Student Gender/Sexuality Identity

Warning: This article present some homophobic epithets as examples of intolerant language.

Students of education have a duty to discuss not only racial diversity and cultural diversity but sexual diversity, and all the for the same reasons. Just as a classroom will be ethnically and culturally diverse it will be sexually diverse. Some might argue that young children are not sexually aware yet and therefore do not count in this regard, and that is incorrect. Children raised in families or with family friends of diverse sexual orientations or gender identities are part of this sexually diverse group.

Why does this even matter in a classroom that is not “sex education”, like Language Arts or History? Bullying, for one. Bullying, whether physical or indirect in the form of threats, shunning, or rumors, can leave emotional scarring and hinder a students emotional and academic progress. Epithets like “fag” or “dyke”, “queer” and insulting phrases like “that's so gay” or “no homo” place non-heterosexual orientation in a negative and deviant light. It gives unspoken credence to the incorrect assumption that non-heterosexual orientation is itself deviant, perverse, or even chosen out of rebellion. This way of thinking is called “heterosexism”. Homophobia is the common term usually used for attitudes of perceiving non-heterosexuality as negative and is used when these attitudes manifest in outward expressions in bullying, prejudicial acts, and intolerance. The term has also been applied to those who disdain people with non-traditional gender identities, though gender identity is not strictly related to sexual orientation.

Teachers often find themselves in loco parentis as students come to them for help with peer relationships. Sometimes these are negative relationships where one student is being bullied by another. In some rare occasions the students may seek guidance from a teacher about romantic relationships, especially if the student feels they cannot approach their friends or parents. How a teacher handles occasions of homophobia can impact a student for life.

First, one hopes that a teacher has the education and happiness of their students in mind and would bring little to no gender, gender-identity, or sexuality bias into the classrooms themselves. Joining in with students who are laughing or joking in a heterosexist way can even further isolate and alienate students who are LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, [straight]-ally) or those have LGBTQA friends and family.

Second, teachers must be mindful of the signs of bullying or intolerance and do their best to put a stop to it. Obviously students using epithets in class would be told to curb their language, but teachers must also mind phrases like “that's so gay”. This seemingly simple phrase is perhaps more offensive because it is so simple and widely accepted. Would a teacher turn a deaf ear to comments like “that's so black”, “don't be a Jew”, or “he's being retarded”? No! Those phrases are offensive and used to insult the student and members of those communities by insinuating they are are negative themselves! Then it is neither acceptable to allow “gay” or “homosexual” to be an insult. No one uses “heterosexual” as an insult.

Non-Heterosexuals and people with non-traditional gender-identity exist. They are students in our school and their friends and family are friends in our schools. They deserve the same education, protection, and guidance as any other student.

My college Diversity class listed an amazing list of resources, and I would like to share my favorites with you.

TheYoungTurks - Fox News Bias On Gay Rights In Public Schools

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB8OqSkadnw

A certainly non-exhaustive list of heterosexism and homophobia, and links for some that you may not have realized was a problem:

1. Bullying (broad term!)
2. "Joking" heterosexist comments or insults. ("so gay" etc.)
3. Housing discrimination.
4. Family planning & adoption discrimination.
5. Marriage discrimination. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/24/178765718/violent-protests-in-paris-after-same-sex-marriage-law-passes
6. Negative/Harmful stereotypes in the media. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-07-11-glaad-bruno_N.htm
7. Gender/sexuality 'correction' counseling (which are usually abusive and dangerous). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/13/fight-against-gay-convers_n_1513043.html
8. Genderization of toys and stigmatizing those who play with "wrong" gendered toys. http://www.queerty.com/what-does-dr-phil-think-parents-should-do-when-their-sons-play-with-barbies-take-away-the-barbies-20110205/
9. Physical violence.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard
10. Vandalism (of objects owned or frequented by LGBTQA).
11. Misinformation and Miseducation that "only gays" get certain diseases (HIV). (You don't need a link here, it's a virus, and viruses don't care what sexuality/gender you are).
    

Cradle to Prison Pipeline (Opinion Piece)

Preface: I was asked to write a piece on teaching and the Culture of Discrimination using the "Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign" and another video (referenced). This work is what resulted. Though it is riddled with statistics it is an opinion piece and has not been constructed as an educational tool as most of my other blogs have. The content of this piece contains a history of racism and may offend some readers. Please take that into consideration. (However, there are no racial epithets. This piece is "safe for work".)

First I would like to offer my emotional response to the video "Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign", from the Louisiana Summit by the Children's Defense Fund in 2012. I realize that I never learned about the period of history talked about in the video. I was not educated on "Jim Crow" laws, though I had heard the term before. The notion that these laws were written and created for the purpose of driving black men into prisons to be rented out to the same jobs they did as slaves, strikes me as so outrageous and ridiculous... by my twentieth century mindset. My first response is outrage on behalf of the black population at the time. Mr. Ronald Mason, President of the Southern University system, teaches that after the Jim Crow laws were abolished the War on Drugs served the purpose of jailing impoverished black men even more effectively (Children's Defense Fund, 2012 Nov 7). According to Mr. Mason 70% of the jailed population of Louisiana is black and 90% of those persons are men. The Children's Defense Fund (2009) states that in America a black boy born in 2001 has a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime; a White boy a 1 in 17 chance. A black girl born in 2001 has a 1 in 17 chance of going to prison in her lifetime; and a White girl a 1 in 111 chance. There is no scientific evidence that black people are genetically predisposed to make bad decisions, so the answer must lie in the American justice system and culture (Children's Defense Fund, 2012 Nov 7).

As a female and a feminist I feel the exclusion of the black female statistic, though I understand that that 90% of jailed blacks are men is significant. In the September/October 2012 issue of "Humanist" it is noted that "despite being less than 9 percent of the U.S. population, black women are the largest segment of the skyrocketing female prison population." "And colorism plays a role in black female sentencing and incarceration rates as well. According to a recent study done in North Carolina prisons, dark-skinned black women were more likely to receive and serve longer sentences than lighter-skinned black women (Hutchison, 2012)." Though feminism and female black imprisonment may seem a separate topic to the Southern University System it is a symptom of the same sickness: the War on Drugs, "suspension and expulsion policies that fuel the school-to-prison pipeline" (Hutchinson, 2012), and a religious culture of negotiated subservience to "morality" in an attempt to offset an overwhelming cultural representation of the hypersexualized black female "role model" (Hutchinson, 2012). I feel that the black female cannot be excluded in this conversation as it seems she has been. All of my following work will be in the view of the "black race", not the "black male", including but not limited to my postulates for solutions.

I asked myself what I, as a future science teacher, can do to protect my students from this culture of discrimination; how can I equip them to defend against a system that seems to be stacked against them? I imagine myself saying "Do cops pull over people of color? Join the police force, be the cop and change why traffic stops happen. Do judges sentence black people more harshly? Be the judge, and sentence people fairly according to the scope of their crime. Be the change you want to see in the world! I felt that people didn't get an appropriate emphasis on science and math in school, so I became a science teacher." Mr. Mason mirrors my sentiment. "What can the Southern University System do for the United States? 1. Increase the number of black [omitted]* bachelor degree graduates. 2. Increase the number of black teachers. 3. Bring truth about the relationships with black [people]** in America. 4. Establish historically black universities as bases for long term systematic change. (Children's Defense Fund, 2012 Oct 7). Immediately curious about why the bases had to be "historically black" if we, as advocates, are trying to bring about racial equality, Mr. Mason says that black universities historically are specifically designed to promote black interest against the system of oppression (Children's Defense Fund, 2012 Oct 7).

School is supposed to be a place to learn how to think critically, to respond instead of react, to prepare to enter academia and the real world with a desire to improve it while enjoying our lives. So many things in the current cultures are stacked against people that are non-white, impoverished, female, disabled, or outside of the local religion... Teachers are the guides of education and end up being the ones that weave global culture through what they permit, omit, and emphasize. If teachers cannot change the parents and their bias, or save the world today, we can equip students with the desire, drive, and tools to change it for themselves and their own children.

End note: I watched Public School Prepares you for Prison Life, by TheAlexJonesChannel and agree that a school throwing children in prison, even for an hour, for minor infractions is a violation of human rights, a striking example of mental torture and abuse, and the indoctrination of the "why bother" mentality associated with the culture of discrimination. However, I could not finish the rest of the video (I stopped at 11:26, and wish I had stopped sooner). I was not dressed appropriately to attend such profound discourse: I forgot my tinfoil hat.


*Omission: The word "male" was omitted in deference to gender equality in education and advocacy.
**The word "men" has been changed to "people" in deference to gender equality.


References:

Children's Defense Fund (2009). Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign. Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/cradle-prison-pipeline-summary-report.pdf

Children's Defense Fund (2012). CRADLE TO PRISON PIPELINE® CAMPAIGN. Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/cradle-to-prison-pipeline/

Children's Defense Fund (2012 Nov 7). Cradle to Prison Pipeline Lousisiana Summit. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eZD0BozS-s

Hutchinson, R. (2012). The “Return” of the Welfare Queens: Feminism, Secularism, and Anti-Racism. /Humanist/ (September/October 2012). 19-20.

TheAlexJonesChannel (2012, Oct 30). Public School Prepares You for Prison Life. [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZv0WgV2oMc