Vincent Lombardo

EDT 246M
Cultural Autobiography
Who am I? Who will I become?
My eyes can see but I have lived the majority of my life blind. I have been
surrounded and confined by the white walls of my schools and community, not being
able to see past. The sites I do see play tricks on my mind, feeding my mind false truths
and mirages. I have much shame in saying what I have said this far but this is the truth
and this is my life. I am proud of my family background and I am proud of most of the
values my family and community have planted in me. However, I know that I am guilty
of having bias, stereotyping, and having a certain degree of racism. Dont we all? In this
cultural autobiography, I will reflect on my life, critically thinking about how I became a
victim of ignorance and where I can go from here. Where does it all start? Where does
the manipulation begin? Is it in the first grade? Is it in high school? I believe it all starts
the minute you are born. The lifestyle you are born into shapes every aspect of your life.
I was born in Columbus, Ohio and have lived there my entire life. I was born into
a white middle class family and never really had to struggle for anything. I never
considered myself spoiled but looking back, I was definitely privileged. My whole life I
lived in Columbus and we were part of the Dublin school district. For those of you who
dont know, Dublin is thought to be very upper class for the most part and consisted of
mainly white people. We lived out on the skirt of Dublin where it was not entirely like
that, or at least thats what I thought.
In my introduction I talk about being surrounded and confined by white walls.
To be perfectly honest, I cant recall where I had read this term being used but I certainly
can remember the feelings and emotions it had brought to me.

Vincent Lombardo
EDT 246M
Cultural Autobiography
I grew up going to a catholic school. In Kindergarten through the eighth grade, I
went to two different schools. Both of these schools were effective in bringing me up
with a good education when it came to common core subjects like math and science but
socially I was at a disadvantage. The students that attended these schools with me were
predominantly middle class white students. Some would argue that the school was
diverse because there were kids of color that also attended the school but having four or
five minority students attend the school does not in any way make the school diverse.
White students and white teachers in a school where the daily routine was tailored to fit
them and only them surrounded me. Every day that is what I would wake up and expect
to see. These were the white walls that surrounded me day in and day out. From my
peers all the way up to their parents and the teachers, I would hear negative things being
said in regards to black people and people of minority culture. In the classrooms I
frequently saw teachers playing the savior role to the kids of color that did attend my
school. I remember one experience in particular when one of my teachers was frequently
checking on the minority students during an assignment. I was fairly young at this time, I
think in 4th or 5th grade. I had been stuck on a problem for a while and seemed that the
teacher was spending most of her time with the two minority students. When I say
spending time with them, I mean that she was standing in between them looking over
their shoulders. After class I went up to ask the teacher my question. She looked at me
and said why didnt you ask during class? I replied saying that I had tried to but she spent
all her time with those other two students. She then said something like, oh well they
need more help than everyone else. At the time, I wasnt exactly sure what she meant but
it confused me. After time, instead of just being confused I was troubled watching my

Vincent Lombardo
EDT 246M
Cultural Autobiography
teacher day after day watch these two boys. I began to see for the first time. She had
doubts for these boys because they were black. Both of these boys were doing just as
well in the class as the rest of us but because of the color of their skin, the teacher had
low expectations for them. Not only in the classroom but I started to notice these
behaviors from my peers in extracurricular activities as well. Sports in particular were a
place where I saw some racial stereotypes being spread. Whether it was someone saying
that black people were better at sports or black people were faster, there was always
something that made them different. In those middle school years, I was so oblivious
to the hurt that is caused by racial and cultural stereotyping that I didnt think anything of
it and shrugged it off my shoulders. Little did I know that these experiences, as little as
they may seem, stuck with me. As I continued through junior high and then high school
the barrier in my mind separating myself from other people of color grew bigger and
bigger. At one point in my time at high school, I believe there were only five or six
minority students in the whole school. The teachers in my schools never really talked
about race as an issue in todays world, pretending as if everything is fine and dandy. As
you can probably guess, all the teachers I have reflected on are white. I am a victim of
ignorance because I went to schools filled with ignorance. Although it is difficult I
believe a great deal of it is my fault because I fell prey to the extremely partial ideas that
were presented to me.
The white walls that imprisoned me reached beyond my schools. These defining
barriers reached into our communities and shape the way we act and think around one
another. Some say that in this day and age racism has vanished and everyone is equal. I
would have to strongly argue against those who think this way. If anything, I believe that

Vincent Lombardo
EDT 246M
Cultural Autobiography
the way we vocalize these stereotypes and biases has changed. The racial slurs and the
negative terminology may have faded out but racism, discrimination, and stereotyping
still very much exist. Race has been, and remains, one of the more intriguing paradoxes
of U.S. society. As a nation, the United States has explicitly and implicitly subscribed to
racial hierarchies for the past four centuries. DuBois notion that the preeminent problem
of the 20th century would be the color line continues to ring true even louder in the 21st
century (Howard, T. (2003) p. 2). I think this quote speaks volumes of our society. Not
only are our schools tailored to the white middle class majority, but so is the community.
Implicitly and explicitly we see the white middle class male being put up on a pedestal
above others of different racial background or social class. As a white male born into a
middle class family I was privileged and by association with others in my community I
lived that lifestyle.
I never thought of myself as a person who would think badly of someone just
because of their race or the neighborhood they are from. I never thought of myself as
being someone who would carry some racism and stereotypes with him. However, I too
was placed on a pedestal by my community and by the barriers of the white walls. I
didnt want to be on a pedestal but I was blind to see that I was already upon one. I
finally came to see that I was and I strive every day to self reflect and step down from the
pedestal. I had come to find out that in my world, the white walls are not what I thought
they were. The white walls had not only surrounded me but by not acting out against the
racial barriers, I became a part of the demeaning white wall. Since my realization I have
tried and continue to try to think critically about my life and the biases that I had planted

Vincent Lombardo
EDT 246M
Cultural Autobiography
in myself. By seeing my own bias and stereotypes, I can make an effort to see the white
middle class ignorance/dominance come to the end.

References

Howard, T. (2003) Culturally relevant pedagogy: ingredients for critical teacher

reflection. Theory Into Practice, 42(3). 195-202.