DNA

My first class (Geometry) - Student Teaching at Burton HS

Three of my GRD Algebra students on Graduation Day

Recently, I was on a Chinese radio program discussing my position as a teacher among predominantly African-American students in San Francisco. During the program, we took calls from listeners and one listener shared his opinion that DNA is the reason why (in general) certain groups of people do better in school than others. My first thought was... "WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING?!" But then it hit me that this caller was completely serious. It was a sad reality to hear firsthand how out of whack some people's (unfortunately from the Chinese community) line of thinking is.
While still digesting this harsh reality, last week I was at a teacher training for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive pedagogy (ask me about it if you're interested) which centered on how we can better meet the needs of our underserved students-- which generally follows the trend of the darker you are the more underserved you are (at least in SFUSD). Anyway, the speaker brought up many good points about the need for a culturally and linguistically responsive approach to education.
A question that we had to answer was, "How connected are you to the African-American or Mexican-American experience?" It was thought provoking in light of the DNA caller because it is rather apparent that he is completely disconnected from the AA experience (let alone the educational experience in San Francisco). In fact, I would venture to say that most of my peers and perhaps even my readers are pretty disconnected from the AA experience in general. Sure, we've all seen a Hollywood movie that starred African-American actors (i.e. any/all with Denzel Washington or Eddie Murphy) or movies "supposedly" about the the AA experience (i.e. any/all with Chris Rock or Chris Tucker). However, these are simply what the media portrays as the AA experience and we all know how badly the media can misrepresent anything (William Hung ring a bell?) and ultimately only serves to raise more and more untrue stereotypes.
At any rate, aside from these entry-level portals (i.e. TV, food, books, etc.) that don't directly involve any relationship-- unless you and your TV screen have some sort of weird vibe going on-- how connected are YOU to the underserved? Just the fact that this question makes you feel a little uncomfortable and (probably) defensive is a good thing... wrestle with it because if we aren't connected to one another's experiences (both good or bad) we cannot speak about being a real community.