When it comes to the topic of race and racism, we are presented with multiple different normative narratives which often oppress peoples of colour. Racism is something that can be challenging to discuss, with a main reason being that there exists “an emotional attachment to commonsense opinions that protect (rather than expand) our worldviews” (Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2017, p. 120). In general, people tend to not realize the reality behind their assumptions made towards different races. They come to know certain actions and behaviours as the norm without any hesitation involving how problematic they can truly be. A normative narrative that I found to be evident throughout many stories was that peoples of colour are not treated equally because of their skin colour and there are often false assumptions made about them by the “dominant” white society in which they are grouped together and all seen as possessing the same behaviours. This type of normative narrative has origins from individual behaviour of the past that have led to the formation of certain stereotypes involving the groups as a whole.

i) Normative narratives

In Tadyn’s story she describes a point in time where she overheard assumptions being made regarding her uncle because he was Indigenous. As she chats amongst her classmates she can overhear her teacher talking with other students and soon realizes that they are talking poorly of her uncle. She becomes filled with so many emotions when she begins to analyze the situation thoroughly. People seem to categorize others by their skin colour because they assume they are all the same, as seen when Tadyn overhears the comment from her teacher, “he is just another one of those kids who isn’t going anywhere in life like the rest of them.” Peoples of colour are often collectively grouped and shaped by “having individual behaviours redefined as group norms” (Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2017, p. 135-136). When Tadyn talks about her teacher in reference to her uncle, she mentions that “he had never been his teacher let alone ever had an interaction with him,” I noticed that this exemplified the normative narrative being that the teacher had made assumptions that her uncle was going to fail in life, but was also referring to all Indigenous people not succeeding in general. Within this story, it is clear that the teacher is reproducing this stereotypical idea that all Indigenous people are failures and even though he doesn’t state it directly, he is also insinuating that white people are superior, being that I am assuming he is white and that he is talking to white students.

In Janaya’s story we once again see a time where peoples of colour are not treated fairly due to the generation of false assumptions. She is also faced with a situation where her white teacher does not consider all aspects of the situation and quickly jumps to conclusions. In this class game of bench ball, students are split up into teams and begin to play until Janaya and one of her friends are faced with an interesting comment from their teacher. He laughs and begins talking about the girls not playing at the back and even makes the comment that “they are going to be the last ones standing which just ends the game.” Janaya was confused until she noticed that the girls had a different skin colour than her. The teacher automatically assumed that the girls of colour standing at the back are not doing well in the game because of their race. Janaya mentions that the teacher kept repeating the phrase “everyone should be participating,” as if he was aiming his statement at the girls with a different colour of skin at the back. He seemed to be assuming that the girls were just not trying or were bad at the game because of their skin colour. We later see that the truth was that the girls simply did not understand the game. When Janaya mentioned that “because they were struggling with their English, people found it easier to let them be confused rather than explaining it to them,” she is referring to the white teacher or other white students not doing anything to help them. She is met with the realization that “they don’t get treated the same way as most people in the class.” The students of colour were not being treated fairly by neither the white teacher or the white students “ because they’ve never known what it means to embrace a person of colour as a true equal, with thoughts and feelings that are as valid as their own” (Eddo-Lodge, 2017).

These both relate to my story being that the central idea of mine was that white people see themselves as dominant and begin to make these assumptions about peoples of colour without knowing their full story. I talk about how the white players on my volleyball team were making the assumption that the Punnichy team was bad at the sport because a majority of them were Indigenous, which was before we even got to see them play. In both Tadyn and Janaya’s stories they are the ones watching others reproduce this normative narrative, similar to how I was also the one witnessing other white people using their privilege without thinking about the consequences. We can also see that in Janaya’s story she ends up finding the truth behind the assumptions being made, similarly to how it was revealed to me in the end that the Punnichy team was not bad at the sport and that they were very kind people, despite the comments that my teammates were making. I am able to relate to both these stories in the way that I have also been faced with a comment involving race where I was unsure of how to act, just as I was in my story. I also noticed that all of our stories end by disrupting or wanting to put an end to the form of racism which was present in the story. Even if it was not intended, each of these stories seem to all come back to the thought process that comes with situations like this. We each found ourselves deeply thinking about what was going on at the time, such as when Janaya said “I wasn’t sure what he was trying to get at” when the teacher was commenting on the girls who had a different colour of skin. These stories all display how this normative narrative is produced, being through the sharing of ideas or opinions with others that follow the “norm” of society.

ii) Creating counter-stories: Disrupting normative narratives 

In Noelle’s story we see a different aspect of the topic on race where she explains about a time where a majority of her classmates were peoples of colour. She seemed initially shocked to see this different setting as she walked into her new classroom since she was used to being surrounded by people having the same skin colour as her, that being white, but this time was different. We can still see the separation of the different skin colours in the beginning as the result of the students initially having a choice of where and who to sit with, but once they are split into their groups by the instructor, we see that the groups were random and not based on their race. Noelle ended up in a group with a girl that she noticed had a different colour of skin than her who was wearing a dress and had a long braid in her hair. The other students in Noelle’s group didn’t participate in the group work, leaving Noelle and the girl the opportunity to get to know each other. This experience that Noelle had creates more of a positive outlook on race as seen when she says “she seemed to talk a lot about her family back home which I thought was interesting and she discussed how her culture didn’t compare to ours and how different it was.” Noelle chose to listen and start a conversation with the girl rather than behaving as the “norm” would insist such as making assumptions about her or ignoring her. 

When considering the other three stories compared to this one, we can see that Noelle’s story does not involve any type of intended racial grouping or assumptions, whereas the other three each contained moments where assumptions were being made because of their skin colour. It is clear that within the other three stories, the voices of the peoples of colour were being silenced. They were not even given the opportunity to share their opinions or reflect on what was being said about them, mainly because they were not directly faced with the comments. This was not the case in Noelle’s story because she allowed the girl to share her story before making any comments of assumptions simply based on the colour of her skin. When it comes to the age groups of people involved in the stories, it is significant that Tadyn and Janaya have experiences where their teachers were the ones making the assumptions about the peoples of colour, but in Noelle’s story she was the one going against the norms. With the idea of oppression when it comes to racism, “we have a deep interest in denying those forms of oppression which benefit us” (Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2017, p. 120). This can be seen within Janaya’s story where the teacher just chooses to not help the students understand the game to make it easier for him and in my story, where my teammates make these comments to make them feel better about the outcome of our game. When you compare this to Noelle’s story, we see that she did not oppress the girl with a different skin colour meaning she did not directly choose to benefit herself. She could have easily chosen to not speak to the girl but when she did she ended up with a new friend.

This type of normative narrative is all about the assumptions of white people towards peoples of colour. The topic of race and racism is important to discuss in order to disrupt a variety of normative narratives associated with it. Certain stories may attempt to disrupt these normative narratives by educating people on the topic to allow us to move away from these ideas that are considered “normal.” I chose to reflect on this specific normative narrative being that it is one that I see to be common from my experiences. Within the course text there is the reminder that “putting our effort into protecting rather than expanding our current worldview prevents our intellectual and emotional growth” (Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2017, p. 120). This is a very important idea in my opinion being that we want our society to grow as a whole. There are so many people who refuse to change their behaviour regarding white privilege and racism because they are stuck with ideas of the past and lack proper knowledge when it comes to this topic. In Noelle’s story we can see this effort that she makes in expanding rather than protecting, being that she chose to learn about the girl with a different skin colour rather than to make assumptions about her. She had a quick realization of the diversity that was present in the classroom, but this didn’t bother her. Noelle was able to see past the physical differences of their skin colour and become friends with the girl by getting to know who she truly is, rather than simply judging her based off of the colour of her skin.

References:

Kutas, B. (2021). Writing the Self 2: Diversity on the Court. https://edusites.uregina.ca/briannakutas/2021/02/08/writing-the-self-2-diversity-on-the-court/

Dyck, N. (2021). Where do I sit? https://noelleseportfolio.wordpress.com/2021/02/08/where-do-i-sit/

Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017). Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other 

Fraser, J. (2021). Self Story #2: The Game of Bench Ball. https://edusites.uregina.ca/janayafraser/2021/02/09/the-game-of-bench-ball/

Martinook, T. (2021). Self-Story Two: An Educators Comment. https://edusites.uregina.ca/tmartinook/2021/02/08/self-story-two-an-educators-comment/

Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Understanding the Structural Nature of Oppression Through Racism. In J. A. Banks (Eds.), Is Everyone Really Equal? Second Edition: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (pp. 119-140). Teachers College Press.