This is a very troubling concept and reminded me of the film Freedom Writers. First off, I'd like to point out that the movie itself has its own flaws because it plays on the idea of the white savoir complex, but this data and analysis reminded me of one scene in particular.

In one scene in the film, Hillary Swank's character goes to ask the principal and some of the other teachers where she can get new books for her students who are black, Asian, Hispanic, etc. The teacher's say they can't have the new books because they will just ruin them and not have respect for the school's property. In another scene, one of the honors teachers says that the students do not want to learn, that they cannot learn and you cannot force someone to want an education. This misconception that students don't want to learn because they are not learning in the same way the white teachers did is wrong. They are not taking into consideration all of the experiences students may have had or are going through and what that means in regards to their learning styles and how they absorb information.

I think that telling a student or another person that a student cannot learn because they are not ready for a middle-class white teacher's version of teaching is extremely harmful. It places students in the mindset that their teachers already think they are failures so why try. It just further perpetuates the ideas of racial microaggression and inequality in the schools.

In many of my high school history textbooks the discussion on slavery was "it happened, it was bad, it's over," but the fact is that it isn't over, it's just produced in a different way now. No country wants to look like the bad guy in a given situation, so often times they think a short handed apology will solve the problems and they can move on. Acknowledge it happened, and that's good enough is how they see it. However, they fail to really reach deeper and make connections to today's society and how the past affects the present and the future. I understand the skepticism on if the promised land can even exist because America still hasn't taken full responsibility for the history of the nation, the history the nation is built on. There is no yearning to explore deeper meaning and deep emotion surrounding slavery, and thus there is no desire to teach about how it impacted the society we live in and how it is still present in society today.

This comment makes me think of my own experience during my senior year of high school. One of my friends, although joking, said "oh you'll be fine getting into a good college, you're Asian, a girl, and from Maine." This definitely made me wonder if I had had to work as hard to get where I was or if I had been given things due to my identifying traits.

This also reminds me of the school scandals and when Asain-American students sued Harvard over affirmative action last year. I didn't follow the case too closely, but I wonder how this trial affected how students viewed affirmative action, especially how white students viewed the case and what happened afterwards considering the thoughts of classmates Bailey describes.

The idea of fluidity and shifting in the way categories shift reminds me of ideas brought up in my Intro Women's Studies course. In talking about the patriarchy, we discussed that one must look at the multiple categories people fit into within a larger, baseline category to see how some who are oppressed or minority groups can still benefit from larger systems in relation to others in one of their shared groups; For example, a straight black man will benefit from the patriarchy as a straight man, but will face oppression for being black. However, there is still male privilege because a straight black woman may be oppressed for her gender identity and her race.

This goes back to the intersectionality we discussed with the Nash reading as well. Getting into further levels of identity will show how a person can be a part of a marginalized group of people but not share the same experiences because of individuality as Ames pointed out in class, and also because of the many identity groups one may identify with. As we discussed in my Intro Women's Studies class, men generally benefit from the patriarchy but not all men have gained equally from it.

In this case, Billings is stating that although part of a marginalized group, she still benefits more than someone else may in a marginalized group because she has the social position of being highly educated and English speaking.

• Sophie W.

On page 4, the section that begins with "The mother of the Puetro Rican child..."particulary stood out to me as an adoptee myself. I found that my parents did this, reading all they could about Chinese adoptees, and reaching out to other parents. They tried to find the most information they could about the subject and flooded my sister and I with different articles, resources, Asian media, etc. as we grew older.

This was intriguing to me because I think in this "Getting Ready" stage we have to understand that even when we try to find information about a certain group of people, not everyone in the group has the same experiences.

Being someone who has experienced this from the point of view of the child in the situation given in this reading, I think although it is important to educate yourself on different minority/marginalized groups of people, there also must be an understanding that not all experiences are the same. As the person in the group, there also must be an understanding that there is good intent though.

In my experience, I didn't relate fully with everything my parents would share on adoption or Chinese culture, and often felt a bit of "imposter syndrome," feeling as though I did not know enough to be considered a "true Asian," but also wondering if I indeed did fit in more with the white kids around me. My parents and those around me went through the getting ready and reaching out stages, but without fully understanding how my experiences with Asian culture or adoptee culture may be different from those they were reading about, sharing with me, or asking me about.

I think that Harro makes good points about educating and seeking out exposure, however I think we need to think about this through an intersectional lens, and through the understanding not all people in a specific marginalized group have the same exposure/experiences.