Power of Culture

 Title: Other People's Children

Author: Lisa Delpit

Talking Points:

(1)The author lists 5 points for the readers regarding the "culture of power" to break down the silenced dialogue. On page 27 we learn of a job interview taped where an East Indian man is unfortunately losing grasp of the meeting due to the indirectness of the conductors who assumed they were helping him...but doing the exact opposite. This was in support of the last point Delpit was making, "Those with power are frequently least aware of - or at least willing to acknowledge - its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence" (p.26).  When I interview students to be in our program, I acknowledge some of our questions are worded in a way where I know I will have to explain to some students and sometimes don't bother asking the original question and reframe it entirely for the applicant to understand. Thinking back, I wonder if I am doing a disservice or how I can improve that process to be smoother for our prospective students. 

(2) Delpit writes on page 36 about teachers indirectness and how it can harm the classroom, "...[The teacher] does not need to express any sense of personal power because her authority does not come from anything she does or says. Hence, the power she actually holds may be veiled in questions/commands...her indirectness [may be] an attempt to reduce the implication of overt power in order to establish  more non authoritarian classroom atmosphere...The black children may perceive the middle-class teacher as weak" A student being interviewed states, "She says that we're supposed to know what to do. I told her I don't know nothin' unless she tells me." I feel the most relatable case in the dominant culture of power is an example of a student's experience coming from the patronizing question by teachers when they respond to a bathroom request with "I don't know, can you?" A student who never had that happen before doesn't know you're supposed to start again with a bright smile on your face and ask in the kindest tone "MAY I use the bathroom?" while batting your eyelashes because the code was never taught. Furthermore, I began to think after reading about students being labeled as having behavioral issues that after the miscommunications and teachers give up...they give the direct order "Go to the office".

(3) On page 41 a Native Alaskan teacher Martha Demientieff says "[White people]...think everybody needs to talk like them. Unlike us, they have a hard time hearing what people say if they don't talk exactly like them. Their way of talking and writing is called "Formal English" "We have to feel a little sorry for them because they only have one way to talk. We're going to learn two ways to say things...When we go to get jobs we'll be able to talk like those people who only can really listen to one way." Towards the end of the reading on page 43 we are following a transcript between a teacher and student both who are black. At the end of the dialogue the student, Joey, says "...I guess theres a right and wrong way to talk, you know, not regarding what race. I don't know..." Teacher: but who decided what's right or wrong? Joey: "...I guess white people did." The teacher believing its important to speak on language diversity and power. Having students work through scenarios make them conscious of issues they never thought about. It continues to mention "Students begin to understand how arbitrary language standards are, but also how politically charged they are." I'm not totally confident on the blog this week but I feel as though this dips into students learning code switching on their own and not being informed of this cultural miscommunication but assimilating to the setting where they're not in a position with authority. The term is being used more frequently now on the internet, most likely being misused but are able to adapt to the dominant environment in order to attain what is needed/required. While also maintaining the individuals personal culture. In this link is a small clip about code switching but I wanted to highlight a quote, “The problem that needs to be changed is the value we assign to the way white people talk and the way we devalue the way black people talk” I feel that ties into the conversation between Joey and the Teacher where Joey is becoming conscious that there is no right and wrong way but the dominant culture doesn't see it that way.

Argument: The author, Lisa Delpit argues that students need to be taught by their educators of the codes in dominant cultures of power all while keeping their personal culture safe and preserved. 

Reflections: During the reading I became more intrigued by the direct orders versus indirectness and the impact on the students. It's no surprise that branches of military move into lower socioeconomic and non white communities to lure them into enlisting but I was wondering if people of color find the transition better because there's no questioning like in the classroom, just orders. While writing this blog and speaking to my partner, I was trying to explain what type of article or statistic I was looking for in regarding to following orders in the military and if non white personnel do better on average than white personnel initially when they're starting bootcamp due to not having to deal with the indirectness and coming from a culture where cut and dry instructions were given. My partner came from a strict Asian household and immediately attended the Coast Guard Academy for his degree after high school followed by 5 years of military service (3 years of which he was an Admissions Officer for CGA). He was mentioning that he really struggled in his first "civilian" job as an Associate Director of Admissions at Salve Regina University. He wasn't given orders like he had the last 10 years (along with another 15 years of home experience) and his higher ups were looking for more "initiative" from him. When asked what that would look like they couldn't really give him an answer. He lasted 4 months in the position. 

For some reason I kept going off topic into my own world during this reading thinking of the different impacts this had. Between the military forwardness. To how my students in Upward Bound are being taught by very diverse instructors, and if those instructors are aware of the culture of power. One instructor works at EPHS and is one of few people of color teaching there and comes to teach our students who majority are of color on Saturdays and during the Summer and if theres a better connection in one setting versus the other. I even tried to find clips of both Freedom Writers and Stand and Deliver to compare their authority in the classroom since one teacher came from the same environment as the students while the female teacher entered a classroom where she was the minority and experienced the backfire of indirectness and assumption.