BLUE ZONE COMMUNITY SALONS
SALON #1 DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN EDUCATION
My grand daughter is taking this class at the University of California San Diego and sent a text asking for my responses to a survey being discussed in her college class. I bet this survey would make great material for our first Community Salon.
Here are the 6 survey questions.
Please use two (or more) sentences to answer each of the following questions. There are no “correct” answers and survey/interview data will be kept anonymous. Please respond on or before Sunday 2/6/2022. Thank you!
1) When you hear the word minority, what immediately comes to mind? What images does this word conjure in your mind?
2) Can you think of where you learned about the concept of minority?
3) Do you think you have the same understandings of ‘minority’ as you did 3 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, etc.? If not, why do you think your understandings have changed over time?
4) When you hear the word immigration, what immediately comes to mind? What images does this word conjure in your mind?
5) What are your thoughts about immigration (globally, not necessarily specific to the United States)? Are there both pros and cons?
6) Can you think of where you learned about immigration? Have your understandings changed over time?
Actually survey question 6 continued to echo in my thinking after I sent my responses to my grand daughter for her class. I now realize that my view of immigration has changed and I've begun writing that response at the bottom of this blog.
Here are my responses sent February 5, 2022
1) When you hear the word minority, what immediately comes to mind? What images does this word conjure in your mind?
I immediately think of my school years (grades 5-12) in Highland Park, California where I often heard in school the term "melting pot" that we were an inclusive mix of unique people from many different places. My close friends were Chinese American, Hispanic or Mexican American, Indonesian American, Japanese American and anglo American. We didn't use the words minority or immigration. I think it was because we felt connected.
2) Can you think of where you learned about the concept of minority?
I grew up in a culturally mixed neighborhood in a little town in Colorado. Living there until I was 10 years old. When I was about 7 years old, I came home covered in dust after playing with neighborhood kids a few blocks away. An older brother of one of my playmates tossed a rope around me and dragged me around in the dirt. I wasn't hurt but was perplexed. I didn't understand the boy's behavior. When I arrived home my Uncle David asked why I was so dirty. After I explained, he walked me out the door saying: "Show me who did this."
David confronted the boy, they were the same age. I heard the boy use the word "Jap" unaware that I was half Japanese American, half Hispanic American. I found out years later that our little town had lost quite a few sons to the War in the Pacific during World War II. David's oldest brother my Uncle Nick, a Marine, had died on Saipan. So over time I came to understand Japanese Americans as an American minority.
3) Do you think you have the same understandings of ‘minority’ as you did 3 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, etc.? If not, why do you think your understandings have changed over time?
My understanding of the term minority has remained the same over the time period under consideration.
4) When you hear the word immigration, A. what immediately comes to mind? B. What images does this word conjure in your mind?
A. Immediately I think of Temecula residents protesting by blocking buses carrying immigrants to a detention center in Riverside.
B. As a career teacher, the word immigrant conjures up images of honest parents, holding down two or three jobs, working hard to help their children finish school to become doctors, own businesses and become contributing citizens.
5) What are your thoughts about immigration (globally, not necessarily specific to the United States)? Are there both pros and cons?
If other countries benefit from immigration the way the U.S. does, then immigration is a win/win globally. It gives us an intellectual edge as immigrants bring innovative ideas, they also contribute an economic edge bringing a hard working entrepreneurial spirit.
6) A. Can you think of where you learned about immigration? B. Have your understandings changed over time?
A. In college. B. No. My view of immigration has remained constant.
Friday February 11, 2022
6) A. Can you think of where you learned about immigration? B. Have your understandings changed over time?
6A.
6B. My view of immigration has remained constant over time with one exception.
If other countries benefit from immigration the way the U.S. does, then immigration is a win/win globally. It gives us an intellectual edge as immigrants bring innovative ideas, they also contribute an economic edge bringing a hard working entrepreneurial spirit.
The exception.
While I see that immigration has been a win for the United States today. It should be pointed out that open immigration was a disaster for Mexico beginning prior to 1850 when an open policy existed for immigrants from the United States moving into Mexico.
Becoming part of the United States. https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/mexican/becoming-part-of-the-united-states/
There is a saying in my Manzanares family: "We didn't come to the United States, the United States came to us." This 1830's map from the Library of Congress illustrates the U.S. border about 75 miles north of our families home in Monte Vista, Colorado. It should be noted that the first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, was 1607. Our family was here before the first English settlement was established.
In 1848, our Manzanares family became instant U.S. citizens. We didn't apply. But here we are.
Land Losses suffered by Mexican American citizens after 1850. An open immigration policy for Anglo Americans immigrating south to Mexico proved to be a disaster for the Mexicans living in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, California.
Land Loss in Trying Times
Under the treaty that ended the Mexican War, most of the Mexicans who lived in the new United States territories became U.S. citizens. The treaty also guaranteed their safety and property rights, "as if the [property] belonged to citizens of the U.S. according to the principles of the Constitution." In practice, however, the new territories were far from the centers of U.S. government, and these guarantees were not reliably enforced. By the end of the 19th century, many Mexican Americans had been deprived of their land, and found themselves living unprotected in an often hostile region.
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/mexican/land-loss-in-trying-times/
A Forgotten Kingdom: The Spanish Frontier in Colorado and New Mexico, 1540-1821 https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/blm/ut/29/chap1.htm
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