Annette Lareau is an author, lecturer and Sociologists at the University of Pennsylvania. Her field work inspired and informed her lecture and book Unequal Childhoods, Unequal Adulthoods. Her research focused on how income, seperate of race, influences the outcomes of children post high school. You can watch her lecture here.
Where do I begin? How do I even begin to…
Where to start? Well, let me start here. Please stick with me, this one is going to be a doozy.
Finding myself unable to sleep one night, I clicked on Netflix. For some reason, call it fate, karma or eternal damnation to my mortal soul, I stumbled on a documentary called “The Rachel Divide”. In case you haven’t seen it. It is about Rachel Dolezal. The white woman who studied at Howard University, became a professor in African Studies teaching black, sued Howard for reverse discrimination only to change her race and become “transracial”. You remember her right?
Well in the documentary, she was told by the producer that black people are upset not at her embracing our culture but at the fact her white privilige alone allows her the ability to do and claim something that is impossible for black people to claim without being ridiculed for the utter ridiculousness of it. While Dolezal made a valid point, race is a social construct she also said “Well who owns blackness?” Mind you the producer remained silent as if leaving her to ponder the fuckery behind her statement.
After watching the documentary, I thought about the project I had to do on Unequal Childhoods. The central idea behind Lareau’s research was essentially poor families let their kids do whatever whenever where as wealthy families are more structured. These dynamics make the wealthy child more likely to question authority, where as the poorer family is more subordinate.
So many questions? Why do white teachers, researchers ect try to discount the role of race in the all areas of human activity when there is so much data, analysized and synthesised to prove otherwise. Race is linked to almost every facet of human activity, specifically income and education. To Lareau’s credit, she does state in her research that students with an identity connection to their instructors fare better than those that don’t.
Lareau’s study included 80 families in one particular area. That in and of it’s self skews the results, being black in Massachusetts looks very different from being black in Alabama.
Though this statement is mostly anecdotal, I believe that most underpriviliged families want their children to be successful. They aren’t able to participate in helping with homework because they themselves don’t have the knowledge to assist. Low income families often consist of parent(s) that live check to check. Not working means they can’t provide for their families. All of this boils down to education. It has been statistically proven that with each degree one earns, their income potential goes up.. Both individuals, Dolezal and Lareau are/were educators. It is baffling to me how these two individuals are able to diagnose and prescribe the cure without understanding their position in society allows them to make such assertions.
Without belaboring the point, representation matters.
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