MacLaren Race, Class, and Gender

"Ogbu claims that within the black community itself, there are informal and formal sanctions against blacks who step into what their peers and the black community in general regard as the "white cultural frame of reference." School learning in white-controlled institutions often is equated with abandoning the imperatives, values, and collective solidarity of black culture."pg 227

"Mainstream schooling offers working class students little choice but to negotiate a life for themselves somewhere among the psychologists office, the compensatory program set up to remediate their deficiencies, and the streets where they will eventually be dumped. If the economic climate is good perhaps they will end up in low-skilled, low paying jobs. If they are lucky, they will get jobs in teh service sector, perhaps in retail, selling hip-hop clothes on Melrose Avenue."pg230

"Teachers must be aware of how school failure is structurally located and culturally mediated, so they can work both inside and outside of schools in the struggle for social and economic justice. Teachers must engage unyieldingly in their attempt to empower students both as individuals and as potential agents of social change by establishing a critical pedagogy that students can use in the classroom and in the streets."

COMMENTS

During the Diversity Event I attended A.L.L.I.E.D, I encountered something I had never realized before.  I learned about the experiences of certain people about being under represented. We heard many stories but few stuck out to me, one in particular:
One story about an African American female stood out to me the most. When this female was younger in her elementary school class a child had reported twenty dollars missing. The principal proceeded to check only the African American students while questioning them. When the principal found twenty dollars in the same young girl’s belongings the girl continued to tell the principal it was from her mother. Not believing the child the principal called the parent and had it confirmed. How can someone with so much authority be so ignorant? The principal of all people should be representing nothing less than a positive example of himself/herself. If events like these are still taking place what exactly does that say about our educational system?