My name is Karen and I am just finishing up my second year of teaching math at the secondary level. I teach algebra and geometry to freshmen/sophomores, respectively. I have been a graduate student at UML for a year now and will be finishing my class work this Fall.
I am new to teaching because I am a career changer. My undergraduate degree is in electrical engineering and I spent a number of years working in the semiconductor industry as an IC designer. In the 90's, I transitioned out of engineering and onto the business track working in several roles from product line management to technical marketing and business development. I have experienced success and learned a lot in my previous career yet I have often thought about becoming a math teacher. Two years ago, I decided to walk from my job and take the plunge. I think my husband and children didn't recognize me for a while as they were used to the wife/mother who spent a lot of time on conference calls, perpetually leashed to a Blackberry and laptop. After taking a summer off, cooking a lot and trekking to the beach, I got my teaching license and was fortunate enough to find a job right away. I am happy to say that I genuinely enjoy teaching and have no regrets. Teaching, I believe, is a calling.
Having grown up in the blue collar suburbs of Syracuse, NY, I had little understanding of what cultural diversity was. My neighborhood--and the ones on either side of it--were homogeneous and there was a clear understanding of where the "bad areas" were and who lived there. My dad was fairly bigoted (and still is) but he raised us to debate ideas and politics profusely. As such, I remember long arguments with him about race, taxes, welfare, etc even though I had no real experience to defend my positions. After graduating from high school, I moved further upstate to attend Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. Potsdam is in the middle of nowhere, yet diversity was much more evident compared to my home town. This is probably because the school was almost entirely an engineering college that attracted students globally. Despite this new experience, my "circle" continued to look the same as my friends in high school.
After college, I did something 'radical'--at least in the eyes of my parents. I moved to Southern California to take my first engineering job at TRW. I had never really traveled anywhere before and the thought of moving out West was exciting to me. The move turned out to be great in many ways and I stayed there for five years making friends with people from all walks of life and cultures. Finally, in this place, I could build experiences that both validated and broke down my previously held beliefs.
As I read Racial Formation by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, I immediately thought about my time in California. I was young, inexperienced and idealistic. Rather than focused on the concrete differences of race, my views epitomized what the authors contend as, ".. the opposite temptation: to imagine race as a mere illusion, a purely ideological construct which some ideal nonracist social order would eliminate." These idealistic views changed quickly the more time I spent with my new best friend, Robin. She grew up in South Central LA (Compton) and continued to live there while I worked with her. Robin and I loved to go shopping during our lunch hour and I quickly discovered how differently sales people treated her at the mall. Her skin color elicited the strangest reactions from store clerks: a combination of both snubbing her while at the same time monitoring her every move. Once they realized Robin and I were shopping together, there was an immediate and noticeable change in their disposition--a reaction that did not go unnoticed by either Robin or me.
These simple experiences turned out to be the "tip of the iceberg" and after five years of living in Redondo Beach, I gained quite an education on racial and gender bias. My previous notions that America was well on its way to obtaining nonracism was under siege with the reality around me, not the least of which was constant gang violence that was often racially motivated. By the time I left California, I had a healthy appreciation for the tangible differences in race and culture that we all experience in everyday life.
Once I moved to the Boston area, I became focused on career advancement and traveled extensively throughout this country and internationally. These experiences have deepened my understanding of racial differences and similarities and I can relate to the authors' comments in Racial Formation when they describe today's racism as "... no longer a virtual monolith...<but rather>..."messy". My overwhelming observation with working with many Asian and European business people is just how similar we all are despite our vast cultural differences and upbringings. On the other hand, I realize that the people I have been working with have also traveled and worked globally, and are therefore a product of their experiences much the same way I am. Still, the racial divide is noticeably apparent between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese corporations and to a some extent, their European counterparts. My observation, however, is that the post-WWII racial biases are slowly giving way to post-911 ones. For instance, the tensions between increasing native and immigrant Muslim populations with their European and Asian governments seems to be taking center stage in public debate. In this context, it seems obvious to me that the authors are correct when they contend that "ideological beliefs have structural consequences and that social structures give rise to beliefs." For example, religious bias has led the way to tangible, structural consequences for Muslims since 911 and clearly radical beliefs have gained traction as a result.
As a teacher, I believe educators have an obligation to provide a platform for the discussion of diversity in the classroom. As an urban teacher, I think it is a necessity given the diversity within a single class. My students are acutely aware of their cultural differences, but I am happy to say, are arguably more tolerant and open than previous generations. Nonracism may eventually be achieved.
