The first year I worked in an American public school, I found myself at odds instantly. It was in my student teaching days when I visited a number of different educational settings in order to get a grasp on the options we give students. For one full month, I did clinicals at an alternative school in Champaign, Illinois. Mostly, I was to watch and learn and—not yet write a lesson plan for instruction. I was supposed to monitor guided lessons from the teachers as they instructed students who had, for one reason or another, ended up getting placed there because they couldn't function in a standard classroom setting. With my notebook in hand, I wrote notes about what I witnessed, asked questions about critical thinking required, and studied the relationships between staff and student. My professor encouraged me to ask questions and write down answers to share with the class once I returned to campus.
"Why are most of these students Black?" I asked the classroom teacher. She was a White teacher in her thirties who was assigned there, but it wasn't her first choice. She let me know that instantly upon my arrival.
"They're the ones who get in trouble the most," she replied without a hint of irony or privilege or self-awareness.
When I reported this in class, my classmates, who were mostly White, nodded as if this were status quo that they understood to be The Way It Works. My professor nodded his agreement that this was troublesome, but that's as far as the conversation went. We breezed past it, knowing that questions were left unanswered. I didn't receive a satisfactory answer that class period, and I was angry. I took it to my best friend, Tammy, who was also studying to become a teacher. We discussed in depth what those assumptions meant and how we were not going to become that instructional leader.
But, it ended there. For the remainder the next two decades, I would find this to be how it works in public education. Real conversations about race are left to private, hushed discussions in small groups.
It's little wonder, then, that school districts across America report that teachers are to take caution in mentioning the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, a town some 90 miles south of where I live. The onus of broaching the subject is on the individual teacher but—structurally and systemically— these conversations are in silos and are as segregated as our nation has always been.
During the summer of 2006, I began doing consulting work and traveling to school districts in Boston and Pasadena to instruct school leaders on having those difficult conversations but it centered around gathering and using data to target student populations for growth. There was also a missing component, though, and, after speaking to a roomful of educators, I found myself cornered by the teachers of color who questioned these tools and their use in discussing the systemic racism found within the schools.
More hushed, private silo conversations. More comments like, "Our mostly White leadership doesn't understand" and more disappointment in myself that I didn't know how to make this a larger conversation. Now that I work in administration, I see these pressing issues on a grander scale in which my frustrated talks occur with other admins of color. With that said, here are a few starting points for staff to understand before delving into the conversation about what's happening in Ferguson. (It goes without saying that teachers who have ignored or been willfully ignorant of the news should most definitely NOT discuss with students. Hence, the reason for this post.)
Race as a Construct vs Being "Colorblind"
Recently, author Toni Morrison joined Stephen Colbert and discussed the construct of race. She eloquently described how it's a fabrication used to further agendas. She says it's important to know something about racism. She's speaking scientifically and anthropologically, but she mentions the benefits that come from having constructed it. This is a higher level conversation about social functions that take into account our American history of slavery, Jim Crow redlining, de facto segregation, and de jure segregation, and a slew of other systemic practices that support White privilege.
Expand Your View of Civil Rights
I'm not dissing Dr. King here, but if he's the only person with whom teachers are familiar in discussing the Civil Rights Movement then it's time to learn some more. Right now, it seems as if a lot of people are throwing out all his non-violence rhetoric because it's easy and because there is a great misunderstanding of the protests causing civil unrest. (Also? Take the word "riots" out of your vocabulary if you're instructing students. That's not the only thing happening. It's just the most common thing media is reporting on at the moment. If you must discuss 'riots', do so fairly. A History of White Race Riots - "A reminder of what the term "race riot" usually meant throughout American history. This list is NOT comprehensive, and does not include events such as the Anti-Filipino Riots, Rosewood, the Zoot Suit Riots or the 26 anti-black race riots during the Summer of 1919. But they offer a glimpse.") I'm not leaving links here for that as it's a comprehensive American era and I would do it no justice. Luckily, teachers have access to the Internet for this.
A Little Bit of Vocabulary for Civil Rights
White Privilege- societal privileges that benefit White people beyond what is commonly experienced by non-White people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances
Racism - describes patterns of discrimination that are institutionalized as “normal” throughout an entire culture. It’s based on an ideological belief that one “race” is somehow better than another “race”. (source)
"Reverse Racism" - Not a thing. Stop using this made-up phrase.
Prejudice - A preconception or preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
Redlining - the practice of denying, or charging more for, services such as banking, insurance, access to health care or in denying jobs to residents in particular, often racially determined, areas. (This has been rampant across the country and Ferguson is acting as a microcosm for this and other societal ills.)
Intersectionality - A phrase coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw; the theory of how different types of discrimination interact.
Respectability Politics - A concept by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham in her book Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church 1880-1920. These are attempts by marginalized groups to police their own members and show their social values as being continuous and compatible with mainstream values rather than challenging the mainstream for its failure to accept difference.
Black Codes - Historical in nature, most notorious Black Codes were laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War. The intent and effect of restricting African Americans' freedom resulted in forcing Black Americans to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt. In the South, "slave codes" placed significant restrictions on Black Americans who were not themselves slaves. A major purpose of these laws was maintenance of the system of White supremacy that made slavery possible. (Source)
White Gaze - This is probably best left to this article to discuss.
The White gaze is also hegemonic, historically grounded in material relations of White power: it was deemed disrespectful for a Black person to violate the White gaze by looking directly into the eyes of someone White. The White gaze is also ethically solipsistic: within it only Whites have the capacity of making valid moral judgments.
With that said, it's important in race discussions not to center the conversation on anyone other than the person expressing their experience. When it moved from actual historical experience to being all about how the other person can't hear you because their feelings are hurt it's time to STOP THE DISCUSSION until they can hear. I practice this a lot.
THIS LIST IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. (I'm not trying to write a thesis here.)
The Narrative Is The Thing
This is a great example (of many others I have seen online) about the demonization of Black people in the media. There are so many others, of course, but it's important to WATCH THE NARRATIVE and how things play out. There are definitely higher-order questions that come of this and students would probably rock a Socratic Seminar on such things.
But, if we're going to create a generation of thinkers who won't be here a full 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement and a full 150 years after the Civil War, we want to understand what's happening in Ferguson right now. We might want to pay attention to history. Start with Kinloch.
But also pay attention to how the media portrays Black Americans and also how it handles stories when White Americans take up arms (Cliven Bundy, anyone?) for violent purposes.
If I were to lead a staff on having such discussions, I would probably begin with a basic KWL chart. It's a basic strategy, but for this is seems we must start with basics. Teachers know this tool as a chart asking students to tell what they KNOW about something, what they WANT to learn about it, and what they LEARN. It makes sense that we'd start there before taking this to the classroom. I wouldn't dare teach the Ukranian history with Russia unless I studied it myself.
But, that's kind of the point, isn't it, dear educators? Teaching something that's unfamiliar isn't acceptable in the classroom so I understand the apprehension. There's a difference in being informed and opinionated on a subject. We're supposed to be educating critical thinkers and learners who will, hopefully, not create the circle jerk of inward conversations in the future.
We can't teach out of increased fearmongering or the off chance that someone will demand an apology from us.We also can't teach social justice without using the example at hand. And, it's at hand.
It's been over two decades since I started thinking seriously about becoming a teacher. I still keep a notebook in my hand, and I still ask critical questions and I still study relationships. I can't believe we're no further than we were then.
Visit MochaMomma for more resources to learn and teach about race in the United States.