Seventeen years ago a few months into my first teaching job, I was standing in an assembly when I realized something. I was the only white dude in the room.
I was looking around Twitter today at who other people follow and I had the same feeling come back. There are only white dudes in the “Twitter room.” I could not find anyone who was not. Out of every class that I have collaborated with this year only one person was an African American. Then I thought about the blogs I read, the wikis I check out, and the podcasts I listen to. Same deal as the Twitter room. What’s up with that?
7 responses so far ↓
Fantastic reflection, Paul. Here’s a passage from my dissertation defended over 5 years ago…
…in arguing that access to cyberspace is the new issue in educational justice, First and Hart (2002) assert that “the impact of the digital divide on the education of racial and ethnic minority students in some way violates the Americans with Disability Act, the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and state constitutional law” (p. 410). While this may be an extreme argument, it is the case that many see schools as institutions for leveling the playing field in a digital world characterized by the “haves” and “have nots.”
If we’re advocating for 21st Century skills and School/Classroom 2.0, I think we MUST consider equity issues.
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At the OLA (Ontario Library Association) Superconference, I happened to listen to someone (whose name I’ve forgotten – sorry) who said that people are really good at homophilly. Don’t know the correct spelling, but it might be a word he invented. Basically, it means that we seek out, and love to be with, people who are just like us. The speaker suggested that we had to guard against our tendency to read only the blogs of people who are similar to us economically, philosophically etc. Apparently, there’s research that says if you go to a party where you know no one, and there are various people there, within MINUTES you will gravitate to people who are most like you! He suggested that people do that on the internet as well, and now, it sounds like your observations are backing up what he’s saying…
It’s dangerous to only surround yourself with people who think the same way you do… great observation… now guard against it if you can.
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[...] convergence of two events yesterday brought me to this post today. First, I read Paul Blogush’s post about an apparent lack of racial diversity within the conversations/networks related to [...]
[...] Posted in Race and Diversity, comic by educatorblog on June 7th, 2008 Blogush’s post Does School 2.0 Need an Affirmative Action Program and Educational Insanity’s post about Digital Equity got me thinking (in comic book form – [...]
Your post (and Educational Insanity’s) inspired me to make a web comic on the issue of diversity (http://educatorblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/diversity-251-beta-comic/).
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Well, its true. I am a Black woman who just came back from NECC, and there were not a whole lot of people who looked like me there. I must comment on what Janet Roberston said..”Basically, it means that we seek out, and love to be with, people who are just like us. The speaker suggested that we had to guard against our tendency to read only the blogs of people who are similar to us economically, philosophically etc.” Its so true, though I wish that it were not. If you have the chance to read my blog, you can check out my experience at NECC. But the question is, what do we do about it?
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I really like this post, and I am just learning about trackbacks. I hope that anyone who reads my blog could be led here. Very insightful views.
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