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Encouraging Student Voices:
 Conversations about Race and Interracial Relationships

 MaryAnn Matthews
Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University
U. S. A.

Endnote
References

When we began developing the Tangled Roots project,1 one of our goals was to contribute to the conversation about race in America. We were particularly interested in providing information that would be useful to secondary school teachers for they are often leaders in conversations about racial identity and interracial relationships.  They daily deal with high school students who encounter ideas about interracial relationships in both academic and social arenas. Some conversations about interracial relationships develop when high school students study American history, especially the history of the nineteenth century in America, a period when both slavery and immigration challenged American ideals about racial equality. Other conversations about race grow when students read American literature, especially the writers of the 20^th century. Beyond the classroom, many students socialize with and date students of other racial and ethnic backgrounds, sometimes maintaining these relationships without their parents’ awareness or approval. All of these experiences create an opportunity and a need for classroom conversation about racial relationships. [paragraph 1]

Creating meaningful discussion about interracial relationships challenges us, as educators, to open up a conversation that will encourage participation from as many class members as possible.  Many of us have had the experience of watching a few students dominate a discussion while others choose to remain silent. We know from our experience and the research of other educators that some students may choose not to participate in class discussion for many reasons including their personal discomfort, a sense that their views, if negative, will be unacceptable, and a belief that the discussion has little to do with their life experience. Students of Western European descent, even when their heritage is of mixed nationalities, may feel marginalized in such discussion either because they are perceived by classmates to be people of privilege or because they view themselves as under siege from other ethnic groups. African American students may be reluctant to acknowledge their mixed ethnic heritage because the history of slave breeding has been associated with African Americans' racial history. [paragraph 2]

We have found that many students are not aware that interracial relationships have been a part of American society for centuries, not decades. They do not know that some African Americans and Irish and German immigrants lived and worked together and were married to each other in New York City a century ago. They do not know that many relationships between African American and white men and women were freely chosen among people in the same circumstances. Their short view limits their thinking to their personal experience. How can we broaden their knowledge and support a fuller conversation?  We found the two following approaches were useful when we worked with teachers and students: 

We used our work focusing on two specific groups of Americans, African and Irish, to successfully open up conversation about race and interracial relationships. [paragraph 3]

Introducing students to some of the 19^th century history places European immigrants next to African Americans in the conversation. The history demonstrates to students that in both positive and negative ways people of different races and ethnic backgrounds have a shared history in America. Using examples from the 19^th century can encourage students to consider how much society influences the attitudes of parents and other authority figures about interracial relationships. Knowing more about the history also prompts students to consider what changes in attitude they can note and what persists into their lives. [paragraph 4]

From nineteenth-century history, political cartoons offer students a graphic demonstration of society’s attitudes and influence. Perhaps the best known example of this kind of cartoon is “The Ignorant Vote” (Nast, 1876).  Students respond quickly to the caricatures of each racial type and are surprised to see that immigrants and freed slaves were labeled as equally ignorant voters. Another less known woodcutting is called “The Results of Abolitionism” (1835) which warns various white ethnic groups that abolishing slavery will threaten their jobs and position as bosses. Students can consider what message immigrants and others were given and how that might have influenced families’ attitudes. They can consider whether their families are hearing a similar message today. Do they believe that immigrants are taking away their parents' job opportunities? Does this influence how their parents feel about other groups? [paragraph 5]

While these cartoons portray a negative view of cross-racial relationships, students can also consider what was happening in the daily lives of immigrants and African Americans during the same time period when the cartoons were published. They can look at two particular examples from New York City: Seneca Village and the Five Points District (Tangled Roots).  Both were multiethnic communities where interracial relationships existed.  The Five Points was a disreputable slum to outsiders but it was a vibrant working-class neighborhood.  Students can consider how shared economic status influenced interracial relationships in these neighborhoods. They can ask themselves if they see a similar pattern in their own neighborhoods. Are attitudes about interracial relationships influenced by where they live and what jobs their parents have?  Students can also learn that some of the Irish who lived in the Five Points District did not participate in the infamous Civil War Draft Riots, when Irish mobs attacked African Americans and the Colored Children's Orphanage. What can they learn about cross-racial friendships from this information? [paragraph 6]

Rediscovering nineteenth-century history of interracial relationships can broaden the way students consider their own experiences. For students who are the descendants of early immigrants it can give them a new way to think about their own place in the conversation and can raise questions about how they decide who is of what race and ethnicity. It can also, inevitably, lead students to say, “So what?," as students often do respond to historical information that they view as remote from their present lives. One way to answer the "so what" question is to introduce students to the descendants of these nineteenth-century Americans and to Americans who immigrated in the twentieth century. The stories these people tell let students hear from others like themselves who are trying to figure out cross-racial relationships in their daily lives. In our work, we spoke with Irish and African Americans and asked them to tell us how they learned about other ethnic groups (Gilder Lehrman Center: Document Collection).  Did their families give them information? Did they tell them who to avoid or who to live near? How did they learn about being accepted in America? The questions we asked can be used as models to learn more about any ethnic group’s experience. The stories we gathered can prompt students to comment more fully in their own discussions. [paragraph 7]

Students may recognize themselves or others they know in some of the stories we gathered and published in the Tangle Roots website. Have they been told or learned to "stay with your own," as Peg Corcoran said she had learned to do?  Peg said that she worked with all kinds of people but socialized with others like herself and she said that her husband did the same. In another interview with several religious brothers who grew up in the 1930s and 40s, all said that they had not been aware of prejudice in their neighborhoods. Do students think that it is possible today to be ignorant of prejudice? Do some students have no experience or awareness of interracial relationships?  The brothers also said that in their training for the religious life, they had not been taught about prejudice or why it was wrong. What do students learn today from their religious leaders? Do their religious leaders encourage them to form cross-racial friendships?   Some students may identify with what Harry Payne said about the lessons he learned growing up, which were to avoid problems, not mingle and keep his word. Harry’s father also told him to give people who looked like problems ten steps and to carry something strong with him. Again, students can consider whether people they know continue to protect themselves as Harry did. How are they affected if they are looking to identify and avoid people they think might be problems? What does a problem person look like? [paragraph 8]

In several of the interviews, students can read stories told by people of mixed racial heritage. In one conversation, James McGowan, an African and Irish American, talks about his happy childhood in a salad bowl of diverse groups and then the moment when he first realized that his Dad’s light color gave him more social freedom than to his son.  It happened outside of a New Jersey diner. Do students think that the children born of interracial relationships encounter unusual problems? In all of the conversations with African Americans who are of shared ethnic heritage, they identifies themselves as Blacks. James McGowan, for example, has begun to trace his Irish roots but still calls himself a Black American. These conversations can open up students to the question of how much skin color affects attitudes toward interracial relationships. Do they think color is the most important issue for themselves and those they know? Do they think that America is less color conscious than it was in previous centuries? [paragraph 9]

Using this material with students may raise more questions in their minds than a teacher can answer within the limits of a class discussion by providing common ground for a rich and full conversation that can encourage students to place their views and experiences in a larger context.  It can help them understand that what they have experienced or heard from family and friends is not all they need to know. Most importantly, the material provides teachers with useful resources for opening up conversation to many different students. For students who want to know more about interracial and cross-racial friendships, a teacher can suggests two very interesting texts.  All Souls,  Michael MacDonald’s (1999) autobiography, talks about growing up poor, white and Irish in South Boston.  He tells how his family viewed interracial relationships and traces his slow awakening to an understanding of what he and urban blacks had in common. He examines the effects of being taught myths of Irish superiority and hatred for blacks. Farai Chideya’s (1999) The Color of Our Future tells the stories of young people--white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and native peoples--and their shared racial relationships. [paragraph 10]

Endnote

1. The Tangled Roots Research Project considers the shared history of African Americans and Irish Americans and has developed a web site of primary documents and related materials.

References

Chideya, Farai. (1999) Color of our Future. New York: William Morrow.

Gilder Lehrman Center: Document Collection (n. d.). [Online]. Available: http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/index.html.

MacDonald, Michael P. (1999) All Souls. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Nast, Thomas (1876, December 9). The Ignorant Vote—Honors are Easy (Cartoon), Harper's Weekly, 20 (1041). [Online]. Available: http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/index.html.

The Results of Abolitionism (Cartoon). 1835. Philadelphia, PA: Library Company of Philadelphia. [Online]. Available: http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/index.html.

Tangled Roots (n. d.). [Online]. Available: http://www.yale.edu/glc/tangledroots/tr08.htm.

MaryAnn Matthews, Research Affiliate at Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study 
of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University, developed the Tangled Roots website. She has presented workshops to regional and national conferences of the National Association of Multicultural Education, school districts, Social Studies conferences, and universities. (She can be reached at mam14@aol.com.)