Search

A white educator shares her journey with understanding implicit racial bias in teaching.

Among my third-graders, conflicts often arose over the issue of skin color. “Your mama left you in the oven too long. You look just like a burnt cookie!” “Oh yeah, well you look like a white boy. I bet you ain’t even black.” As a young white teacher coming into a school that is about half African-American and half Latino, I knew there would be racial conflicts, but I didn’t know how they would manifest themselves. I assumed that both groups’ first concern would be the oppression and racism from white people. I was not expecting the intense criticism that I found within the African-American community of its own members.

The Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action but, one educator points out, we still have a long way to go to achieve equity in college admissions.

Silence speaks volumes. Our students are listening.

This toolkit for “Segregation Forever?” provides an activity for students to use statistics and written analysis to express complex ideas about history.

It happens in every class. We’re discussing a text, a publication, a current event, a poem. The content doesn’t matter. It’s the phrase that counts. A student comments and uses the phrase “African American” or even “black people.” The student is white. The reaction of the class – almost all white – is swift. As if choreographed, all eyes turn to the one student of color. The spotlight of eyes shines down and he or she blinks back as if staring into the sun. The teacher should use this moment to open a discussion.

America’s schools are more segregated now than they were in the late 1960s.

Will the Supreme Court outlaw purposeful integration of our schools?