2008 Woodie Awards
Presentation Asks: Is Race Still A Big Issue Today?
Jackie Abrams
Issue date: 10/10/05 Section: News
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On Friday, in front of a small crowd of professors of Humanities and Social Sciences and students, Professor Annagrette Staiger gave a presentation on "Race Making in the School Yard," a chapter out of her new book. She talked about how race impacts life, the relevance of studying race and how it influences people's actions. In the world we live in today, cities are becoming more interracial.
As immigration grows in the 21st century, poverty and crime rates increase. Industrial waste lands become playgrounds and top hang out spots for youth and gangs. Every city you go to shows ethnic diversity and racial mixing, as well as many cultures, like international shopping centers. All over the cities are murals on walls with intercultural themes. They speak to everyone's cultural pride.
Professor Staiger did a great job of depicting Roosevelt High school, a very distinctive school in California, where approximately 4,000 students attend, for it is a very diverse school. The racial distribution goes as follows - Asians and blacks make up 30% each in the school, Latinos only about 12% and whites maybe less than 20%. Asians are the largest racial group in the school.
Professor Staiger showed a short powerpoint presentation with pictures showing the mixing of races in the high school and how all races were friends with one another. These pictures were used to emphasize the mingling of racial groups and that some people had friends of different cultures. Interracial couples were also very much part of the high school, as Professor Staiger pointed out with a picture of one such couple. She also talked about how they have a multicultural fair once a year as well as Cambodian Fashion shows. In this high school there were a few different racial groups, such as African Americans, Cambodians, Latinos, and Whites.
However, in terms of safety on the school grounds, there could not be more police in one area. The school has police outside the school building and security staff with walkie talkies within the facilities. There are certainly security issues within the school. Gangs and graffiti are everywhere. There is plenty of graffiti on bathroom walls and classroom doors. This high school is very well restricted and sealed off. You even have to show a school ID to get in. Just as Professor Staiger pointed out, it "looks more like a prison." Instead of the school being a place to get an education, it is a place where students of all races are afraid for their lives. Sometimes people are afraid of being jumped in the school and ridiculed for wearing clothes that do not say Timberland or Eddie Bauer, or any other expensive brand name clothing. It is also a school where you do not want to wear any expensive jewelry. But the only way you could go to and leave school with your gold chain is if you had respect from one racial group.
As immigration grows in the 21st century, poverty and crime rates increase. Industrial waste lands become playgrounds and top hang out spots for youth and gangs. Every city you go to shows ethnic diversity and racial mixing, as well as many cultures, like international shopping centers. All over the cities are murals on walls with intercultural themes. They speak to everyone's cultural pride.
Professor Staiger did a great job of depicting Roosevelt High school, a very distinctive school in California, where approximately 4,000 students attend, for it is a very diverse school. The racial distribution goes as follows - Asians and blacks make up 30% each in the school, Latinos only about 12% and whites maybe less than 20%. Asians are the largest racial group in the school.
Professor Staiger showed a short powerpoint presentation with pictures showing the mixing of races in the high school and how all races were friends with one another. These pictures were used to emphasize the mingling of racial groups and that some people had friends of different cultures. Interracial couples were also very much part of the high school, as Professor Staiger pointed out with a picture of one such couple. She also talked about how they have a multicultural fair once a year as well as Cambodian Fashion shows. In this high school there were a few different racial groups, such as African Americans, Cambodians, Latinos, and Whites.
However, in terms of safety on the school grounds, there could not be more police in one area. The school has police outside the school building and security staff with walkie talkies within the facilities. There are certainly security issues within the school. Gangs and graffiti are everywhere. There is plenty of graffiti on bathroom walls and classroom doors. This high school is very well restricted and sealed off. You even have to show a school ID to get in. Just as Professor Staiger pointed out, it "looks more like a prison." Instead of the school being a place to get an education, it is a place where students of all races are afraid for their lives. Sometimes people are afraid of being jumped in the school and ridiculed for wearing clothes that do not say Timberland or Eddie Bauer, or any other expensive brand name clothing. It is also a school where you do not want to wear any expensive jewelry. But the only way you could go to and leave school with your gold chain is if you had respect from one racial group.