Author: nbouchar

Barbershop Beginings

Posted on Author nbouchar

Nicolas Bouchard
12/7/13
Jack Dougherty
Color and Money

Barbershop Beginnings

    Coming into Trinity, I felt as if I knew the people of Hartford like it was my own. This familiarity did not come from any first hand experience of living here. This came from time spent at my boxing gym in Lawrence, an impoverished old mill town in northern Massachusetts. Through my time spent at the gym, towns like Lawrence and Hartford became interchangeable in my eyes. I had grown to categorize people living there in two different ways: the motivated and the unmotivated. To me, if someone was unemployed it was because they were an addict or were not looking around. I had seen kids at the gym work themselves out of Lawrence through either their school work or boxing. It was black and white to me. If someone was not making a living, they had not taken the initiative to look at every possibility they had to make a living. However, through taking the Color and Money seminar taught by Jack Dougherty, I learned just how ignorant I was towards the struggles people living in poverty have to encounter.

    The seminar dealt with the role race and social class has in society. The class was built to challenge the belief of meritocracy, the idea that all people are judged by merit alone. While I was not blind to the fact that racism still exists and the impoverished have less access to resources than the wealthy, I did believe in the idea of meritocracy and how in the end, hard work could pay off for anybody. The reading that first challenged this belief of mine in a major way was Beverly Tatum’s book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”. In the book, Tatum laid out the different ideas of racial identity, the theory that each race goes through an individual process to find its identity. It was through reading her book that I started to realize that it was unfair of me to judge the lives of impoverished non-whites on the same level as my own. This was because I realized that they have grown up through a different process than I have.

    Tatum describes the different processes of identity development each race faces through the course of their lives. While the first stages of racial identity development are outwardly similar, there is a difference in the internal process that exemplifies the disadvantage that minorities have. Tatum describes the first stage of white racial identity as the contact stage. This is a time when whites feel as if they are free of any prejudice towards others races because they barely acknowledge race. In their eyes they are “just normal” (Tatum,55). Conversely in the first stage of minority identity development, the pre-encounter stage, the non-white child absorbs all of the beliefs of our white dominated culture, including white superiority and non-white inferiority. Non-white children are not conscious of their race yet, but they have internalized the racial hierarchy that rules our country.

The difference between the two is subtle, the young children tend to act out on the same level. However, the way the pre-encounter stage is structured sets up the minority child for failure in life. This is due to how when the child realizes his race he will associate himself with inferiority. This will go a long way in terms of what he thinks he can achieve. If they internalize this belief that they are not on the same level as their white compatriot, then logically they will not achieve as much as whites. I realized that I had been woefully inaccurate about the reason I saw so many unemployed non-whites in the city of Lawrence. Of course they should accept some responsibility for their situation, but just looking at it from a lazy/hard working point of view was too simplistic. The reality is they have grown up in a system that is inherently against them, while I have grown up in a system that caters toward someone like myself, a white man.

The first time I had recognized this system being played out, I was walking into Fresh Edge, a barbershop on New Britain Street, right outside of Trinity. As I walked up to my barber Ralphie to get my cut, I saw that he had his kid there at the shop. I sat on the chair the kid immediately started asking me questions about what college was like: “how much homework do you get,” “are the teachers nice,” “what’s it like living on campus?”. After the kid had rattled off about five of these questions in thirty seconds Ralphie interrupted his son, telling him that it was impolite to assume that I was in college. It then hit me, this was the pre-encounter phase playing itself out right in front of me. Upon reflection I had come to the conclusion that Ralphie’s kid assumed I was in college because of the color of my skin. I had thought about the way I was dressed and it wasn’t anything special, torn up jeans with a Whalers sweatshirt. If I had any other colored skin, chances are Ralphie’s kid would not have felt as comfortable making that assumption about me, but he associated my whiteness with education.

Walking out of the Barbershop, I realized I still had a long way to go in fully understanding the struggles people of color have to go through. I had been blind to the system I was in, one that raises the white race and puts down people of any other color. I walked out embarrassed of all the years of misjudgement I had put on other races. But, while I wasn’t even close to fully understanding the problems of non-whites living in America today, at least I had started to recognize the patterns of suppression around me. Everyone’s understanding of racial inequality has to start somewhere. For me it happened to be at a Barbershop.

Work Cited

Beverly Daniel Tatum, “Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations about Race, revised edition (New York: Basic Books, 2003).

Race in Relation to Trinty

Posted on Author nbouchar
Nicolas Bouchard
11/20/13
Jack Dougherty
Color and Money
Race in Relation to Trinity
When asked if they had become more aware of his race on Trinity’s campus, Juan, a non-white sophomore student at Trinity, exclaimed “Yes I have!” (Juan, 4). This view on race at Trinity was common in the answers given by non-white students. In the ten non-white students that were interviewed about race, seven out ten acknowledged the existence of racial barriers on Trinity’s campus. This was contrasted by only five out of eight white students acknowledging the color barriers at Trinity. While not a huge separation, this difference in percentages of acknowledge the points to two main problems on Trinity’s campus. One that there are color barrier on this campus, and they are prevalent in many ways on this campus. Second is that there is a lack of communication between the different races on the existence of these barriers. These barriers existing on campus hinder the student life at Trinity and create a lack of understanding and perspective on Trinity’s campus.
To investigate this topic, our seminar conducted an interview-based study of students’ perceptions of race and social class at Trinity. Our interview guide posed ten open-ended questions and three demographic questions that explored topics, such as personal awareness, social interactions, and other students’ assumptions regarding racial and social class differences at Trinity. The Office of Institutional Research and Planning provided our professor with a stratified random sample of 55 sophomores from the Class of 2016, categorized by race (white or non-white) and first-year financial aid status (receiving or not receiving). Our professor sent personalized email invitations to this group, and assigned each of us to conduct an interview with all who responded and agreed to participate. The typical interview lasted about ten minutes, and was transcribed by the interviewer. The final sample consisted of 18 interviews: 10 students who received financial aid (4 white and 6 non-white), and 8 students who did not receive financial aid (4 white and 4 non-white). All names are pseudonyms and any personally identifiable details have been masked, in accordance with our research ethics confidentiality agreement approved by the Trinity College Institutional Review Board.
Similar divisions in race were found in Stacey Lee’s book Unraveling the “Model Minority” Stereotype. In the book Lee spends a year at a private school examining the racial dynamics within the student community. In her studies Lee find that the students in the school hung out only in their racial groups and rarely broke out of the behavior patterns set by their racial groups. The only major example of intermingling of the races was between the Koreans and the White. This was because Lee found that often times Korean parents were encouraging the other students to embrace the “American Way” (Lee, 33). This meant that Korean students would often times try to associate themselves with the white students in the school. However, this did not mean that the White students responded to these advances. When interviewing White students Lee find that many still can not even tell the “difference between Koreans and the other Asians” (Lee, 28).
Examples of this racial division at Trinity is seen in various ways through reading the interviews of the students. The major example of this that came up the most in the interviews was the division of the races in the Mather Dining Hall. The interviewees brought up how the divisions at Mather dining hall are visible by where different races sit. Kirsten, a Trinity Sophomore, described how at Mather she feels that race really “dictates where you sit” (Kirsten, 18). Kirsten was not the only interviewee that brought up Mather Hall as an example of racial division at Trinity. Out of the ten non-white students interviewed, five specifically brought up eating at Mather as an example of racial division here at Trinity. Eating at Mather is a universal social experience all students here at Trinity take part in, they tend to eat with the group of people they tend to socialize with. Therefore, it can be said that Mather Hall can serve as a microcosim for the social dynamic at Trinity College. By seeing the division in Mather dining hall between the races, it can be infered that in general there are social divisions between the races here at Trinity. What becomes of this division is that the experiences of others are kept in the dark and interracial communication becomes non-existent between the students.
Another parallel that can be found between the school in Lee’s book and here at Trinity is the existence of what Lee describes as the idea of the “model minority”. The idea behind the model minority originates back to a New York Times article written in 1966 about the Asian population in America. In it the journalist wrote about how the Asian population in America was not a “problem minority” because of its work ethic (Lee,6).  He describe how because of their hard work and success in the schooling system, they had become a model minority, meaning that the other minority races such as the African Americans and the Hispanics should follow in their foot steps in terms of how to act. While the writer of this article meant this term in a positive way, Lee revealed through her work how this was actually hurting the Asian youth in America significantly.
The “model minority” ideal is so pervasive in the school environment today that Asian students who do not match up with it are often cast off. When Lee first met Ming Chang she thought that he was a “seemingly model achiever”, when in actuality he was a very low achiever in the high school (Lee, 69). He was struggling with his grades and was even on the brink of failing multiple classes at the school. His struggles in school could not be contributed to a lack of attention from his teachers, they were reaching out to him for help constantly. His teachers were asking him to come to after school sessions to raise his grades, but he would refuse. When Ming was asked why he was refusing this help, he explained how it would be “embarrassing to reveal his academic difficulties” to his peers (Lee, 69). This was because he was maintaining the image of being a high achiever well, he even was even being recruited by people to be a tutor. He did not want to lose that image for fear of embarrassment and exclusion from his peers. This is how the negatives of the model minority stereotype manifest themselves. . This creates even more divisions within the Asian community and furthers the lack of communication among students.
This racial division is not limited to the high school described in Lee’s book.  As an Asian American, Kirsten described in his interview the presence of a “spectrum” of Asian students here at Trinity (Kirsten, 17). Asian students at Trinity either range from “really nerdy” to “white”  (Kirsten, 17). These two groups do not really hang out with each other and because of this he “didn’t know a lot of Asians” (Kirsten, 17). Kirsten’s interview revealed that there are in fact major divisions at Trinity even within races, and as a result these divisions are limiting the experiences of students here. The Asians that do not measure up to the ideal level of intelligence here are immediately cast off and they are forced to assimilate into the white community in order to find a group of people.
Another way in which the topic of divisions of race is seen here at Trinity was with Beverly Tatum’s idea of racial identity. Tatum describes the theory of racial identity in her book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria?” as referring to “the process of defining for oneself the personal significance and social meaning of belonging to a particular racial group” (Tatum, 16). This process of figuring out what one’s identity and place in this world means can be a painful process to go through for someone who is a minority in this American culture. The pain in finding out the realities through this process can lead to division and a lack of communication between the races. An example Tatum brought up in the book was the example of when her son was first going to school. He was the only African American in his class and as a result he was looked at differently by his peers. This was made apparent when one of his classmates asked him if his “skin was brown because he drank too much chocolate milk” (Tatum, 35). Tatum explains how by asking if he drinks “too much” chocolate milk, the classmate implies that the child’s skin is too dark. This places in the child’s head that there’s something wrong with him, lowering his self worth. This is a process that Tatum says all minorities go through, even ones at high ranking liberal arts schools.
This process of devaluing of self worth could be seen in the example of Fred. He is non-white and as a result he experienced many run ins with the campus security here at Trinity. He described how he has been stopped “a couple of times by campo” to see if he was from Hartford. By getting stopped by security he is now cast in the light as someone who is causing trouble. As Tatum refers to in her book, his case follows the racial identity process. These instances of racial profiling can end up lowering the minority’s self worth and as a result they are brought down and reluctant to reach out and communicate with the other races.
The negative effects of the dynamic of these divisions have very real consequences for students here because they create a toxic culture on Trinity’s campus. Take the example of Alice. She is a white student here at Trinity and recently had a problem with a cashier at one of the school restaurants. She had swiped her card on one of the cash cards and when fifteen dollars came up the cashier said that “her parents had come through for her. Alice thought that this comment was very rude and her first thought about it was that “she could get this woman fired” for saying such a comment to her (Alice, 43). This feeling of superiority is something that is very detrimental to the schooling environment here at Trinity. These divisions at Trinity create the environment where a white person feels comfortable to feel above people who are not the same color as they are. The only way to fight this discrimination is through communication and understanding, and those things will not be reached if these patterns continue to take place here at Trinity college.
Work Cited
Stacey Lee, Unraveling the “Model Minority” Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth, second edition (New York: Teachers College Press, 2009).
Beverly Daniel Tatum, “Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations about Race, revised edition (New York: Basic Books, 2003).

Skin Deep Analyzes: Mark

Posted on Author nbouchar
Skin Deep Analyzes: Mark
The first character introduced in the documentary Skin Deep is Mark from Boston. Mark has grown up in an almost all white area for most of his life. He describes his father as having dated views on race and this is shown in a scene where he is having dinner with his family. When the topic of race comes up his father goes on a rate about how whites now a days “don’t owe the blacks anything”(Frances,1995). Mark is different than his family in that he spends his free time he sings at a black church, so he is not completely sheltered. Mark in the beginning is pseudo-independent and reintegration phase of white identity.This is because Mark recognizes racism and is reaching out in certain areas, but he stands by his father’s views which are dated racially.
 Capture
Mark goes through a racial tolerance program and grows in terms of the racial identity phases defined by Beverly Tatum’s book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”. A defining point in Mark’s transformation is towards the end of the film with a student named Brian who is African American. Brian explains how people of all races need to come together and “stick their neck out”(Frances,1995) for each other when it comes to defending each other racially.  Mark has moved into what Tatum has called the Immersion/Emmersion phase. Before he recognized that race is a problem but he was in the pseudo-independent group because he “didn’t quite know what to do about it”(Tatum,2003). Now he has an idea on what to do.
 
Bibliography
Skin Deep. Dir. Francis Ried. Iris Films, 1995. Videocassette.
 
 Tatum, Beverly Daniel. “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: And Other Conversations about Race. New York: Basic, 2003. Print.

Color and the Admissions Process

Posted on Author nbouchar

Nick Bouchard
10/1/13
Color and Money
Jack Dougherty
Color and the Admissions Process
In September of this year, a class run by professor Jack Doughty simulated an admissions process modeled after the Mitchell Stevens’s novel Creating a Class. While there were many issues that came up during the process, one of the most consistently brought up topics was that of race, and the value it should have in the acceptance process. One of the main reasons why this was so heavily debated was because of difficulty executing this process legally. The difficultly comes from how Affirmative Action policies have evolved through many Supreme Court rulings since its creation. Despite the challenges of executing the policies legally, the admissions group decided to have Affirmative Action policies play a significant role through a diversity score that added to the overall score of an applicant. This was because of the overall belief by the group that to have a diverse entering class was highly important in both promoting equal opportunity, and in accepting the highest quality of students in the entering class.

Since it’s implementation in 1965 the issue of Affirmative Action has sparked an enormous amount of controversy. Much of that has to do with this nation’s history with racial prejudice and how we as a nation are trying to make up for the injustices brought against minorities in this country. Nathan Glazer, a critic of Affirmative action has described it as “ineffective” because of how it has further reinforced discrimination and tipped the balance on the other side of the color barrier (Glazer, 1975). An example of this ineffectiveness could be seen in Stevens’s Creating a Class. Stevens confronts this when he has to turn away an impoverished Latvian student because he could not list him as multicultural. This reveals the superficial nature of Affirmative Action by demonstrating how it only works you an applicant has “the right mix of skin color, citizenship, and financial need” (Stevens, 2009). However, despite these detractors, many others see Affirmative Action as not only an example of white guilt, but a policy that can benefit the college culture for the student population overall.

An example of this benefit is what Joane Rabe describes as “unconcious Racism” (Rabe, 2001), a topic discussed in her book Equality, Affirmative Action, and Justice . She states that admitting more diverse students helps break down stereotypes for both the white students towards the minorities, and the minorities towards whites as well. Another example from Rabe is the fact that accepting people from other countries increases the profile of the college itself. By the college doing this they gain an international profile will help increase its revenue in more ways than one. This can been seen in Trinity college. Back before Affirmative Action was enacted, the international student population here was almost nonexistent. Now international students make up more than 4 percent of the total population (International Student, 2013). By having an international presence Trinity college greatly enhances the campus culture by bringing in an international culture. It also helps set up an environment where people from different nations learn to work together and come to understand each other. These policies help build international understanding in a world where international conflict is all too common. It was because of this reasoning that the group chose to let the color conscious policies have an influence on the acceptance of applicants.

Implementing these policies in any significant way however proved to be more complicated than originally thought. This was because of the stances the Supreme Court has taken on the influence Affirmative Action can have in admitting an applicant. Over the decades rules have been set by the Supreme Court so colleges do not turn color conscious policies into discriminating policies. The first instance of this was the Supreme ruling on Bakke vs. University of California (1978). This case involved Allen Blakke, a student who was reject from the university of California multiple time even though there were minorities being let in with lower scores because of a quota the school was trying to hit. The court found this unconstitutional and made it so colleges could not use quotas when admitting minority students.

Another Supreme Court case that greatly affected Affirmative Action in regards to the admissions process was Grutter vs. Bollinger (2003). This case involved a law student who could not get into the University of Michigan’s law school while minorities at a lower academic rank were getting in. She took her case to the Supreme court and while the court upheld the idea that the school could consider race a factor, the school could not use a fixed point system anymore when someone was racially diverse. These restrictions by the Supreme Court made a racially diverse class harder to attain because admissions offices now had to jump through many more legal hoops.

The tactic the group using for these applicants was to give out an applicant a ‘diversity score’. An applicant would receive a score from one to three on how “diverse” they are. Now on the surface this could be seen as conflicting with the Michigan rulings because this involves giving a “fixed score” for ethnic diversity. However an argument could be made that “diversity” is based on other factors as well. An example of this was Cliff Anderson. He was scored a three by many due to not only his race but also for the fact that he is gay. Another example was how many applicants received diversity points for attending a public school. These are examples of how the diversity scale was not solely based on someone’s race, but also on other factors about the person as well.

Overall the acceptance process should be seen as a success in terms of how the quality of the class.The college ended up requiring students of legacy, Spanish, and African American decent. Also, while all the students accepted were from private schools, the process allowed for equal opportunity education because of the students accepted. Out of the nine accepted, over half came from public schools. This shows that at least socioeconomically the playing field has evened out due to this process. Despite all of the students being from private school, the strength of the class is still high because of the diversity. While the students are well off, they have different racial background. They all have different backgrounds and as a result they each have something unique to add to the college culture overall. It is for these reasons that the college admissions group achieved their goals in all three areas at an effective level.
Bibliography:
Glazer, Nathan. Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy. New York: Basic, 1975. Print.
Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2013.
Rabe, Johan. Equality, Affirmative Action, and Justice. Hamburg: J. Rabe, 2001. Print.
Stevens, Mitchell L. Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2007. Print.
“Trinity College.” International Student. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2013.