What Is Malsbary´s Critical Race Theory?
Here in the United States, we, historically, have had countless instances, occurrences, and notable events related to racism, discrimination, slavery, and more. Social (and racial) relations in this nation have been constantly changing since the 16th century. In the decades after civil rights, however, these relations between people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds have improved significantly. Despite this fact, one can still argue that there are racist attitudes that continue to exist, especially in social institutions such as our educational system, where researchers have found that non-native ESL students are facing institutional racism mainly based on the concept of language.
Media depictions of institutional language-racism …show more content…
in schools, such as Sarah Tan’s article titled “Report alleges Jefferson Parish schools discriminate against ESL students” convey the hardships and obstacles that some students face in relation to this issue. These stories, however, are incomplete because they do not tell the whole story. These news reporters tend to simplify the issue by removing a lot of important details that add to the case. Also, they tend to be much too general and biased to be considered fully true or even useful to understand. For a more complex understanding of the dilemma, I will later turn to anthropological piece “Will This Hell Never End?: Substantiating and Resisting Race-Language Policies in a Multilingual High School” by researcher Christine Malsbary from the University of Hawaii. I argue that even though racism and discrimination have significantly ‘died out’ in the past decades, they still exist within some of our social institutions, namely the education system of our country, and are aimed at students. Firstly, in order to gain a coherent background understanding of the ways in which some students are discriminated against in the school system, we must turn to the aforementioned news article written by reporter Sarah Tan. In this article, the writer discusses the controversy surrounding the Jefferson Parish public school system in Louisiana. She states that the ESL programs, which are being held in that particular district, are ‘not properly implemented’ and are actually putting non-native students, who are mostly Latino, at a disadvantage. According to the article, “The report supplements a federal civil rights complaint that the Montgomery-based nonprofit filed last August alleging that the district discriminates against Latino students by failing to provide adequate translation and interpretation services to parents with limited English proficiency” (Tan, 2013). In addition to this complaint, others have said that there are not nearly enough ESL teachers in the schools’ programs. Many individuals are also arguing that ESL students are being pulled out of their classes “too early” and are failing as a result. Consequently, the Latino students, along with their families, are protesting against the wrongdoings, stating that the inadequacies of the programs are creating a hostile environment for them (Tan, 2013). From reading this news article, one can establish the fact that institutional racism clearly lives on through certain school districts and systems. As stated in the article, since the majority (Caucasian, American-born citizens) can legally no longer directly hold prejudice and/or discriminate against the minority (in this case Latinos) as they have in the past, they can still find other, less apparent ways of doing so (Tan, 2013). Through the diminished quality of the instruction that has been given to the students, as well as the overall ‘low level’ that many of these school programs possess, it is evident that countless immigrant, bilingual, and/or non-native scholars are suffering in our country. One interesting example of how this article explains the issue regarding the discriminatory school program practices more clearly is shown in the way that it is structured. For instance, Tan lists the types of errors made by the school, as well as past ‘civil rights complaints’ that have been filed in order to give more depth and legal importance to the case. Tan states, “Federal law requires public school systems to provide parents important information in a language they can understand. It also requires that schools not use a students’ citizenship or immigration status as a condition for enrollment or graduation. This is the third civil rights complaint in a little more than a year that the nonprofit has filed against the district. In January 2012, the center accused the district of unfair arrests of black students…” (Tan, 2013).
In addition to these observations, Tan also utilizes quotes and statements from different sources and reports to add to her own credibility on the topic. She takes statistics and other types of data from outside sources such as the Southern Poverty Law Center as well as people who work for the center to give their testimonies on the topic. However, despite some of the rich information and credible data this article conveys about the controversy surrounding the Jefferson Parish ESL program, there is still much to discuss about the motivations and explanation for these occurrences. For this reason, more background information on the subject must be gathered by utilizing a scientifically-driven academic journal article to better understand the causes of these instances. Anthropology and sociology researcher Christine Malsbary, in her analysis of “teachers’ and students’ language policy negotiations”, applies a certain ‘critical race’ theory to her own argument (Malsbary, 2014, p.
373). Critical race theory is a notion that provides critical analyses on the subject of race, racism, and discrimination from a legal perspective. Specifically, she focuses on an ethnographic study that she has conducted at a high school’s ESL program. According to Malsbary, “Results demonstrate how race-language processes create conditions that traumatize immigrant and bilingual youth of color through embodied nativist policies” (Malsbary, 2014, p. 373). There lies evidence in these statements that clearly implies Malsbary is attempting to gain a contextualized view of the issue of language-racism in the way that she relies on her own research to give a formal and truthful background from her personal perspective. She discusses the history of relevant topics such as civil rights, educational policies (e.g the No Child Left Behind act) and the relationship conflicts between race and language, in addition to data gathered from her study, to add historical information and …show more content…
clarity.
Malsbary further explains that she had contributed in participant observation during her ethnographic study at Faulkner High School from 2009 to 2011 (Malsbary, 2014, p. 377). To follow up, she gives additional details, such as her own personal ethnic and social background, the description of the school in which she conducted the observation, and information taken from student and faculty interviews. Additionally, Malsbary discusses the criticisms related to the educational policies at the school through the perspective of the students who attend Faulkner High School (the school in which her study was conducted), concluding with stating how things are changing since the students are now advocating and ‘fighting’ for bilingual racial equality in policy. Unlike the news article that was discussed earlier, this anthropological analysis employs the use of scientific terms such as ‘critical race theory’ in order to attempt to further explain and elaborate on the motivations and underlying causes for this type of institutional racism. Malsbary brings up themes such as ‘white racial consciousness’ (a function of race that states the white race is ‘the norm’) and white supremacy, both of which historically and traditionally denote the notion that the Caucasian race is superior to others, while Tan did not. More importantly, Malsbary deduces her results and collects the data through ethnographic research and individual interviews, which potentially yielded more conclusive information as opposed to Tan.
The anthropological article later goes on to discuss the ways in which Malsbary conducted her ethnographic observation at Faulkner High School. She also conducted “33 open-ended interviews with emergent bilingual students in the 9th to 12th grades” who were enrolled in ESL classes. (Malsbary, 2014, p. 380) Overall, there were three types of interviews that were given. The first type consisted of four key individuals from four different language departments who were chosen to be questioned about factors such as race, language, grade level, and school successes and how GPA measures them. The second group consisted of 15 students in the 1-2 ESL classes, who were asked (as well as observed) about their experiences and their ‘sense of belonging in the school’. The last group that was interviewed involved 20 bilingual students of color. In addition, some faculty and staff were also questioned about school policies.
Finally, what was found through these observations and interviews was the disclosure that many people critiqued the school’s policies that were geared towards certain students, particularly those in the ESL program. Some students displayed anger towards these policies, citing phenomena such as nativist discourse (related to nativism, a term that means the favoring of indigenous inhabitants over immigrants) and Americanization as the motives for the unfairness. As a result, the youths attempted, for a long time, to resist these policies and, as a result, the students, with the help of a supportive teacher, worked together to figure out solutions. Some of these so-called resolutions included approaching the administration about reclassifying the policy questions, creating a focus group aimed at evaluating the experiences of ESL students, and a ‘working group’ created by the schoolteachers who are working to end racial injustice in the district’s schools. There are many notable differences between the two. For instance, Malsbary’s anthropological article offers more of a scientific and academic perspective on the issue of language racism in schools than that of Sarah Tan, who presents an anecdotal argument for her news report. Another noticeable difference is the fact that, while Tan presents more legal and background information on the topic at hand based on information gathered from sources such as witnesses and organizations, Malsbary uses her own research that she obtained from performing her participant observation to gain firsthand experience on the issue. In addition, Malsbary also utilizes different types of interviews (ranging from students to teachers and faculty members) to back up her research. However, both rely on the views of students and their families on the educational policies regarding bilingual policy and ESL. One can see that Malsbary also attempts to convey more of a dramatic and emotionally provocative story to her piece, perhaps to strengthen the reader’s attentiveness and care for the topic. The anthropological piece, unlike the news article, also ends itself on a more hopeful note by listing the different types of solutions that were utilized to show how the problems presented are being addressed. Finally, it is noteworthy to mention that, overall, Malsbary’s anthropological article offers a more scientific and detailed version of the story by presenting legitimate firsthand research and information that the news article had failed to present. I now understand that things such as complexity, context, research, and experimentation through observation are important in aiding to strengthen the reader’s comprehension of a current event, such as the one discussed in this paper. Added complexity is significant because it gives contrast from the simplicity presented in the news article. In addition, it is also vital to give differing context from what is shown in the news. In the anthropological article, the author gives her own perspective based on the research she did in a local high school. This makes her position more credible as well as easier to related to due to the fact that Malsbary’s firsthand experience of the issue makes it seem more dramatic because of the way that the interviewees’ emotions are described when discussing the policies. Finally, research through studies and experimentation, as opposed to information gathered from other individuals and sources, has always been known to be more accurate and irrefutable in its resulting data. Taking information from other people or sources, especially from news resources, may create more of a bias in the outcomes. In conclusion, it is clear that institutional racism, discrimination, and language-racism are issues that are present in today’s schools.
These are issues that have been discussed both in the news, as seen through the writings of a news reporter, and in academic and scientific literature, as seen through the eyes of an anthropological researcher. Nearly all of society’s problems can be viewed more efficiently when read from an anthropological (or sociological) perspective for many reasons. The most significant purpose of looking at an issue through an anthropological viewpoint, however, would be the fact that scientific studies tend to expose much more truth, details, and information about the issue’s causes, effects, context, and prevalence because of what the research and data conveys in contrast to what is shown on the
news.
Works Cited
Malsbary, C. (2014). “Will This Hell Never End?: Substantiating and Resisting Race-Language Policies in a Multilingual High School.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly. Vol. 45(p. 373-390).
Tan, S. (May 1, 2013). “Report alleges Jefferson Parish schools discriminate against ESL students.” The Times-Picayune. Retrieved from http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2013/05/report_alleges_jefferson_paris.html
Media depictions of institutional language-racism …show more content…
in schools, such as Sarah Tan’s article titled “Report alleges Jefferson Parish schools discriminate against ESL students” convey the hardships and obstacles that some students face in relation to this issue. These stories, however, are incomplete because they do not tell the whole story. These news reporters tend to simplify the issue by removing a lot of important details that add to the case. Also, they tend to be much too general and biased to be considered fully true or even useful to understand. For a more complex understanding of the dilemma, I will later turn to anthropological piece “Will This Hell Never End?: Substantiating and Resisting Race-Language Policies in a Multilingual High School” by researcher Christine Malsbary from the University of Hawaii. I argue that even though racism and discrimination have significantly ‘died out’ in the past decades, they still exist within some of our social institutions, namely the education system of our country, and are aimed at students. Firstly, in order to gain a coherent background understanding of the ways in which some students are discriminated against in the school system, we must turn to the aforementioned news article written by reporter Sarah Tan. In this article, the writer discusses the controversy surrounding the Jefferson Parish public school system in Louisiana. She states that the ESL programs, which are being held in that particular district, are ‘not properly implemented’ and are actually putting non-native students, who are mostly Latino, at a disadvantage. According to the article, “The report supplements a federal civil rights complaint that the Montgomery-based nonprofit filed last August alleging that the district discriminates against Latino students by failing to provide adequate translation and interpretation services to parents with limited English proficiency” (Tan, 2013). In addition to this complaint, others have said that there are not nearly enough ESL teachers in the schools’ programs. Many individuals are also arguing that ESL students are being pulled out of their classes “too early” and are failing as a result. Consequently, the Latino students, along with their families, are protesting against the wrongdoings, stating that the inadequacies of the programs are creating a hostile environment for them (Tan, 2013). From reading this news article, one can establish the fact that institutional racism clearly lives on through certain school districts and systems. As stated in the article, since the majority (Caucasian, American-born citizens) can legally no longer directly hold prejudice and/or discriminate against the minority (in this case Latinos) as they have in the past, they can still find other, less apparent ways of doing so (Tan, 2013). Through the diminished quality of the instruction that has been given to the students, as well as the overall ‘low level’ that many of these school programs possess, it is evident that countless immigrant, bilingual, and/or non-native scholars are suffering in our country. One interesting example of how this article explains the issue regarding the discriminatory school program practices more clearly is shown in the way that it is structured. For instance, Tan lists the types of errors made by the school, as well as past ‘civil rights complaints’ that have been filed in order to give more depth and legal importance to the case. Tan states, “Federal law requires public school systems to provide parents important information in a language they can understand. It also requires that schools not use a students’ citizenship or immigration status as a condition for enrollment or graduation. This is the third civil rights complaint in a little more than a year that the nonprofit has filed against the district. In January 2012, the center accused the district of unfair arrests of black students…” (Tan, 2013).
In addition to these observations, Tan also utilizes quotes and statements from different sources and reports to add to her own credibility on the topic. She takes statistics and other types of data from outside sources such as the Southern Poverty Law Center as well as people who work for the center to give their testimonies on the topic. However, despite some of the rich information and credible data this article conveys about the controversy surrounding the Jefferson Parish ESL program, there is still much to discuss about the motivations and explanation for these occurrences. For this reason, more background information on the subject must be gathered by utilizing a scientifically-driven academic journal article to better understand the causes of these instances. Anthropology and sociology researcher Christine Malsbary, in her analysis of “teachers’ and students’ language policy negotiations”, applies a certain ‘critical race’ theory to her own argument (Malsbary, 2014, p.
373). Critical race theory is a notion that provides critical analyses on the subject of race, racism, and discrimination from a legal perspective. Specifically, she focuses on an ethnographic study that she has conducted at a high school’s ESL program. According to Malsbary, “Results demonstrate how race-language processes create conditions that traumatize immigrant and bilingual youth of color through embodied nativist policies” (Malsbary, 2014, p. 373). There lies evidence in these statements that clearly implies Malsbary is attempting to gain a contextualized view of the issue of language-racism in the way that she relies on her own research to give a formal and truthful background from her personal perspective. She discusses the history of relevant topics such as civil rights, educational policies (e.g the No Child Left Behind act) and the relationship conflicts between race and language, in addition to data gathered from her study, to add historical information and …show more content…
clarity.
Malsbary further explains that she had contributed in participant observation during her ethnographic study at Faulkner High School from 2009 to 2011 (Malsbary, 2014, p. 377). To follow up, she gives additional details, such as her own personal ethnic and social background, the description of the school in which she conducted the observation, and information taken from student and faculty interviews. Additionally, Malsbary discusses the criticisms related to the educational policies at the school through the perspective of the students who attend Faulkner High School (the school in which her study was conducted), concluding with stating how things are changing since the students are now advocating and ‘fighting’ for bilingual racial equality in policy. Unlike the news article that was discussed earlier, this anthropological analysis employs the use of scientific terms such as ‘critical race theory’ in order to attempt to further explain and elaborate on the motivations and underlying causes for this type of institutional racism. Malsbary brings up themes such as ‘white racial consciousness’ (a function of race that states the white race is ‘the norm’) and white supremacy, both of which historically and traditionally denote the notion that the Caucasian race is superior to others, while Tan did not. More importantly, Malsbary deduces her results and collects the data through ethnographic research and individual interviews, which potentially yielded more conclusive information as opposed to Tan.
The anthropological article later goes on to discuss the ways in which Malsbary conducted her ethnographic observation at Faulkner High School. She also conducted “33 open-ended interviews with emergent bilingual students in the 9th to 12th grades” who were enrolled in ESL classes. (Malsbary, 2014, p. 380) Overall, there were three types of interviews that were given. The first type consisted of four key individuals from four different language departments who were chosen to be questioned about factors such as race, language, grade level, and school successes and how GPA measures them. The second group consisted of 15 students in the 1-2 ESL classes, who were asked (as well as observed) about their experiences and their ‘sense of belonging in the school’. The last group that was interviewed involved 20 bilingual students of color. In addition, some faculty and staff were also questioned about school policies.
Finally, what was found through these observations and interviews was the disclosure that many people critiqued the school’s policies that were geared towards certain students, particularly those in the ESL program. Some students displayed anger towards these policies, citing phenomena such as nativist discourse (related to nativism, a term that means the favoring of indigenous inhabitants over immigrants) and Americanization as the motives for the unfairness. As a result, the youths attempted, for a long time, to resist these policies and, as a result, the students, with the help of a supportive teacher, worked together to figure out solutions. Some of these so-called resolutions included approaching the administration about reclassifying the policy questions, creating a focus group aimed at evaluating the experiences of ESL students, and a ‘working group’ created by the schoolteachers who are working to end racial injustice in the district’s schools. There are many notable differences between the two. For instance, Malsbary’s anthropological article offers more of a scientific and academic perspective on the issue of language racism in schools than that of Sarah Tan, who presents an anecdotal argument for her news report. Another noticeable difference is the fact that, while Tan presents more legal and background information on the topic at hand based on information gathered from sources such as witnesses and organizations, Malsbary uses her own research that she obtained from performing her participant observation to gain firsthand experience on the issue. In addition, Malsbary also utilizes different types of interviews (ranging from students to teachers and faculty members) to back up her research. However, both rely on the views of students and their families on the educational policies regarding bilingual policy and ESL. One can see that Malsbary also attempts to convey more of a dramatic and emotionally provocative story to her piece, perhaps to strengthen the reader’s attentiveness and care for the topic. The anthropological piece, unlike the news article, also ends itself on a more hopeful note by listing the different types of solutions that were utilized to show how the problems presented are being addressed. Finally, it is noteworthy to mention that, overall, Malsbary’s anthropological article offers a more scientific and detailed version of the story by presenting legitimate firsthand research and information that the news article had failed to present. I now understand that things such as complexity, context, research, and experimentation through observation are important in aiding to strengthen the reader’s comprehension of a current event, such as the one discussed in this paper. Added complexity is significant because it gives contrast from the simplicity presented in the news article. In addition, it is also vital to give differing context from what is shown in the news. In the anthropological article, the author gives her own perspective based on the research she did in a local high school. This makes her position more credible as well as easier to related to due to the fact that Malsbary’s firsthand experience of the issue makes it seem more dramatic because of the way that the interviewees’ emotions are described when discussing the policies. Finally, research through studies and experimentation, as opposed to information gathered from other individuals and sources, has always been known to be more accurate and irrefutable in its resulting data. Taking information from other people or sources, especially from news resources, may create more of a bias in the outcomes. In conclusion, it is clear that institutional racism, discrimination, and language-racism are issues that are present in today’s schools.
These are issues that have been discussed both in the news, as seen through the writings of a news reporter, and in academic and scientific literature, as seen through the eyes of an anthropological researcher. Nearly all of society’s problems can be viewed more efficiently when read from an anthropological (or sociological) perspective for many reasons. The most significant purpose of looking at an issue through an anthropological viewpoint, however, would be the fact that scientific studies tend to expose much more truth, details, and information about the issue’s causes, effects, context, and prevalence because of what the research and data conveys in contrast to what is shown on the
news.
Works Cited
Malsbary, C. (2014). “Will This Hell Never End?: Substantiating and Resisting Race-Language Policies in a Multilingual High School.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly. Vol. 45(p. 373-390).
Tan, S. (May 1, 2013). “Report alleges Jefferson Parish schools discriminate against ESL students.” The Times-Picayune. Retrieved from http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2013/05/report_alleges_jefferson_paris.html