We are parents and educators committed to a just and equitable society. This blog is a forum to share ideas and resources to help us teach our children and ourselves about social equity issues.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Jay Smooth on ways to discuss race and racism



This video has been featured recently on several websites, a testament to the thirst out there for helpful suggestions on how to address the topic of racial identity and racism. Jay Smooth, who produces a video blog, Ill Doctrine, is the speaker, and does an excellent job of presenting a shift in the way we can think about racism and microaggressions. He advocates moving away from the good person/ bad person dichotomy to considering racist acculturation as something akin to tooth plaque, something out there in the environment which accumulates and requires daily and intentional action to address and remove from our being. His presentation is a really nice way of minimizing the stereotype threat most self-identified white people feel that they will be perceived as bad racists, a minimizing which allows for the possibility of genuine insight and empathy to emerge from "race" discussions.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

An inspiring speech



An inspiring speech which Zach Wahls gave to the Iowa House Judiciary Committee on Jan 31, 2011 about being the son of a married female couple. Must have been such a proud moment for his parents.