Our on-site PD on Election Day created a good deal of emotion and conversation. We had three facilitators from Border Crossers come and lead us in thinking about how people of color experience life in America. Those of us who are white are largely unaware of the daily challenges faced by our colleagues, students, family members and parents who are Black, Asian, Arab and Hispanic. Thinking about this is deeply uncomfortable for us as privileged White members of society. If we really want to create an inclusive and just school community, and by extension, contribute to the justness of our wider society, then we need to sit with that discomfort. Peggy McIntosh wrote about White Privilege a long time ago (1990!). Her essay is still important reading.
I am confident that teachers on our staff do not ever intend to be hurtful towards students in terms of race (or for any reason, but right now I am referring to race). I know I don't. But I also know that my skin color alone has allowed me to grow up so that I am largely oblivious to how my actions are perceived. I was cleaning out my bookshelves and this weekend rediscovered a book by a White mother who raised her Black daughter in the south. In this book, the author, Sharon Rush, a civil rights lawyer dedicated to justice, shares about how she came to realize how little she knew about the experiences of Black members of our society. Becoming aware of the constant micro-aggressions by people and institutions shaped her daughter's experiences, and the author's own understanding of racism, in powerful ways.
As White members of society, we get to pretend that we are color-blind. We can pretend that a child's skin color doesn't impact how we view them or react to them. We need to fight against this color-blindness to become color-conscious. As we do this, we need to figure out, awkwardly at times, how to affirm racial differences in ways that help children develop positive attitudes around difference. Rush writes in her book, "Goodwill Whites are on constant alert as we try to overcome our own racism but realize we are vulnerable to accusations, often justifiable, that we sometimes get it wrong." (Italics are my own.) She counsels us to worry less about how to avoid the label and worry more about systemic racism and how to end it. Even though it is uncomfortable, I need to be called on when I am not as eloquent as I would like or intend. I recognize I am learning how to talk about race and working through this discomfort is the only I will learn. I hope that by modeling my own willingness to engage in these conversations and my openness to feedback I will contribute to making our school a safe space to talk about race and racism and thus to help all our students feel safe and valued in our school.
