than explicit descriptions of their not being entirely
associated with the dominant culture, he was reticent to press for
more detailed explanations of their racial origins. This stemmed from
one of Tatum’s sources of resistance: “Race is considered a taboo
subject of discussion, especially in racially mixed settings” (p. 5).
There was general agreement that a corollary of this source of
resistance was that it can be difficult to actually discuss race in the
context of calling out racism when we experience it being practiced
immediately around us. Clearly group members had different comfort
levels concerning pressing such discussions; those who were more
uncomfortable had a longer journey through their unfinished work than
others.

Lea, CarolAnne and Peter all spoke of unfinished work related to

their race, that of preserving their culture in their life, CarolAnne
extended this to her children. Both Peter and Lea being second
generation Asian-Americans, they experience two cultures: their
traditional culture at home and the American culture. However, since
the American culture is more practiced, they feel that their children
will lose out in learning their traditional culture. Both face struggles of
preserving their culture in the face of choices of partners from other
cultures. Lea indicated that the second part of her unfinished work
was encouraging her future students to embrace their cultures as
something to be proud of. She wants her students to face the
dominant culture with the ability to not let outward appearances
hinder their journeys to their future goals. Three of the group
members are parents and they felt that their unfinished work involved
teaching their children that racism is not appropriate, and of
challenging racial stereotypes. In addition to this Matt wants to read
Zinn’s Peoples’ History of the United States and engage kids through
mentoring or coaching. Rowan is in the position we all look forward to:
that of actually approaching her unfinished work in a classroom
setting. Her unfinished work in this setting includes working to get to
know her students better, and getting to know where they come
from. In this way she looks to realize all our hopes of becoming a
transformationist educator and in Howard’s words: “envisioning,
creating, and modeling a better future, a new social paradigm that
honors diversity and ensures greater equity for all of our people” (p.
143). All six members felt as though all our unfinished work, both
inside and outside the classroom, would help to develop us into more
culturally receptive individuals who hope to become citizens of
Howard's La Tierra Transformativa. We believe that "[f]rom this richer
foundation of knowing, it is then possible for us to grow toward greater
authenticity and effectiveness in our teaching" (p. 144).
References:

Cross, W. E., Jr. (1971). The Negro to Black conversion experience:

Toward a psychology of Black liberation. Black World, 20(9), 13-27.

Howard, G.H., (2006). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White

teachers, multiracial schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
Tatum, B.,(1992). Talking about Race, Learning about Racism: The
Application of Racial Identity Development Theory in the Classroom.
Harvard Educational Review, 62(1), 1-24.