“Why don’t you discuss racism in your class?” This teacher’s response was, “It would demoralize the students, they need a chance to feel positive and optimistic-like they have a chance. Racism is just an excuse to not try harder” (Fine,2003,p.25).

Though I found all the readings this week to be interesting and surprising, my most valuable passage is from “Silencing and Nurturing Voice in an Improbable Context: Urban Adolescents in Public School”. I chose this reading because it contained a teacher mind-set that most contradicts with the “ideal” mind-set.

The teacher mind-set to which I am referring is when author and researcher Michelle Fine asked a teacher “Why don’t you discuss racism in your class?” This teacher’s response was, “It would demoralize the students, they need a chance to feel positive and optimistic-like they have a chance. Racism is just an excuse to not try harder” (Fine, 25). The last line “racism is just an excuse not to try harder” completely ignores the realities of our public education system in the U.S. Minority races are systemically disenfranchised and disadvantaged. Historically, minorities have been pushed into poor neighborhoods or left in a poor neighborhood due to “white flight”. This idea that racism is an excuse ignores white privilege and is a source of “silencing” and “color blindness” that is not acceptable in an urban, or any context. As for identity, a huge theme in the course text, race is a part of identity. Ignoring race or saying race doesn’t matter is impractical. We must acknowledge issues of race and identity in class as educators of urban students.