Made In America Chapter 5

• "For not to be able to define one's race is not really to exist on the social map of the non-newcomers."
• As a member of the "white, privileged" group, statements like these are not easy to hear.  It is hard to me to understand how much race defines other people's identities and the struggle they go through to form those identities because my race is, at least in my mind, so far from my identity.  I don't see myself as a race.  How does this "social map" play out in the classroom?  Does it hurt the student's learning when they stick with people they know and feel comfortable around?  Do the racial divides promote student learning because it creates a comfortable learning environment or does it hinder student learning (specifically in regards to learning English as a Second Language).
• "acts white"
• This is something that I've heard frequently in both my own experiences in middle/high school and during my observations at Von Steuben Middle School.  Many of the ESL students that identify with the Latino group discuss fellow classmates who do not identify with the Latino group as "acting white."  These students still talk in Spanish in class and have the same difficulties with learning English, yet they have a different presentation - they dress differently, behave differently, aren't as outspoken, and typically keep together with the few other students who "act white".  It's interesting to see the different behavioral values that are associated with each group and how those stereotypes play out when working with the students one-on-one and in group settings. 
• "Several teachers spoke about how it was divisive to 'make education an ethnic, political thing" (114).
• I was kind of shocked when I read this.  Even with my limited experience in the classroom, and my failure to notice my own race, I still see how racially and politically charged the classrooms are.  There is so much tension between what can and cannot be discussed because of those racial and political issues that fuel our education system and determine what is appropriate or not.  In Von Steuben, it is particularly easy to see that the ESL students feel separated and othered from their non-ESL peers because of how racially divided and motivated the school is.  I think that it is almost inevitable that when a group of people divide and separate themselves, that one or a few groups be favored.  It's not right, but you see it all the time in school and work settings.  It's ludicrous that these teachers failed to see that.  The students weren't making is "an ethnic, political thing" by walking out, they were responding to "an ethnic political thing".