 |
| "I propose the “modern nerd” or intellectual whose skin might suggest an immigrant history but is nonetheless equally American, dark skin, was raised in urban settings, whom might speak more than one language, and who might even sport tattoos if they so desire" |
Disidentification
is a term used in psychology which refers to a person’s conscious decision that
something is not important to them, so as not to have high goals for themselves
or as a mechanism to avoid failure and rejection. Academic Disidentification is
common among Latin Americans and African American communities. Academic Disidentification
is the failure to hold significance to academia and higher education, or to
willingly dismiss academia and higher education as something that cannot be
achieved, is not appealing, nor is required for a person of their background,
social group, or ethnic group.
Growing
up in a mostly Mexican immigrant and Mexican American community higher
education was not expected or required. Of course immigrant parents esteemed
higher education for their children but because of their lack of experience and
knowledge of the process it was easily dismissed if their child did not pursue
college. In the media it is often portrayed where in white families the child
was expected and required to go to college and be a competitive student so that they may be
accepted to the university their parents desired. I had never come across that
pressure or expectancy within a Hispanic family, at least in my experience,
much less in the media.
In my
eyes college was only for the super smart people who got straight A’s, spent
many hours doing their homework, and had super strict parents that did not let their
children have a social life. When I would be introduced to Latinos with a
college education I disidentified with them because I saw them as not having Latino
pride and assimilating to more “white” American culture. That began my academic
Disidentification process until I started working as a pharmacy tech and met
many people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds that taught me that
the average student or even below average student could also succeed in college.
I also learned that education was not the only influence to ethnic identification
because I later met other Latino professionals who embraced their Latino roots, their culture, and maintained their humility
Disidentification
can be influenced by bad experience in schools which cause low self-esteem and
convince students that they are not good enough when the problem can many times
be many different factors whether it is home life or the school system.
Academic disidentification can also be influenced by popular culture. How many
hip hop songs talk about the successful black college graduate or the
professional person of color? Not many. Because minorities can use the media
and urban culture to create their self-image it is important that education is
advocated and regarded as attractive and appealing accomplishment in life.
Stereotypes
today can also help minorities reaffirm academic Disidentification. A very
popular show named Big Bang Theory is
a show of several scientists or “nerds” who are very intelligent portrayed by
white characters. Of course they do stereotype the blond as the ditsy
attractive woman but the characters ethnic origins and appearance I believe is
creating ethnic roles in which it is not expected or usually portrayed in the
media for people of color to have such high and scientific academic
accomplishments or education.
I propose the “modern nerd” or intellectual whose skin might suggest an
immigrant history but is nonetheless equally American, dark skin, was raised in
urban settings, whom might speak more than one language, and who might even
sport tattoos if they so desire. We already have a head start with the dark
rimmed glasses that are a huge fad currently (refer to picture). There is much
research on gender roles and how many people confirm to the gender roles that
are expected of that gender, I hope that that may not be true of minorities and
the roles that are expected of them intellectually or professionally. We need
to teach students that college is not only for perfect students. In fact, in my
case many of the top students whom I graduated with did not continue to pursue
higher education, while I who have had average grade point average took the
courage to do so. Let’s change the social view of a nerd to include people of
descent from Mexico, South America, Central Americans, Blacks, African Americans
(Americans whose parents are recent African immigrants is what I mean by this
term), and any person of color.
No comments:
Post a Comment