Embedded Files
For the Educator: In order to liberate yourself YOU have to do the work
For the Educator: In order to liberate yourself YOU have to do the work
Understanding Who You Are As a Cultural Being
Understanding Who You Are As a Cultural Being
and the impact this has on your students
and the impact this has on your students
How To Be an Anti-Racist
How To Be an Anti-Racist
from Ibram X. Kendi
from Ibram X. Kendi
"the opposite of racist is not not racist, it is anti-racist"
RACIST: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.
ANTIRACIST: One who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.
Definitions anchor us in principles. This is not a light point: If we don’t do the basic work of defining the kind of people we want to be in language that is stable and consistent, we can’t work toward stable, consistent goals. Some of my most consequential steps toward being an antiracist have been the moments when I arrived at basic definitions. To be an antiracist is to set lucid definitions of racism/antiracism, racist/antiracist policies, racist/anti-racist ideas, racist/antiracist people. To be a racist is to constantly redefine racist in a way that exonerates one’s changing policies, ideas, and personhood.
Establishing norms for communication around issues of equity
Establishing norms for communication around issues of equity
Courageous Conversations About Race: Four Agreements (Glenn Singleton)
Four Agreements
Four Agreements
1. Stay engaged: Staying engaged means “remaining morally, emotionally, intellectually, and socially involved in the dialogue”
2. Experience discomfort: This norm acknowledges that discomfort is inevitable, especially, in dialogue about race, and that participants make a commitment to bring issues into the open. It is not talking about these issues that create divisiveness. The divisiveness already exists in the society and in our schools. It is through dialogue, even when uncomfortable, the healing and change begin.
3. Speak your truth: This means being open about thoughts and feelings and not just saying what you think others want to hear.
4. Expect and accept non-closure: This agreement asks participants to “hang out in uncertainty” and not rush to quick solutions, especially in relation to racial understanding, which requires ongoing dialogue.
THE SIX CONDITIONS
1. Personal, local, and immediate
2. Isolate race
3. Normalize social construction and multiple perspectives
4. Monitor agreements and establish parameters
5. Establish a "working definition" for race
6. Examine the presence and role of whiteness
Some Definitions to guide reading
Some Definitions to guide reading
Race - A socially constructed characterization of individuals based on skin color, culture, etc.
Racism - Any act that even unwittingly tolerates, accepts or reinforces racially unequal opportunities or outcomes for children to learn and thrive.
Prejudice- a judgment or opinion formed before considering or without knowing the facts.
Privilege - A right or advantage that is given to some people and not others. As professor of social work Rich Vodde states, “If privilege is defined as a legitimization of one’s entitlement to resources, it can also be defined as permission to escape or avoid any challenges to this entitlement.”
“Whiteness” - The component of each and every one of ourselves that expects assimilation to the dominant culture.
White Fragility - a state in which a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable triggering a range of defensive behaviors exhibited by white people. These defensive behaviors include emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.
Mirrors, Window, and Sliding Glass Doors. . .
Mirrors, Window, and Sliding Glass Doors. . .
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
"While there may be countless ways one might be defined as exceptional, there are at least seven categories of “otherness” commonly experienced in U.S. society. People are commonly defined as other on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, and physical or mental ability. Each of these categories has a form of oppression associated with it: racism, sexism, religious oppression/anti-Semitism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, and abelism, respectively. In each case, there is a group considered dominant (systematically advantaged by the society because of group membership) and a group considered subordinate or targeted (systematically disadvantaged). When we think about our multiple identities, most of us will find that we are both dominant and targeted at the same time. But it is the targeted identities that hold our attention and in dominant identities that often go unexamined."
*I will add language as number eight.
The Mythical Norm (ch 2)
"Somewhere, on the edge of consciousness, there is what I call a mythical norm, which each one of us within our hearts knows “that is not me.” In america, this norm is usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, christian, and financially secure. It is with this mythical norm that the trappings of power reside within society. Those of us who stand outside that power often identity one way in which we are different, and we assume that to be the primary cause of all oppression, forgetting other distortions around difference, some of which we ourselves are practicing." -Audre Lorde
"I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it and I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it. One can be--indeed, one must strive to become--tough and philosophical concerning destruction and death, for this is what most of mankind has been best at since we have heard of war; remember, I said most of mankind, but it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent.
It is the innocence which constitutes the crime."
It is the innocence which constitutes the crime."
"The concept of identity is a complex one, shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political context. Who am I? The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says I am. Who do my parents say I am? Who do my peers say I am? What message is reflected back to me in the faces and voices of my teachers, my neighbor's, store clerks? What do I learn from the media about myself? How am I represented in the cultural images around me? Or am I missing from the picture altogether? As social scientist Charles Cooley pointed out long ago . . .
other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves."
other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves."
Becoming the Binder
Becoming the Binder
Use the slide deck and Tatum chapter to take a look into your personal Identity. We will be discussing your work in our time together.Resources found below:
Reflect
Reflect
Take the time to truly refect on the experience and now you have now had a window into yourself as a cultural being. This reflection could start private, but sharing your experience of understanding your cultural identity, especially if you are largely overprivileged, is invaluable to help any community grow.
More Resources
More Resources
Text of a speech Baldwin gave to teachers in 1963
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