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"She's just trying to act white." I remember those piercing but confusing words cutting me like a knife. I clinched my Super Reader certificate. My puzzled expression was taken as bravado by the African-American girls, who responded with a threatening question, "Do you want us to fix your face?"

I recently served as a reader of scholarship applications. The process included a complex algorithm for inclusion and took several criteria into account, like GPA, test scores, native languages, income level, assets, essays, parental education level and ethnicity. While providing this service, I came face-to-face with a misconception about race and ethnicity: Appearance predicts what language people speak.

Many affluent students are oblivious to issues of race and class. Here are two teaching strategies designed to open their eyes.

For one family, finding a kindergarten classroom meant getting honest about race, class and privilege.

Two leading multicultural educators reflect on how White teachers can help dismantle a legacy of racial domination and injustice.

In 1957, nine black schoolchildren enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., and compelled the nation to live up to its promise of equality. Fifty years later, Central High's teachers and students revisit the past to help shape the future.

Institutional racism can be hard to spot. Try our strategies for sniffing it out.

Critical literacy can expose the assumption that whiteness is “normal” and provide students support for talking about difficult topics.