Since I started this blog series over a year ago, I've been much more aware of my thoughts and actions regarding race. And with that awareness more memories are popping up. When I was reading Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming, one of her experiences reminded me of a time when I spoke from a racist perspective … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: The time I opposed an MLK holiday
Racism
Considering My Own Racism: What’s in a name?
Do we pre-judge each other by our names? Yes, we do. Or at least I do. As a new topic in this blog series as I look at my own racial prejudices (my pre-judging), I've been considering names. Does my racism start when I learn someone's name? What if I were the person who does … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: What’s in a name?
Considering My Own Racism: Two recent shopping situations
I think there was an unwritten rule: Do business with people of your own race.
Considering My Own Racism: The biggest lesson I learned from some of my high school students
This is the day we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. here in the United States, so it seems an appropriate time for me to get back to my racism series. I taught at a new high school in Year Five of my 23-year high school teaching career. This school was a consolidation of two … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: The biggest lesson I learned from some of my high school students
Considering My Own Racism: My beginning years as a high school teacher
I left law in the summer of 1985 to become a high school English teacher. When people would ask where I was going to teach, I told them, "Rossville High." More than once I received the reply, "They have a lot of blacks there." The way that comment was delivered was a kind of judgment … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: My beginning years as a high school teacher
Considering My Own Racism: My College Years
I don't remember very much having to do with race during my college time, and those few memories are from my freshman and sophomore years. My last two years were almost completely "white." I attended Georgia College (now Georgia College and State University) from fall of 1976 through spring of 1980. Of the predominately white … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: My College Years
Considering My Own Racism: My High School Years
As I continue the series of blog posts in which I explore my racism, I'm focusing on my high school years. I don't have a lot of actual high school memories that touch on race. The first has to do with riding the bus to school. My guess is that this was during ninth or … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: My High School Years
Considering My Own Racism: My Junior High Years
Even though my two years of junior high (seventh and eighth grades) were my first two in racially-integrated schools, I have very few memories that have to do with race. I do remember that our junior high was the former black high school. So it was in a black neighborhood. One that was just outside … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: My Junior High Years
Considering My Own Racism: My Childhood
For my first 10 or 11 years, my world was populated by white people. As I said in my last post, I went to an all-white elementary school. From first through sixth grades, my school was segregated, so I only saw other white students. And white teachers and lunchroom ladies. Perhaps the custodians were black, … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: My Childhood
Considering My Own Racism: My Foundation
I've decided to write what I expect will be a series that looks at the ways in which I am racist. I'd like to say that I'm not racist. That I see everyone equally, without prejudice. But when I'm brutally honest with myself, when I look closely at my reactions and thoughts, I find that … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: My Foundation
