White Supremacy in the Classroom
Most will agree that teachers, as poorly as they are paid, are at the frontline of how generations of children go out into the world. Teachers help shape a child’s moral compass and worldview, whether they intend to or not. So today, I would like all hands up for fighting white supremacy in the classroom. That begins by listening to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) voices; educators, publishers, parents, academics, etc.
Unpacking My Privilege
White woman like myself make up 82% of classroom educators. Any bias and prejudice was left mostly unchecked by my mostly White colleagues. While I had always felt committed to gender, economic, racial, and social justice in the classroom, I still had a LOT more work to do to unpack over 20 years of privilege. Admittedly so, the level of urgency that was needed was not present.
View this post on Instagram
My role as an educator changed 8 years ago when I became a mother. I shifted to fighting on the front lines for equity and justice for my students, to fighting for my own child as well. In turn, it is no surprise that my experience and identity as a mother immediately influenced my own classroom practice. Implicitly or explicitly, the questions of racial equity and fighting white supremacy became my top priority when it became personal. When my own biracial child at the receiving end of microaggressions and racism even in pre-school, the stakes were raised.
Bias on the Bookshelves
For me teaching in the lower elementary grades every year, the simplest and most powerful way to fight inequity in the classroom was through reading aloud. You see kids will make assumptions regarding race, gender, wealth, etc. before they even know how to do subtraction based on what they DO or DON’T see on the bookshelves. I knew talking about the inequalities in our communities with students (and parents) should not be controversial. If it was, that means I needed to keep talking.
View this post on Instagram
The book choices I made became much more strategic. I started with gender so I could make a parallel when I discussed ethnicities. I took books that were filled with all male pronouns for inanimate objects as a way to discuss gender bias. When the squirrel, the bunny, the tree, and the ball were all “he/him”, I asked them about fairness. “What if I only let the boy students in the class go to recess, but the girls had to stay and clean the classroom?”
The discussion of animals led to the books without girls as superheroes or astronauts or inventors. This way I could help them understand that girls can be anything — and anything can be a girl.
Diversity is More Than A Book Cover
Next, I would move on to racial and economic bias in the books on our shelves. You may be thinking, “Diversity in books seems easy. There are BIPOC kids on the covers everywhere now”. However, not every book with a brown/black child on the cover is respectful, responsible, and accurate.
Furthermore, with 5-7 year olds, if the only time we read them books about black and brown characters, they are on the topic of slavery/poverty or a book where a character speaks for a whole group, they are forming a worldview that black/brown= slave/poor and perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
View this post on Instagram
Instead of pulling out lesson plans on the history of slavery during Black History Month, I would teach children how to celebrate Afro-textured hair. (And not to touch it!) It wasn’t earth-shaking or radical information I was teaching. I watched people’s hands all over my daughter’s hair without her consent. I felt compelled to stop kids from treating her like a petting zoo.
Amplifying Teachers of Color
Teachers of color have been leading the way for a very long time. There were resources everywhere once I started looking. (This is why more leadership positions need to be filled by people of color. Equity starts at the top.) The information is there, but I had to be willing to get uncomfortable with the ways I was upholding white supremacy (intention vs. impact are key). I had to learn to apologize when I got it wrong. Most importantly, I had to be willing to listen a lot more to my students/parents than talk.
View this post on Instagram
This small act of intention with every book I read aloud or used as a mentor text showed my White students that kids like my own daughters are not frozen in some long ago-strife or current villany/misery. Black and brown kids can be bossy, intelligent, picky eaters, fight with their siblings, etc. just like everyone else. Furthermore, I showed my students of color who rarely get to see themselves represented positively and truthfully, that their experiences and their lives mattered.
View this post on Instagram
Courageous Conversations Are For Everyone
When we as teachers fail to fight for equity in our classroom because of a fear of iincompetence, public exposure, and accusation, those who pay the price are students of color. It wasn’t until I saw my own girls paying that heavy price that I had the courage to do more about it. For all White teachers however, it does not need to be that way. It doesn’t have to be personal to start doing better.
When we know better, we do better. In turn, our students do better. I saw and heard courageous conversations happening in my classroom amongst my students. Thousands of years of bias, prejudice, hate and bigotry can shift in a moment as simple as a kindergartener raising their hand to say the Black child on the cover of the book is beautiful.
Today teachers; you make a difference and you have the power to save lives. I hope to see all hands up for fighting white supremacy and privilege within the walls of a classroom.
View this post on Instagram
How to Take Action Today: Me and White Supremacy challenge
The #MeAndWhiteSupremacy work initially began as a 28-day challenge that Layla F. Saad ran on her Instagram page last year. It was intended for people holding white privilege to examine their complicity in white supremacy. The challenge quickly went viral, with thousands of participants from all around the world taking part in a profound collective truth-telling journey to help them unpack and dismantle their internalized racism.
View this post on Instagram
Over the course of a month, Layla guided participants through simple yet powerful journaling prompts that held up a mirror for them to see and own their complicity in a system that is designed to oppress and marginalize Black, Indigenous & People of Colour. This workbook was created to help people continue the work.
Following the same 28-prompt process, the Me And White Supremacy Workbook will lead you through a journey of personal reflection and deep shadow work. The purpose of this workbook is to educate people with white privilege as to their internalized racism, and facilitate personal and collective change to help dismantle the oppressive system of white supremacy.
More resources:
Dear White Teacher: 13 Books to Read on Racial Literacy
Lastly, if you need mental health and wellness support to continue your anti-racist work, click HERE.
I want you to have the most culturally diverse and multicultural library ever. However, I also want you to have the best reading strategies out there for teaching the children in your life HOW to read as well. My eBook: The Importance of Reading Aloud: A Parent’s Guide combines the HOW to teach children to read with children with WHAT to read with them.
This eBook is the first lesson in my Teaching Kids to Read 0-5 self-paced and online course and it is yours for free today HERE.
Biracial Bookworms
Join me in raising readers, raising leaders, and raising changemakers one bedtime story at a time! Get exclusive content right in your inbox!
