In my service learning classroom many of McIntosh’s points are evident once I started interacting with the students. One of the first times I was alone with a group of students a conversation came up concerning a TV show that the kids watch. They were talking about some of the characters in the show and I had never heard of it before so I asked them to tell me about it. I was thinking that they would tell me what time it was on or what it was called, but that was not what I got. One student replied, “You’re a teacher, you wouldn’t want to watch it.” This didn’t really surprise me but I still responded by saying just because I was a teacher didn’t mean that I don’t do some of the things they do. Then another student said very bluntly, “but you’re a white teacher, that’s different.” I was shocked but I totally connected it to “5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.” I see my race on TV all the time, and the reason they thought I didn’t want to watch the show they were talking about was because I was white and the show had a black family.
Another point I connected it to was, “12. I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes or not answer letters without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.” When I go to teach, I wear nice clothes because that is what is expected of a teacher. Some of the students comment on my outfits and how much they like it. There are some kids in the class who actually wear a lot of cloths that seem far beyond their years. For example, one girl was wearing platform high heeled shoes. She’s in third grade! I told her I liked them a lot, and she told me they were her sisters’ who was older than her. I said that I like to share with my sister too, but she responded with, “I don’t have a choice; my parents only buy things once.” I felt kind of bad because I didn’t really know what else to say, but I connected this experience to McIntosh.
Lastly, when the students do Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), I always see books that I read as a child. One girl was reading The Little Mermaid and made a comment about how pretty she was and that because she doesn’t look like her she must not be pretty. I interrupted her and told her she was and that not everyone has to look the same. She didn’t seem convinced. A boy reading next to her was reading 101 Dalmatians and he chimed in that black and white actually looks cool together. This whole conversation reminded me of “20. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race.” I can walk to a store and buy anything featuring my race, but these students are reading books about other races because that is what is widely available to them. They have nothing to look up to that they can call their own. It is just sad to think that nothing changes even though we know that these differences exist.
