The SNF Paideia Program recently co-hosted a virtual event about the impact of racial disparities on public perceptions of family and identity.
The March 19 event, hosted alongside Penn Global Seminar and the Asian America Across the Disciplines series, brought together Penn faculty and guest speaker Johnny Irizarry — former director of La Casa Latina and a lecturer in Latin American and Latinx Studies. The discussion was part of an SNF Paideia course, American Race: A Philadelphia Story, and was moderated by Asian American Studies program Co-Director Fariha Khan and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Fernando Chang-Muy.
In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Irizarry emphasized the importance of students hearing from people “can deconstruct a lot of the assumptions” they had previously been taught about race.
During the event, titled “Race and the Home: Gender & Family,” Khan began by urging students to interrogate how ideas of “good parenting” are shaped by ideas of race and socioeconomic status. Drawing on the course readings, she emphasized that common assumptions about marginalized families tend to reflect stereotypes rather than lived realities.
“There’s a narrative around dysfunction of families that are poor,” Khan said, highlighting stereotypes about Black mothers, absent fathers, and the “welfare queen.”
She encouraged students to consider how these narratives intersect with structural inequality — particularly focusing on how society can frame the concept of “choice” in parenting without accounting for financial constraints.
“What does it mean to frame good parenting as making choices that are only accessible for those with excess income?” she asked. “What does it mean to assume that to be poor and not white means you are less capable of being a good parent?”
Khan explained that ideas around race and poverty converge through the “white savior narrative,” which assumes that “a child of color is intrinsically better off with a wealthy parent, even if that parent doesn't share their ethnic or racial background.”
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Irizarry situated themes of family and identity within the Puerto Rican experience, emphasizing that the group cannot be understood without recognizing its Indigenous and African history.
“The myth is always that Puerto Ricans are a mix of European, African, and Indian,” Irizarry explained. “That myth of this harmonious, really beautiful composition of ours is something that has obviously rooted our heritage and who we become, but at the same time, historically, hasn't been respected.”
Irizarry told the DP that Puerto Rican communities in Philadelphia and New York — where he previously lived — have “a lot of similarities,” emphasizing that the two cities have the “same kind of activist organizations.”
He described Philadelphia as “one of the most segregated” cities in the country, where poverty levels create major challenges. Irizarry added that educational gaps contribute to widespread misunderstandings about Puerto Rican history and race on a larger scale.
“The problem lies in the fact that the education system denies the history of the global diversity of this country,” Irizarry said.
During the event, he added that the Puerto Rican community faces “disparities in educational opportunity, economic class, labor … housing and access.”
Irizarry told the DP that he hopes the discussion will “engage people in the conversation” about race.
“I want to create curiosity in them to explore beyond what they understand or what they’ve been taught around these issues,” Irizarry added.
