I realized in order for this to be a sustainable project now that the school year has started, it will have to be bi-weekly. Having arrived to the new bi-weekly due date and therefore needing a post, I’m feeling pretty tired. I also have caught the new school year cold, so I have chills, can’t breathe out my nose and my head is throbbing. As a classroom teacher the first few weeks of school tend to take all of my everything, and for most of my teaching career I have felt that my work in the classroom was in large part my contribution to social justice and interrupting systems of inequity. I still feel that way, and yet I committed in my life outside of school to this extra effort to “do the work” and build community and encourage more active anti-racism among white adults, so here I am. This school year also feels a little different than the last five. In my new school, I find myself having conversations not exclusively with young brown and black folks who speak in detail about their own lived experiences of oppression and injustice but often with young white children who have no idea what I am talking about. It’s a different kind of challenge; one I wasn’t entirely sure I was prepared to face in my classroom, but one I spend a lot of time thinking about in my personal life. It is also one I think more white folks could use some support in addressing because if we are not actively working to raise anti-racist white folks we are inadvertently raising budding white supremacists. And nobody wants that. Well at least nobody on this page.
Where do I start?
Having conversations with white kids about racism is not really that complicated. It’s fear and discomfort that often keep us from doing so. There’s a whole lot of really great books to use to begin dialogue. Reading books about the past runs the risk of depicting racism as a solely historical issue, not as a present day one. However, it is really important that young people understand the history of events, so that they can more deeply understand the context of our current reality. Books open doors to dialogue and questions, and we as grown white folks need to be doing more to generate conversations about race with little white folks in order to first acknowledge and then work to undo systems that disproportionately advantage us with unearned privilege and discriminate against folks of color in profound and measurable ways.
What’s the next step?
This is where things can feel more vague. Usually there are some articles that come out when catastrophe strikes about how to discuss it with your kids. These are great guidelines for difficult topics. Overwhelmingly the point is: DO talk to the young people in your life about specific highly publicized events of racism and injustice when they happen. As white people we sometimes wish to hide behind the excuse of protecting young people from the harsh realities of life but this is not a luxury we can afford to indulge in collectively if we want our children to grow up into a more just and equitable world. We must speak to them about the world we live in order to prepare them for the world we want to be true.
How do I get unstuck?
The everyday actions of injustice and microaggressions are just as important to discuss with young people. We as white folks have an obligation to help our white children to understand how they benefit from a system in a way that their friends of color do not. Examples of this come up with frequency in the school setting, but it can feel challenging to point them out in a way that empowers them and doesn’t fill them with guilt. That’s where all the other pieces begin to connect. If young people understand the history of racism and oppression in the U.S, as well as the current events, then they can also begin to identify more everyday instances of injustice. Creating space for them to talk about their growing understanding will also provide them opportunities to address and interrupt the injustices they witness. And as so often the case with young people, they pay the most attention not to what we tell them to do but what they see us doing and saying to and about others. In other words, keeping working on yourself and include the young white folks in your life in your growth. Take them to meetings. Take them to a protest. Tell them why you are signing a petition or choosing not to donate to Red Cross or why you are choosing to buy goods from a store owned by POC in your community.
In conclusion, talk to the young white people in your life about race. Buy a book and read it together. Talk about the news. It might be awkward. But it’s definitely necessary.
Until next week,
Stephanie
Actively Disruptive 