LEARNING MORE ABOUT RACISM AND WHITE PRIVILEGE
Deepening white people’s understanding of the actual experience of people of color within our country is fundamental to the forward motion we can and must make toward an integrated and fair society. This is particularly impor- tant for educators. Our teacher workforce is predominantly white, and our stu- dent population nationwide is majority non-white. Even for white educators in largely white school districts, this deepened understanding is essential, both now and even more in the future.
For readers for whom the points made in this chapter seem exaggerated or too far out of the mainstream for professional development, we recommend the readings from the bibliography on The Skillful Teacher website titled “Waking Up White,” a title we borrow from Debby Irving’s (2014) book of the same title. This is a sequence of readings which we believe can take a person to this deeper level of understanding. The sequence is important. If one is new to the journey to anti-racism, reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’s (2016) profound book, Between the World and Me, too early might blunt that book’s effect, because you won’t be able to put his comments about the “black body” into proper context. Taking the Implicit Bias test (implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/), referenced earlier, might be a motivator to undertake this reading.
Readers may disagree with the sequence and even the readings and films we have chosen. We look forward to suggestions you may offer. Together, we can
Video: White Privilege
Waking Up White
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PART ONE | ESSENTIAL BELIEFS | CULTURAL PROFICIENCY AND ANTI-RACISM
improve this list. However, we urge other organizations interested in improving schools and moving social justice forward in our country to begin this study and to do so in a sequence that does not overwhelm. We have to open our eyes to what we have created and what our possibilities are as a multi-racial society.