Ethnic Diversity

Kwanzaa and Me: A Teacher's Story is Vivian Gussin Paley's personal account of race relations and institutionalized racism in American public schools. The author has taught for several decades in American public schools including a stint in pre-Brown v. Board of Education New Orleans. Paley's credentials for writing Kwanzaa and Me are therefore strong. The book suffers a little in terms of structure and organization but it is a compelling argument in favor of more open dialogue.

Writing from the perspective of a Jewish woman also enhances the credibility of Paley's argument because although an invisible minority, the sense of being culturally different is an important perspective. Paley writes mainly as a white woman who has taught a large number of black students in her public school classrooms before realizing the weaknesses that are embedded into the educational system. Paley has written about race relations in the classroom before, such as with the book White Teacher.

Kwanzaa and Me takes the issues explored in White Teacher and takes them a step further. In Kwanzaa and Me, Paley focuses on her experience at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where she taught elementary students. Peppering the book liberally with anecdotes, Paley draws attention to the ways black students are overlooked in the classroom. Insensitivity to race relations unfortunately pervades American classrooms. On page 111, a fellow teacher with the pseudonym Rose admits, "I think I am color blind.

I told you before that our staff is all white? Well, we do have a black teacher, wonderful woman. I just never think of her as being black." It is bad enough to not notice the cultural differences among colleagues; but to ignore those differences in the student body is another thing altogether. After she initiated dialogue among her colleagues and students, Paley noticed that many young black students had experienced overt and covert types of racism in the classroom.

The author opens Kwanzaa and Me: A Teacher's Story with an anecdote about a student nicknamed Sonya who had been called ugly: an experience that turns out to be very common among African-American students going to predominantly white schools. Although she does not cite empirical evidence, Paley does claim that black students are harmed by the experience of racism. The purpose of her writing Kwanzaa and Me is not to offer any definitive answers or present public policy initiatives but to encourage open dialogue on the subject.

One of the most compelling parts of Kwanzaa and Me is when Paley met with a group of African-American dads at the school. The fathers collectively agreed that they perceived schools like the University of Chicago Laboratory School as emblems of white hegemony. Such schools can never impart a serious multicultural education and ignore the needs of black students. Many black parents prefer to send their students to all-black schools. "The school she has gone to is being rejected because it is integrated and she seems unmoved," (p. 3).

Sonya shares her family's feelings about integrated schools; they ignore black students. Black schools have black teachers who communicate with students in ways that are culturally meaningful. The fact that many African-American families do not trust integrated schools decades after the Brown v. Board of Education decision is not at all surprising and should not be for any reader. There is no reason why the African-American community should trust the American public school system.

Institutionalized racism still plagues American schools, and attempts to incorporate elements of African-American history into the curriculum come across often as mere platitudes. Rather than offer Band-Aid solutions to the problem of racism in American schools, Paley instead asks her readers to simply think harder about the topic. Many white readers will find themselves getting defensive on reading Paley's narrative because white privilege blinds people to the experience of bias and prejudice.

Black readers will relate to much of what Paley has to say, while also being suspicious of the author's motives. In general, though, Paley suggests that an open dialogue will help eliminate some of the root causes of racism in American institutions. Until then, African-American families should take bolder steps towards approaching their community leaders and school board officials. Community participation in the public school system is a main theme of Kwanzaa and Me. Whether related to issues of race or not, community participation ensures school accountability. One of the.