This blogger responds to the assault of a student at Spring Valley High School and reflects on the message that “kids should just listen and stay out of ‘trouble.’”
Sometimes teaching at my magnet arts school in Alabama, I can imagine the worst days of racism and intolerance are behind us. Most of the roughly 500 students have genuine, deep friendships across racial lines and very rarely do the old racist memes and tropes raise their ugly heads.
What does "white anti-racist" mean? How can guilt get in the way? And what's all this talk about being "colorblind"? Learning for Justice, then Teaching Tolerance, asked community activists to share their thoughts on these questions, and others. Their answers shine light on the concepts of comfort, power, privilege and identity.
Telling only one story of civil rights marginalizes the voices we ignore. It also prevent us from doing exactly what the story of civil rights is supposed to teach us to do―fight for justice in our own communities as those before us did.