Currently, I am an undergraduate university student who one day hopes to earn a doctorate so that I may spend my life doing research, teaching, and writing. Thus, it is probably easy to see that I highly value education. So, as I browsed the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (the DALN), I found myself particularly drawn to stories that centered primarily around schooling, albeit in many different ways. Robert Ransom, in “GED to Ph.D.”, discusses his winding path from Vietnam to eventually writing a dissertation. Somewhat differently, a Somali immigrant by the name of Ali Dirshe explores his experience preparing his students for the United States Citizenship Test in “Long Time Teacher”. Reggie McMillan’s narrative, “Education from Youth to Adult”, touches on the role of the church as an educator and going back to college later in life. Finally, in “Private School” Kaari Swan relates her story of attending a private school as a minority student. While all four of these narrators live very different lives and thus have very different stories to tell, common threads do emerge across all of their literacy narratives. Namely, these narrators are keen to differentiate themselves from everybody else, and this differentiation of the self allows them to break free from mainstream societal constraints and achieve happiness.
In this cohort of literacy narratives, the interviewees engage in stereotyping in order to paint the rest of society as a generalized “other” that they are not a part of. The narratives “Long Time Teacher” and “Private School” most clearly illustrate this phenomenon. It is no secret that mainstream society has negatively stereotyped both blacks and immigrants. Interestingly enough, the black and immigrant narrators here seem to buy into these stereotypes and perpetuate them. Dirshe, the Somali immigrant, randomly states “I never received any welfare. I never received any food stamp, I never received any assistance from the government…” (00:07:24 – 00:07:32), as if insinuating that all other immigrants do, a common misconception about them. Similarly, Dirshe seems to buy into the erroneous idea that all other immigrants refuse to assimilate to American culture. As if addressing the Somali community as a whole, he states: “If you are living in United States, y’know, that’s home…you have to give up loyalty to other countries. I don’t care about Somalia…I’m American now” (00:05:07 – 00:05:25). This same phenomenon of buying into stereotypes of one’s in-group is found in Swan’s (the minority student at a private school) narrative, except this time it is with the African-American community. Most strikingly, Swan asserts that “young black people don’t really keep up with that [the news] …they don’t watch the news ‘cuz, y’know, for lack of a better way to put it some of them are out on the streets [italics mine]” (00:03:13 – 00:03:36). While this comment is hedged by “for lack of a better way to put it” and previous comments by Swan about the socio-structural issues African-Americans face, the fact that Swan believes that a significant number of the African-American community spend their days causing trouble is not concealed.
Kaari’s somewhat surprising comment about the African-American population
Important to note here is that while Dirshe and Swan view society as falling into these generalized stereotypes, they don’t view themselves as doing so. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so critical. Rather, they are different from their societal group. So, why do the engage in this behavior of generalizing an entire group of people? Simply put, it is their way of differentiating themselves. If an entire group of people is viewed as doing X, it is easy to do Y. If the world is viewed as what it truly is, i.e. people in a group doing X, Y, XY, and YX, what is someone supposed to be different than? The fact that they generalize their group according to negative stereotypes is just due to the fact that these are commonly believed by the rest of society, and thus easily accessible.
What is the result of these narrators viewing themselves as different from everybody else? Mainly, it allows for happiness. All of these narrators have led unconventional lives. Stories included being drafted into Vietnam before getting involved in radical campus politics and eventually earning a doctorate (Ransom), being forced out of Somali (Dirshe), and dropping out of school before returning twenty years later (McMillan). All of these unconventional lives have been enabled by the fact that these narrators view themselves as different from everybody else, so why should they do the same as everybody else? Thus, none of these narrators believed that they needed to follow the conventional, societal path of high school, to college, to a job, to marriage, to kids, all by the age of thirty. Rather, they were free to pursue what they wanted, and thus all of them have found happiness on their own, chosen path. Dirshe literally states how “I may retire in six years. So, life is good [italics mine]” (00:07:39 – 00:07:45). Similarly, after unconventionally dropping out of school and then returning to study after finding herself, Swan states how “I’m studying, uh, hospitality management, really love it [italics mine]” (00:00:27 – 00:00:29). For Ransom, writing a dissertation is not in the ordinary and is not pursued unless it is one’s passion. If these narrators tried to fit in and thereby followed the conventional path rather than their own chosen one, would they have found similar levels of contentment in life?
Is this all sunshine and rainbows though? Well not quite. It is important to note that while these narrators were able to choose paths that they found enjoyable, unlimited options were not available to them. In their piece on Critical Race Theory, DeCuir and Dixson discuss how “civil rights gains…were offered to the extent that they were not seen (or exacted) as a major disruption to the ‘normal’ way of life for the majority of Whites” (28). The same phenomenon is occurring here; the paths chosen by these narrators are not paths that typical whites would go down, and thus they were permitted by the whites in power. For example, take Reggie McMillan’s narrative. While he did return to school, he did so as an adult [and thus was too far behind to compete in the rat race] and currently lives a simple, albeit happy, life involved heavily in his church (McMillan). Whites allowed McMillan to do this because it did not challenge their status and power. If he decided to go and try to become an investment banker, a landlord, or a senator, then there would be problems.
Reggie McMillan’s “Education from Youth to Adult”
Similarly, DeCuir and Jackson discuss the permanence of racism in their piece, which is the idea that racism always has, and always will be, a mainstay in American society (27 – 28). Earlier, it was stated that “The fact that they [the narrators here] generalize their group according to negative stereotypes is just due to the fact that these are commonly believed by the rest of society, and thus easily accessible”. In light of DeCuir and Jackson’s work, it is easy to see that the reason the stereotypes of blacks and immigrants [who are typically viewed as non-white] are negative, as opposed to positive, is that racism has been permanent throughout the history of the United States. Thus, blacks aren’t viewed stereotypically as hardworking, honest, and moral. Rather, racism throughout history has built up the view that blacks are lazy, aggressive criminals. Unfortunately, if DeCuir and Jackson are correct in that racism really is permanent, these erroneous generalizations may continue well into the future.
I can’t help but draw similarities to my own life after watching these narratives. Particularly, both differentiation of the self and an unconventional route are two aspects of my own personal literacy narrative. As I wrote there, I don’t want to major in a field that is just “memorization”. Instead, I would like to build up “soft skills” by studying philosophy, rather than pick a popular major like finance or biology. By seeing myself as different, and making choices stemming from this view, I have also put myself on an unconventional route. Pre-med students know where they’re going. The same can be said for pre-law. What’s the next step for a philosophy major? Hopefully, like the narrators discussed above, it will be happiness.
Works Cited
DeCuir, Jessica T, and Adrienne D Dixson. “‘So When It Comes Out,They Aren’t That Surprised That It Is There’: Using Critical Race Theory as a Tool of Analysis of Race and Racism in Education.” Educational Researcher, vol. 33, no. 5, 1 June 2004, pp. 26–31., doi:10.3102/2F0013189X033005026.
Dirshe, Ali, and Sam Head. “Long Time Teacher.” Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, The Ohio State University and Georgia State University, www.thedaln.org/#/detail/0b5688ff-7078-4364-b7c7-94c61dbed0dc. Accessed 5 Mar. 2019.
McMillian, Reggie, and Nathan Szabados. “Education from Youth to Adult.” Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, The Ohio State University and Georgia State University, www.thedaln.org/#/detail/8c1615c2-f874-4148-bdde-e0eda23f44bf. Accessed 5 Mar. 2019.
Ransom, Robert, et al. “GED to Ph.D.” Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, The Ohio State University and Georgia State University, www.thedaln.org/#/detail/3d38eaf2-dd0d-42fe-ad87-7b1804384172. Accessed 5 Mar. 2019.
Swan, Kaari, and Abbey Miller. “Private School.” Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, The Ohio State University and Georgia State University, www.thedaln.org/#/detail/2cb79952-6902-4c74-8d25-363866c29a79. Accessed 5 Mar. 2019.