How to be an antiracist teacher in a mostly white school Taryn Coe

[Music]

think for yourself

the teacher might be wrong as a little

girl

these are the eight words i saw placed

prominently above the chalkboard in my

mother’s classroom

i knew even then that i wanted to follow

in my mom’s footsteps and become

a public high school teacher years later

in 2004 when i was setting up my first

classroom at the seattle high school

where i currently teach

i chose to display those same words i

knew that i wanted my classroom to be a

space where students felt valued

where they realized that their ideas

were just as important as mine

the school at which i teach is the

widest public high school

in the city of seattle with 75 percent

of its students identifying as caucasian

i remember my mom talking about the

challenges of incorporating anti-racist

practices

at the high school where she taught with

a mostly white student body and almost

entirely white staff

it was easy for many of the teachers and

students at the school to see racism as

someone else’s problem i have become

convinced

that it is especially important for

white educators in majority white

schools

to ensure that their students and

colleagues are educated

about racism because we as white people

are not experiencing the pervasive daily

racism

that people of color experience this is

compounded by the fact that white

students who grow up living in mostly

white neighborhoods and attending mostly

white schools

often have very little direct contact

with people of color

this means that unless their parents and

teachers actively choose to discuss

race and racism with the young people in

their lives our students will grow up

with a woefully incomplete understanding

of race and racism this leads to a lack

of knowledge about the profound

impact that race has on the power

structures in our country

and a lack of understanding as to how

people of different races are treated

in our country it is our job as

educators

especially white educators and majority

white schools

to ensure that our students have the

opportunity to learn about

how and why racism is still a problem so

that they can be part of working

toward a more just society especially in

a majority white school

students and teachers of color should

not be expected to educate white

students or white teachers about racism

i have worked with students and teachers

of color who feel like they are expected

to be experts on race and racism

or to be leading the fight against

racism in their schools

if and when the topic of racism comes up

in a classroom where there are few

students of color

well-intentioned white teachers

sometimes make these students the focus

of the discussion

share your experience with us so that we

can understand

rather than expecting white students to

do the hard work of acknowledging and

understanding

how white people benefit from systemic

racism in our country

i have talked with students of color who

already feel isolated and misunderstood

in majority white schools

these feelings are compounded when these

students are expected to lead the way

for their white peers

we as white teachers need to be

proactive about ensuring we have created

an environment where students of color

feel

safe respected and included rather than

spotlighted or isolated along the same

lines we as white educators should work

to ensure that we are not expecting our

colleagues of color

to shoulder the burden of anti-racist

work while shying away from the work

ourselves i try to remind myself that

it’s okay to be uncomfortable and i

acknowledge that there are times where i

will say or do the wrong thing when i’m

discussing racism with students

the important thing is that i’m willing

to own my mistakes

and i’m committed to learning and

growing from these mistakes

so that i can do better next time in

these instances i’m reminded of

holocaust survivor elie wiesel’s words

regarding neutrality and oppression

he says we must always take sides

neutrality helps the oppressor never the

victim

silence encourages the tormentor never

the tormented if i as a white educator

remain neutral

about racism i am not remaining neutral

at all

my silence is helping to perpetuate

racism

next i’d like to share some concrete

steps i’ve taken in my own life to

become a more actively anti-racist

educator i started by doing some work to

learn more about the history of racism

in our country

and to understand more about my own

identity and privilege as a white person

this included attending lecture series

about the history of racism

at a local university and reading widely

from leaders in the field of race and

equity work

i started a book group with other

educators and a discussion group with

other parents who are interested in

learning more about race and racism

for me it helped to do this initial work

in spaces that were distinct from my

school life

i was still able to talk about how and

why this learning was important for my

growth as a teacher

but it also encouraged me to think about

how and why this learning was important

for my growth as a parent

and a human being this has allowed the

anti-racist work i do as a teacher to be

more authentic

because it’s grounded in how i see my

purpose in the greater world

as an english language arts teacher i

had long been a proponent of teaching a

diverse set of texts

but i now knew that teaching diverse

authors alone is not

anti-racist i needed to go a step

further and make my teaching about race

more explicitly

to this end i crafted a new unit called

race in america

around three core texts that i was

already teaching monster by walter dean

myers

the absolutely true diary of a part-time

indian by sherman alexie

and american-born chinese by gene lewen

yang

each of these novels features a teenage

protagonist of color and is written by

an author of color

which provides a clear entry point for

students to begin exploring issues of

race and racism

i asked students to track the character

development of their novel’s protagonist

especially with regard to how the

character’s racial identity

impacts their development we supplement

students reading of these novels with a

wide variety of shorter texts that

explore issues of race and racism

and students draw connections between

the experiences of the novel’s

protagonists

and the issues that emerge in the

supplemental texts such as white

privilege

white supremacy implicit bias

microaggressions

since starting this unit i’ve expanded

the core novel options to include texts

by female authors of color

featuring female protagonists of color

this side of home

by renee watson and the hate u give by

angie thomas

in the case of the hate u give students

were the driving force behind the

addition of this text

this provides students with a concrete

way for them to work on turning their

study of race and racism

into action it’s important that students

are provided with an opportunity to take

meaningful steps toward fighting racism

as learning about racism can sometimes

leave students feeling hopeless

or overwhelmed helping students to see

their own

power and encouraging them to recognize

their ability to make a positive

difference in the world

can alleviate some of the cynicism and

frustration students feel

as they deepen their understanding of

the long history of institutional racism

and white supremacy in our country this

brings me to my final recommendation

about anti-racist work and education and

it also brings me back to where this

talk began

the most important expectation in my

classroom think

for yourself the teacher might be wrong

this idea is especially important as a

white teacher doing anti-racist work in

a predominantly white school

students especially students of color

need to feel safe calling me out when i

make mistakes

they need to know that they can hold me

accountable and point out to me when the

impact of my behavior is harmful

it is also critical that we as teachers

invite students to be active

participants in our anti-racist work

student learning should not be confined

to the classroom

students need to be provided the

opportunity to take an active role in

anti-racist activism in their school

and in the greater community i hope that

you will consider the ways in which you

can continue to deepen and expand

anti-racist teaching in your own

practice doing so is not easy

and we will make mistakes along the way

but if we remain

silent in the face of racism we are

complicit in perpetuating a system that

is harmful to our students

as elie wiesel said we must always take

sides given the choice let us take the

side of truth let us take the side of

inclusion

let us take the side of justice

because equity matters

you