Editor's Note

I began with an activity I called "The Skittles in My Bag" and handed out small snack-sized Zip-lock and larger bags of Skittles at each of the tables. Then I went through a list of statements (i.e. "Your next door neighbors," "Your best friend," "Your favorite teacher") and asked participants to drop the color of the Skittle/ person into their bag with Skittle symbolizing a racial/ ethnic group (i.e. purple = Black, yellow = white). After several statements, the discomfort was palpable as bags filled with yellow Skittles. One man tried to hide his see-through Zip-lock. After I read a dozen statements, I asked each participant to hold their bag up and to look around the room, and the lesson on race began. The salience of the Skittles was immediate in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murder on February 26, 2012. Skittles served as potent symbols of a race-based homicide in a nearby college town in central Florida. Less than two months later, on April 24, 2012, three Mexican-American college students, two of whom I taught in several classes, were murdered by their white boss. Two died at the scene and one student, a 19-year-old, survived bullet wounds to his face and leg. The funeral mass at a Spanish-speaking Catholic church was gut-wrenching; the lone survivor, my student, attended in a wheelchair to say goodbye to his two best friends. In my sociology class that summer, he talked about how it is unacceptable in his culture for males to show emotion. Another student, a white Marine combat veteran, spoke up and said he could relate. I listened and made space for students to think critically about their experiences as gendered and raced individuals in society. They spoke their truths about culture, socialization, and intersectionality.

As a white faculty member at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), and one that was founded as such in 1968 in the South Bronx long before the official designation was formed by the Department of Education, I think about what “The Skittles in My Bag” look like today. In Teaching Community, bell hooks described anti-racist white folks were were “in theory anti-racist, but the majority of them had little or no actual everyday contact with black people” (2003, p. 58). If we imagine a simulation that included differently-abled, justice-involved, GLBTQIA+, religion, single-parent households, non U.S.-born, would we have rainbow-colored bags? What does our everyday contact look like?

This fall, I co-hosted three Zoom Election Debate Watch Parties for students, faculty, and staff. In all, over 240 unique users tuned in. The main attraction was the pre-debate panel comprised of current and former students. They told stories of not being able to vote but wanting to be engaged. They told stories of deportation and discussed what issues matter to them and why they matter. We created a space and listened. Took notes. We encouraged them to keep talking, writing, and taking action.

There are many fantastic ideas and resources submitted by the authors in this issue and thanks to all of those who submitted and answered the "call" to reflect on "Teaching Race and Teaching Raced." Check out the incredibly innovative ways our colleagues answer the call in the classroom.

I would like to give a special thank you to Charles Piscitello for serving as guest co-editor of this issue and transitioning us to Google Sites. Thank you to Jean Carroll and Elizabeth Borland for reviewing submissions. Most of all, this issue is for my students, who teach me so much.