UCI Week 2 Teachers Please Learn Our Names Article by Kohli & Solorzano Response Reading the article”Teachers, please learn our names!” by Rita Kohli & Dan
UCI Week 2 Teachers Please Learn Our Names Article by Kohli & Solorzano Response Reading the article”Teachers, please learn our names!” by Rita Kohli & Daniel G. Solórzano
Requirement: 1.Accurately and thoughtfully identifies articles key arguments or ideas using YOUR OWN words. This is not a summary of the article. Writes clearly and uses specific examples. (use your own words to interpret the author’s ideas instead of merely dropping in a long direct quote.)
2. Concludes by answering of the following: *What do you think about the ideas presented in the reading? *How does this relate to your life and/or schooling experiences? (i wanna talk about high school)* What questions do you have?
3.Uses correct APA format to reference quotes, page numbers, and ideas from the readings.
4.All the work should be original.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-TIPS for writing your critical responses:
Instead of writing out the entire title of the article, just cite the authors: Chang and Au (2007) focus on two issues… The responses are relatively short so every word counts. I would rather read your analysis and not the title of the article.
Use your own words to interpret the article. Don’t just summarize the article.
I am only requiring you to use APA format for the in-text citations. If you need examples see below or go to the website: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html (Links to an external site.)
Title page and references page is NOT necessary
This is how you cite direct quotes:
Yosso and Solorzano (2006) challenge the narrative of resilience when stating that Chicana/o students and families should not have to compensate for the failure of the United States to educate all of its students equally (p. 2).
This is how you cite authors ideas (just include the name and year):
According to Freire (1970), praxis is the idea that thoughtful reflection precedes action, but that both are required in order to bring about liberatory education. Indeed, theory is just as valuable as practice (Freire, 1970).
Or, if there are two authors: (Kohli & Solorzano, 2012). Race Ethnicity and Education
ISSN: 1361-3324 (Print) 1470-109X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cree20
Teachers, please learn our names!: racial
microagressions and the K-12 classroom
Rita Kohli & Daniel G. Solórzano
To cite this article: Rita Kohli & Daniel G. Solórzano (2012) Teachers, please learn our names!:
racial microagressions and the K-12 classroom, Race Ethnicity and Education, 15:4, 441-462, DOI:
10.1080/13613324.2012.674026
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.674026
Published online: 23 May 2012.
Submit your article to this journal
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Race Ethnicity and Education
Vol. 15, No. 4, September 2012, 441462
Teachers, please learn our names!: racial microagressions and the
K-12 classroom
Rita Kohlia* and Daniel G. Solórzanob
Liberal Studies Program, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA; bSocial
Science and Comparative Education, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
a
Many Students of Color have encountered cultural disrespect within their
K-12 education in regards to their names. While the racial undertones to
the mispronouncing of names in schools are often understated, when
analyzed within a context of historical and current day racism, the
authors argue that these incidents are racial microagressions subtle
daily insults that, as a form of racism, support a racial and cultural hierarchy of minority inferiority. Furthermore, enduring these subtle experiences with racism can have a lasting impact on the self-perceptions and
worldviews of a child. Using a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework
and qualitative data, this study was designed to explore the racial microaggressions and internalized racial microaggressions of Students of Color
in K-12 settings in regards to their names. Black, Latina/o Asian American, Paci?c Islander and mixed race participants were solicited through
various education electronic mail lists, and data was collected through
short answer questionnaires and interviews. Coded for emergent themes,
the data is organized into three sections: (1) Racial microaggressions and
names in school; (2) Internalized racial microagressions; and (3)
Addressing racial microagressions and internalized microagressions in
schools. This article gives language to the racialized experiences many
Students of Color endure. Additionally, it furthers our understanding of
racial microaggressions by analyzing the complexity and impact from a
multi-racial lens.
Keywords: Critical Race Theory; racial microaggressions; racism; internalized racism; K-12 schools; Students of Color; teachers
When we chose our daughters names we wanted to give them something that
they could carry with them, something that they could use as strength, as
home, in a world that might not always nurture them as we would want it to.
We gave them Nahuatl names. We gave them names that were hundreds of
years old that carried with them the prayers of their great grandmothers.
Names that represented their own spirits, but that also manifested the spirit of
their people. We gave them names that we knew would be a challenge at
times, and that might even feel like a burden when they just want to blend in.
*Corresponding author. Email: kohli.rita@yahoo.com
ISSN 1361-3324 print/ISSN 1470-109X online
Ó 2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.674026
http://www.tandfonline.com
442
R. Kohli and D.G. Solórzano
But we needed them to know that they come from somewhere and that this is
their strength, their power, and the representation of our own hope for their
futures, and for those of the children they will some day have. We gave them
what we could, names that are truly theirs, Xóchitl (?ower) and Citlali (Star).
(Marcos Pizarro)
One of the authors, a Chicano, attended ?fth grade in East Los Angeles in
1960. Most immigrant students at the school did not outwardly maintain an
ethnic or linguistic identity with their countries of origin; however, one student named Freddie Galán1 was different. His family was from Mexico, and
he was raised to love the Spanish language and all of its manifestations,
including the pronunciation of his name. Freddie felt comfortable speaking
Spanish in public; he was the translator for his parents in school as well as
other public spaces. He also insisted that his name was pronounced correctly. Young 10-year-olds can be hard on each other, and in order to push
Freddies buttons, his classmates would pronounce his name Gallon like
a gallon of milk. This would drive Freddie crazy! He would always correct
everyone with no, its Galán. In the Chicana/o movement of the 1960s and
1970s, correct Spanish pronunciation of names, terms, and foods was part of
establishing a positive ethnic and linguistic identity. Freddie was ahead of
his time and it is only now, as we write this article, that we realize how rare
it is for a 10-year-old to stand up against his peers for something that his
parents had raised him to honor his name.
Unfortunately, most kids do not have the tools to defend themselves like
Freddie. The other author, a South Asian woman, has a brother named Sharad (shu-rudth). Although his name is common in India, non-South Asians
often struggle with the pronunciation. Growing up in the late seventies and
eighties in predominantly white suburbs, Sharad had many uncomfortable
incidents in regards to his name. He signed up for soccer when he was in
second grade and when he arrived at practice he had been placed on the
girls team with the explanation, Oh! We thought it was Sharon. When he
was in the ninth grade, a teacher mispronounced his name as Sharub in front
of a class of students. After that day, both the teacher and the students
decided it was easier to call him Shrub, and this lasted for the rest of high
school. These incidents may seem minor, but because of experiences like
these, Sharad developed anxiety and even resentment around his name.
While today he has grown to embrace it, the struggles he and many other
children with non-Western names experience is real, and can have a deep
impact on the way they see themselves and their culture.
In 2009, in a middle school classroom in California, a bright, spunky
seventh grader was overheard saying to her friends, Im Natália! Later
when she introduced herself, she said her name was Natalie. When
questioned about having said Natalia earlier, she said Yeah, yeah. Teachers
always say my name wrong. They say Na-tail-ia, and I hate it. It sounds so
Race Ethnicity and Education
443
ugly, so I tell them Natalie. To some, this incident may seem like a passing
comment. However, based on teachers inability or unwillingness to correctly pronounce her name, Natália did not feel her culture was valued and
thus, changed her name. For many Students of Color, a mispronunciation of
their name is one of the many ways in which their cultural heritage is
devalued.
Each of these children, in different school contexts over the last 50 years,
encountered cultural disrespect in regards to their names. While the racial
undertones to the mispronouncing of names in schools are often understated,
we argue that these are racial microagressions subtle daily insults that, as a
form of racism, support a racial and cultural hierarchy of minority inferiority
(Smith, Yosso, and Solórzano 2007). Using a Critical Race Theory (CRT)
framework and qualitative data, this article highlights these racial microaggressions to further our understanding of the complexity of racism, as well as
to give language to the experiences many Students of Color endure.
History of racism in schools
To understand the impact of something as seemingly minor as the mispronunciation of a name, it is important to view these acts within a larger context of racism in schools. Historically, our education system has transmitted
a hierarchy that prioritizes and enforces majority culture (Woodson 1933;
Nakanishi and Nishida 1995; Bell 2004). As early as the eighteenth century,
Americanization schools for Native Americans and Mexicans worked to
strip indigenous people of their language and culture, and replace it with
English, European clothing and Eurocentric cultural values (Zitkala-sa 1921;
Ferg-Cadima 2004). In the 1880s, segregated school settings were often sites
for discarded curriculum from white schools, used to promote the dominant
culture to African American, Latino and Asian American students (Woodson
1933; Nakanishi and Nishida 1995). With the Great Migration in the early
twentieth century, urbanization prompted many Blacks to the north and
immigrants to US cities (Lemann 1982; Berlin 2010). Anglo-Saxon Protestant whites were in power, and felt that the status quo could be best
achieved through the standardization of education (Tyack 1974; Jacobson
1998, 2006; Gerstle 2001). Educators were encouraged to use curriculum
and pedagogy to assimilate all students to white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant
ideals (Kaestle 1983; Gerstle 2001).
As we move into the twenty-?rst century, assimilation and a racial
hierarchy are still a part of the schooling process. While standardization is
now used to hold districts accountable to providing quality and equal education (Liebman and Sabel 2003); because state standards are not truly
multicultural, curriculum continues to promote predominantly Eurocentric,
upper-class perspectives (Perez Huber, Johnson, and Kohli 2006). Poor
and minority families are forced to send their children to schools that fre-
444
R. Kohli and D.G. Solórzano
quently do not match their needs or belief systems. Instead, schools
uphold the value system of the dominant culture in many ways, including
an unequal distribution of resources, a lack of diversity in the teaching
force, and limited representation of minority groups within the curriculum
(Loewen 1996; Delpit 1995; Ladson-Billings 2001; Sleeter 2001, 2008). It
is in this context of historical and continued racism that we must understand the issue of names and Youth of Color.
The importance of names
As a baby, identity and self-concept are developed through a familys
repeated use of a childs name (Sears and Sears 2003). A child begins to
understand who they are through their parents accent, intonation and pronunciation of their name. Additionally, names frequently carry cultural and
family signi?cance. Names can connect children to their ancestors, country
of origin or ethnic group, and often have deep meaning or symbolism for
parents and families. When a child goes to school and their name is mispronounced or changed, it can negate the thought, care and signi?cance of the
name, and thus the identity of the child. This happens for white and nonwhite children alike. However, the fact that this experience occurs within a
context of historical and continued racism is what makes the negative
impact of this experience so powerful for Students of Color.
The practice of racialized re-naming has been ongoing in United States
history. In the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, because they were
seen as property, enslaved Africans were forced to shed their names, and were
given the names of their masters (Dillard 1976; Irons 2002). The names of
indigenous people were replaced with Anglo and Christian names until the
1920s (Zitkala-sa 1921). While forced re-naming practices have ended, the
sentiment that non-white names are an unwelcome inconvenience persists
within US society. In 2009, during House testimony on voter identi?cation
legislation, a Texas lawyer argued that voters of Asian-descent should adopt
names that are easier for Americans to deal with (Ratcliffe 2009).
Although not always as blatant as the examples above, racial minority
youth continue to experience disrespect to their names within schools.
Regardless of whether the name of a student is intentionally disregarded, or
a teacher accidentally butchers the pronunciation during roll call, we argue
that the cultural mismatch that guides this interaction is a racial microaggression. Using CRT, we frame this experience within a larger context of
historical and current day racism.
Crtical Race Theory
CRT is used within this study to centralize our analysis of race and racism
within education. The framework was developed in the 1970s amongst legal
Race Ethnicity and Education
445
scholars such as Derrick Bell, Kimberley Crenshaw and Richard Delgado to
highlight race, racism, and its intersections with other forms of oppression.
Over the last 10 years, CRT has extended into many disciplines, including
education. It is used within this ?eld to heighten awareness about racism
and educational inequity. CRT scholars have developed the following ?ve
tenets to guide CRT research:
(1) Centrality of Race and Racism. All CRT research within education
must centralize race and racism, including intersections with other
forms of subordination such as gender, class, and citizenship.
(2) Challenging the Dominant Perspective. CRT research works to challenge to dominant narratives and re-center marginalized perspectives.
(3) Commitment to Social Justice. CRT research must always be
motivated by a social justice agenda.
(4) Valuing Experiential Knowledge. CRT builds on the oral traditions of
many indigenous Communities of Color around the world. CRT
research centers the narratives of People of Color when attempting to
understand social inequality.
(5) Being Interdisciplinary. CRT scholars believe that the world is
multi-dimensional, and similarly research about the world should
re?ect multiple perspectives (Solórzano and Delgado Bernal 2001).
Guided by these ?ve tenets, we use the collective narratives of People of
Color to tell a counter-story. The dominant perspective narrates that mispronouncing or changing a childs name at school is a fairly benign experience.
CRT allows us to examine these experiences in a larger context of race and
racism and demonstrate how, as racial microaggressions, they can take their
toll on Students of Color. If a child goes to school and reads textbooks that
do not reference her culture, sees no teachers or administrators that looks
like her, and perhaps does not hear her home language, the mispronunciation
of her name is an additional example for that student that who they are and
where they come from is not important. Furthermore, the cumulative impact
of these subtle experiences with racism can have a lasting impact on the
manner in which youth see themselves, their culture and the world around
them. Thus, we write this article to name one of the many forms of racism
that Students of Color experience in schools, as well as to urge teachers to
prevent further similar experiences and create classrooms where all children
feel safe, visible, valued and celebrated.
Racial microaggressions
Although racism is tied to race, it is not always acted out based on racial
categories; it also enacted based on factors af?liated with race such as
language, immigration status and culture (Kohli 2009). Many scholars have
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R. Kohli and D.G. Solórzano
well theorized the intersections of race with other forms of subordination in
our society (Crenshaw et al. 1996; Dixson and Rousseau 2006). LeMoine
(2007) has extensively tied race to language discrimination by documenting
the differential treatment of White and Black French speakers. Scholars have
demonstrated links between race and class discrimination, revealed the varied treatment of the ?rst, predominantly wealthy and white wave and the
second mostly poor and darker skinned wave of Cubans immigrants in the
United States (Portes and Rumbaut 2001). When we analyze racism, it is
important to acknowledge the complexity and intersectionality of its
manifestations.
It is also important to understand racism beyond blatant or overt acts of
discrimination. There are more subtle forms of racism that exist in daily life,
which may be hard to pinpoint as racism, but cause harm nonetheless. CRT
scholars have labeled this form of racism racial microaggressions (Author,
2007). To exemplify the concept, Davis (1989) takes readers on a brief
elevator ride and describes the following incident:
The scene is a courthouse in Bronx, New York. A white assistant city attorney
takes the court elevator up to the ninth ?oor. At the ?fth ?oor, the doors
open. A black woman asks: Going down? Up, says [the city attorney].
And then, as the doors close: You see? They cant even tell up from down.
Im sorry, but its true (156061).
Davis (1989) describes that there are many explanations for the black
womans question, from the possibility that she was just being congenial, or
perhaps the indicator was broken. However, the city attorney jumped to an
assumption that the black woman was unintelligent. His comment was based
on stereotypes, and as Davis (1989) interprets, was a microform of racism
that is, not just a personal slight, but an instance of racialized harm. Davis
(1989) goes on to de?ne microaggressions as stunning, automatic acts of
disregard that stem from unconscious attitudes of white superiority and
constitute a veri?cation of black inferiority (1576); she cites the origins of
this concept within the work of Chester Pierce.
Starting with the term offensive mechanisms in the 1960s, Pierce
(1969, 1970) eventually reframed these offenses as racial microaggressions
(Pierce 1974):
These [racial] assaults to black dignity and black hope are incessant and
cumulative. Any single one may be gross. In fact, the major vehicle for
racism in this country is offenses done to Blacks by Whites in this sort of gratuitous never-ending way. These offenses are microaggressions. Almost all
blackwhite racial interactions are characterized by white put-downs, done in
automatic, preconscious, or unconscious fashion. These minidisasters accumulate. It is the sum total of multiple microaggressions by whites to blacks that
has pervasive effect to the stability and peace of this world (Pierce 1974,
515).
Race Ethnicity and Education
447
We borrow from the collective work of Pierce as we continue to de?ne and
understand racial microaggressions for not just African Americans, but for
all People of Color. Through analysis of data from previous research, we
have come to the realization that those who are racially marginalized often
experience racism in both overt and covert ways (Allen and Solórzano
2001; Smith, Yosso, and Solórzano 2007; Solórzano 1998; Solórzano, Allen,
and Carroll 2002; Solórzano, Ceja, and Yosso 2001; Yosso et al., in press).
While we know that overt forms of racism still exist, we focus here on those
covert or everyday forms of systemic racism used to keep those at the racial
margins in their place. Therefore we argue that racial microaggressions are:
Subtle verbal and non-verbal insults/assaults directed toward People of
Color, often carried out automatically or unconsciously;
Layered insults/assaults, based on ones race, gender, class, sexuality,
language, immigration status, phenotype, accent, or name;
Cumulative insults/assaults that take their toll on People of Color. In
isolation, racial microaggressions may not have much meaning or
impact; however, as repeated slights, the effect can be profound.
To understand racial microaggressions, it is important to explore four related
areas. First, we must examine the different types of racial microaggressions
that People of Color experience. Second, it is important to consider the various contexts in which racial microaggressions occur. Next, we need to
understand the effects of racial microaggressions on the person on the
receiving end. Finally, we nee…
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