Chapters 1 & 2

Chapter 1 - White Man Dancing: A Story of Personal Transformation & 
Chapter 2 - White Dominance and the Weight of the West


The majority of this first chapter is a simple, yet meaningful, biography of Howard's life. Howard describes how he grew up in White suburbia. In fact, he did not even meet a person from a different culture until his friend asked him to double date with him and his girlfriend (who was African American) during his senior year of high school. He goes further to explain how he enrolled in Yale University and became a big brother for a group of inner-city Black and Hispanic young men six blocks away from the school (these six blocks felt like several light years away from his familiar surroundings). Two years into his education, he married his wife, Lotus, and the two of them moved to "The Hill," the ghetto where the boys from his YMCA group lived. During this time in his life, he experienced Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death, riots and fires across the country, and the emergence of the Black Panthers, historic events that all added to his growing worldview which related to how Howard could better love cultures different from his own.


Howard presents the first of a number of concepts that speak extensively about the many divides that exist between cultures. He talks first about a period of "cultural encapsulation" (14), a period (which begins at the beginning of one's life and may last for a number of years) in which a person is so encapsulated within his own culture that he has no knowledge or understanding of other cultures. Howard refers back to his senior year of high school and further explains: "This one connection I made in high school with a person outside my own race symbolizes an essential step for any dominant culture person who wishes to grow beyond the limits of encapsulation" (15). He also refers to this encapsulation when he discusses an experience he had. While he and Lotus were living in "The Hill," a number of riots had broken out and fires were surrounding their apartment building for endless blocks. Their apartment was not burned down, and Howard explains that he quite enjoyed watching the fire take over "The Hill": "It was fire that burned away the walls of my encapsulation" (17).

In his section entitled "Adventures of an Anti-Racist Racist," Howard argues that African Americans are not to be blamed for cultural barriers, but rather that Whites (Howard's own people) are to blame: "These experiences in New Haven led me to a profound shift in consciousness that has guided my career for the past four decades. Helped along by some strong feedback from Black Power leaders and friends in the Black Panthers, I came to see that my real work was not in the Hill neighborhood but back home with my own folks. The core of the problem was in White America, and if I wanted to help excise the cancer of racism, I had to go to the source of the tumor. In the spring of 1969, my Black colleagues and neighbors challenged me to take what I had learned from them and find a way to teach those lessons within the context of the White community" (19). As I read this, I was completely introduced to something I had never thought of before. The core of the problem was in White America. This fascinates me because in White America, there are generally only White people there who are oftentimes completely disconnected from other cultures. I sat with this insight for quite awhile until I realized that yes, Howard is right: If we want to fix this, we have to go to the source of the tumor.

Howard also provides us with research, theory, and findings to "prepare White educators for the work of understanding and unraveling [social] dominance in educational settings" (31). He touches on the Minimal Group Paradigm, Social Positionality, Privilege and Penalty, and Social Dominance Theory, which I want to talk further about. There are four basic assumptions of social dominance theory:

1. Human social systems are predisposed to form social hierarchies, with hegemonic groups at the top and negative reference groups at the bottom. 
2. Hegemonic groups tend to be disproportionately male, a phenomenon that social dominance theorist call the "iron law of andrancy."
3. Most forms of social oppression, such as racism, sexism, and classism, can be viewed as manifestations of group-based social hierarchy.
4. Social hierarchy is a survival strategy that has been selected by many species of primates, including Homo sapiens. 

Howard adds that "social dominance theorists suggest that human beings are inherently predisposed to create group-based systems of categorization and discrimination" (35). According to this theory, the dominant groups in society are the ones responsible for creating boundaries between cultures. 

During my placement so far at Reavis High School, I see a number of things going on. I see Howard's concept of cultural encapsulation in some of my students. This year, I am teaching all freshmen. They are new to high school. They are in a new environment with new people, people they have never met before. I do not know each and every one of my student's back stories, but I can tell from my observations that many students are experiencing things they have never experienced before during their interactions with students of other cultures. For example, a quiet female student I have is being bullied by a number of Hispanic girls, and she does not know how to handle her current situation. Because this student knows nothing about this culture, she may take this experience and apply it to the entire Hispanic culture, which would not be a good thing. In fact, I am trying to think of a way in which I could talk with this student about the beauty of diversity, but due to her traumatic experiences as a bullied student, it may be hard to reach her. This is an example of how one's cultural encapsulation works to make the barriers between cultures stronger. I also see cultural barriers come between my students on a daily basis. I do not mean to say that all of my students are racist or refuse to associate with students of other cultures, but for example, when my students are given the opportunity to work with partners of their choosing, they tend to choose partners who share their same culture. When students are given time to socialize, they generally stay within their own cultures. And everyday when I walk down the crowded hallways, I see students grouped together according to their ethnicity. Despite Reavis' efforts to celebrate diversity, I am having a hard time seeing this in my students.


Worldview: "I wanted to invite other White folks into the worldview that had been given to me. Rather than beating my students and colleagues over the head with their Whiteness and their ignorance, I wanted to find ways to help them break out of their own encapsulation" (21). This worldview which Howard speaks about deals with the way in which White people 1) do view people of other cultures and 2) how our viewing of people of other cultures can change if we make a genuine effort to learn about and engage with people different from ourselves. As Howard explained, he did not meet his first non-White acquaintance until his senior year of high school. He was afraid to meet this young African American woman that we was going to go on a date with because he had never socialized with a person of a different culture. But because he had this strong fear to meet this young woman, he knew he had to do it to get over that fear and also to begin introducing himself to different cultures. Because he made the decision to dedicate his life to working with different cultures, Howard was given this new worldview that enabled him to see other cultures just as equally valuable and treasured as his own.