Beyond Black and White: New Faces and Voices in U.S. Schools

Jacket Description/Back: This book opens a discussion of diversity that goes beyond the notion that white or black can be looked at as any kind of homogeneous groupings. This book encourages the centering of voices often not heard, even in volumes whose aim it is to center historically silenced voices. Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Publisher Marketing: Dedicated to a better understanding of the diversity of children being taught in American public schools, this book includes the experiences of groups (e.g. Haitians, Dominicans, Indians, and Vietnamese) not often represented even in the multicultural education literature. It also includes the experiences of often marginalized groups such as lesbians and gays, Appalachians, and white working class males."... Beyond Black and White opens a discussion of diversity that goes beyond the notion that white or black can be looked at as any kind of homogeneous groupings. While numerous studies focus on the ways in which schools privilege some groups of children and marginalize others, such work tends to construe differences along a narrowly constructed black-white dichotomy. Beyond Black and White forces the reader to abandon this construction". -- Nelson C. Vincent, University of CincinnatiThe book encourages the centering of voices often not heard, even in volumes whose aim it is to center historically silenced voices. The contributors probe the experiences of "Familiar Minorities", such as African Americans, native Americans, and Mexican Americans, as well as those among "Newcomers", such as Haitians, Dominicans, Indians, Salvadorians, and Vietnamese. In the final section, "Other Minorities" are encountered -- groups struggling for recognition such as lesbians and gays, Appalachians, and white working class males. This interdisciplinary volume stands as vivid testimony to the myriad of voices in today's schools.

Contributor Bio:  Weis, Lois Lois Weis is the SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology of Education at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. She is the author of many books and most recently the editor of "The Way Class Works".