Whiteness Reflection Paper

the research process and discovery, once again I had to examine my own Whiteness and how this has led me to operate in areas similarly to what the White female teachers described. For example, colorblindness, whether intentional or unintentional this is something that came up during the interviews and as I was listening to each of the participants share their stories, I realized that I had been guilty of practicing colorblindness with Black students. Additionally, the whole White privilege concept of feeling like you are there to save these Black students from themselves is something I have found that I have done with my Black students.
There have been times while writing this thesis that I have felt uncomfortable with the content and really had to go beyond my scope of my own beliefs and perceptions and accept the fact that Whiteness truly exists and is causing issues of mistrust in classrooms between White female teachers and Black students. The term Whiteness was not new to me, I had heard it before, and however, I was never forced to examine this within myself. Up until this research was conducted, I did not feel that I was involved in any of this type of behavior. What we fail to realize as White people is that we are involved in it whether we want to be or not because of the color of our skin and the fact that research suggests that we are considered to be the …show more content…
The primary way of thought of the participants in this study in regards to the Black-White achievement gap is deficit thinking. This type of thinking suggests that the reason Black students underachieve in school is for reasons such as, self-sabotage, crime and drug abuse, or lack of parental support and evolvement. The findings in my study support this concept of deficit thinking. All three of my participants discussed the reasons they believe the Black-White achievement gap exists and continues to