Lone minority students get objectified as native informants in diverse classrooms

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

• DEFINE: ‘Native informant’ defined and concretized: the lone person of color assumed to speak for their whole group’s experience.
• XREF: Connects to Edward Said’s orientalism and the informant figure in anthropology and colonial knowledge production. — connects to: Canonical ignorance is policed socially in feminist classrooms, alienating black newcomers — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 210; Asking the lone minority student to explain ethnic texts burden them unfairly — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 92

Broader Connections

• Asking the lone minority student to explain ethnic texts burden them unfairly #exemplifies (0.95) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 92