Talking Points #3: "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community"

Dennis Carlson

Argument:
Carlson argues that public schools play an important part in building a tolerance, dialogue, and "gay" identification in a diverse democratic multicultural community. Schools must play a part in breaking the silence on gayness and creating a dialogue so that gay teachers and students are not marginalized from the "Normalizing Community."


Quotes:


1. "Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.c., white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represented as 'normal' while other individuals and subjects positions (i.e. black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are dis-empowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking, in intelligence, and in other ways 'abnormal'."

This idea seems to be connected with Delpit's idea of the "culture of power." Just as Delpit talks about the privileges of those in the culture of power Calrson talks about the privileges of those in the "normalizing community." It seems that these ideologies are one and the same. It shows that people who are straight, christian, white, able bodied, american, male, property owners (SCWAAMP) are considered "normal" or ideal while those who do not fall in these categories are "not normal."


2. "To the extent that gayness is recognized in the curriculum, it is likely to be in the health curriculum, where it is associated with disease. For example, one of the most popular health texts on the high school market is Health: A Guide to Wellness, which mentions homosexuals or homosexuality once in acknowledging that 'the first group in the United States diagnosed with AIDS were male homosexuals'."


This quote was speaking in regards to the texts in public school curriculum. Carlson explains that gayness is not represented in any public school texts except in this instance in which gayness is associated with a disease. I found this fact shocking. I can't even believe that a group of people are completely marginalized in association with a disease. This just goes to show how society or "normalizing community" views gayness.


3. "we have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to 'come out' and find their own voices."


This is the problem that schools face today. In order to reduce the stigma of minority groups we must first acknowledge them and create a dialogue because if we simply ignore differences we contribute to their oppression.


Questions/ Comments/ Points to share:


This was an interesting article to read. I found some parts difficult to get through because of the dialogue used by Carlson but I think I got his overall ideas. The article reminded me of Delpit in connection with the "culture of power" which Carlson refers to as the "Normalizing Community." Just as Delpit defines the "culture of power" the ideal, privileged, normal, part of society and those outside the "culture of power" deviant, unideal, abnormal part of society. Carlson defines the "Normalizing Community" in the same way. He goes on to show how homosexuality and homosexuals are deemed deviant, undesirable, abnormal parts of society. I agree with Carlson because I have witnessed this in my own experiences in high school. Gayness was just something you didn't talk about in school because of the stigma attached to the words. It was as if just by saying the word gay promoted unwanted, deviant, sickness, and disease. I think that Carlson has a point about creating a dialogue just as Johnson suggests. In order to alleviate these feeling we must create a dialogue so that homosexuals become less marginalized and more comfortable with themselves in school as well as the community.