Talking Points 3

Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community~Dennis Carlson

In this reading the author is arguing the fact that society doesn't look as everyone the same. Carlson said that community, society, and schools should teach people to realize that everyone is "normal", we should be taught that it is okay to say lesbian, gay, homosexual, and bisexual. We need to use these words everyday because its real, its out there.

"Throughout much of this century, the dominant idea of community in America was represented by what I we will call the normalizing community. Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (ie, white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represented as "normal" while other individuals and subject positions (ie, black, working class, female, homosexual etc.) are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and on other ways "abnormal"." This quote is saying just because of someone's sex, gender, job, or sexual orientation they are stupid, this is so stereotypical. I know people that when they see a black man they think of them as dumb or "bad", but that isnt true. That black man could be just as smart as you or even smarter. This quote is terrible but so true.
“Three techniques of normalization and (hence) marginalization have been of primary importance in this regard: (1) the erasure of gayness in the curriculum. (2) the “closeting” and “witch hunting” of gay teachers, and (3) verbal and physical intimidation of gay teachers and students.” In high school my varsity basketball coach/math teacher was a lesbian and married to a woman. Her wife would go to all the games and her family was very supportive about it. When the parents found out they didnt want her coaching girls anymore. So they caused alot of chaos and eventually "drove" her out. She just had enough and stepped down from coaching, but still taught. Parents then went after her teaching job and now she has a different teaching job at a school that is very accepting of her sexual orientation. In a way she closeted her relationship from the whole school because she didnt want drama revolving around her, but she was open with her orientation with her team because we were "family".
I really liked this article by Carlson, it really grasped my attention. I think that everyone should read this article because its really true, people need to realize that there are people of different sexual orientations in the world. This is like Johnson, Carlson is saying its okay to say the words, just say them outloud. In this reading Carlson also talking about power and privilege like Johnson. They are very similar writers and want to get there point across to society.