Asking the lone minority student to explain ethnic texts burden them unfairly

Evidence

Often, if there is one lone person of color in the classroom she or he is objectified by others and forced to assume the role of “native informant.” For example, a novel is read by a Korean American author. White students turn to the one student from a Korean background to explain what they do not understand. This places an unfair responsibility onto that student. Professors can intervene in this process by making it clear from the outset that experience does not make one an expert, and perhaps even by explaining what it means to place someone in the role of “native informant.” — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 92

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘native informant’ dynamic generalizes beyond academia to workplaces and meetings where a lone minority is expected to speak for a group. — connects to: Colorblind inclusion of Black authors is a covert form of tokenism — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 85; Apparent classroom neutrality can feel unsafe to students of color — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 86; Ethnic-minority identity must not ground every cultural reading — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 2087 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Ethnic-minority identity must not ground every cultural reading #expands (0.85) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2087
• Minority cultural works are pressured to speak for their entire community #corroborates (0.85)
• Asking about scholarships marks aid recipients as diminished outsiders #corroborates (0.75) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 360