Summer Reading List- Part Two

Parent and teacher colleagues,

Here is the second part of a summer reading list- some books I recommend, all of which are engaging, well-written and have changed the way I think about educating our children and engaging the world:

1. Why are all the Black Kids sitting together in the Cafeteria? by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum is an excellent and thoughtful exploration of racial identity development for children and adolescents.

2. If you read the book above and enjoy it, move on to Can We Talk About Race, also by Dr. Tatum. It is an expansion of four lectures she gave over a period of time on topics related to racial identity and education. Profound and thought provoking.

3. How to Rent a Negro by damali ayo is a sharp satire about the tendency of white folks to embrace "diversity" but to engage simultaneously in micro-aggressions and othering of people of color. Be prepared to be discomfited if you self-identify as white.

4. Whistling Vivaldi by Dr. Claude Steele is a review of the most recent science of stereotypes for non-academics. It looks at the negative effect stereotypes have on their target group's performance and how they can be overcome by simple re-framing.

5. Definitely not beach reading is The Everyday Language of White Racism by Dr. Jane Hill. This is an academic text by a highly esteemed linguist and I recommend it strongly. The first chapter is excerpted to the left under "documents you may be interested in."

6. If you are interested in more detail about the principles and framework of an anti-bias curriculum, look at What if All the Kids are White? Anti-bias Multicultural Education for Young Children and Families. This book gets to the practical aspects of implementing an anti-bias curriculum in a school where the majority of students are non-children of color.

Looking forward to next year and a revised and restructured program for Discussing Diversity!

Kindness/ Love is not a pie

Parents and Teacher Colleagues,

I have been thinking about this question: In the service of what do we strive for social justice? There are a lot of strong feelings that come out through this work; anger, outrage, shame. This is to be expected, because these are powerful dynamics, all have suffered, and many, many have suffered deeply. But it feels to me that working for social justice in the service of anger is limiting and risky.

Dr. Cornel West wrote in Race Matters that his goal was to speak truth to power with love. Dr. Hsiao-Wen Lo, one of the diversity speakers this past year, spoke of the need for greater compassion in this work, not just in the direction of people with privilege to people with less privilege, but from privileged people striving to be allies, to other privileged people who may not be as far along in the work. Her remarks were powerful for me, because the meta-message of what she said was, the work is the expansion of compassion and empathy in a fundamentally restructuring way. i.e. Love is not a pie. The generosity in how she framed the task with such inclusion and expansion was profound.

So I am thinking about what it looks like and feels like to do this work in the service of love. Love not in the context of "being nice" or "liking."Rather love of self and the expansion of empathy and dissolution of self so that love of self encompasses love of other. It is a powerful force of wholeness.

This poem, Kindness, one of my favorites by Naomi Shihab Nye, speaks to this expansion of empathy.

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.


Naomi Shihab Nye
from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

Summer Reading List- Part One

Parent and Teacher Colleagues,

Summer is almost here and as we take a break from the school routine, I want to share with you a couple of interesting websites related to social justice parenting. Some of them are dormant, but contain a lot of interesting material in their archives.

http://cocoamamas.com/about/ "Raising cocoa children in a bittersweet world." An on-going parenting blog for mothers of color.

http://whiteantiracistparent.blogspot.com/ This site is dormant but has very interesting observations from a white mother working towards anti-racism as she raises her child.

http://sociallyjustparenting.org/ A recent and active site written by a friend of Dr. Moore. "Resources for raising our children to create a more socially just world."

http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/ This is a dormant site but contains a wealth of material in its archives. The writer is a white male who casts a discerning eye on white culture.

Of course, one of my favorite sites, http://loveisntenough.com/ "Raising a family in a colorstruck world," formerly known as anti-racist parent, is already linked on our blogsite.

Take a look and enjoy!

Josie

Dr.Martin Luther King Jr

Parents and Colleagues,

Have you read the interview Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave to Playboy magazine in 1965? It is amazing to read. He presents his philosophy and the force of his vision, which are far removed from the simplified versions we hear about every February.

Here's an excerpt about this from Tavis Smiley's interview with Dr. Cornel West:

West: I mean, I think it's very important because you see a lot of chit-chat about Martin every year and Martin has been so domesticated and tamed and defamed, you know, what we call the Santa Clausification of the brother.
Tavis: Wait a minute. Hold the phone, hold the phone. The Santa Clausification of Dr. King, which means what, Dr. West?
West: He just becomes a nice little old man with a smile with toys in his bag, not a threat to anybody, as if his fundamental commitment to unconditional love and unarmed truth does not bring to bear certain kinds of pressure to a status quo. So the status quo feels so comfortable as though it's a convenient thing to do rather than acknowledge him as to what he was, what the FBI said, "The most dangerous man in America." Why? Because of his fundamental commitment to love and to justice and trying to keep track of the humanity of each and every one of us.

Take a look at the interview for yourself if you haven't already: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interview

 Have a memorable Memorial Day.

 Josie

How to talk about privilege

Colleagues in parenting and teaching,

I have found the process of explaining the concept of white privilege to white adults to be a tricky business. Have you found this to be true?

With children it has been easier for me. It was my children who first expressed the concept of white privilege to me by noting that if people with dark skin were discriminated against, our family was lucky to have light skin. I remember my alertness at that moment, and the thought of, "We're not supposed to talk about that!" So I have felt myself the reluctance and the sense that if white privilege is acknowledged, the whole house of cards will fall down.

I have found that other forms of privilege are far more acceptable to talk about with white people, class privilege and education privilege being the favorites that are brought up to redirect the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic of racial identity hierarchy and the privilege attached to whiteness. I have found the topic of white skin privilege, as opposed to discussion of other privileges, to be particularly provocative and that it often engenders not just resistance but active rebuke.

There are several reasons for this difference I think. To admit to being the recipient of class and education privilege is a way to modestly brag about one's accomplishments. People tend to believe they have earned the privileges that come with being at the top of the class and education hierarchy. Since white culture values the ideas of meritocracy, Protestant work ethic, and individual competition and attainment, and middle class white Americans have a fair amount of anxiety about how far we and our children will climb in the class/education hierarchy, it is deeply disturbing to be reminded that whiteness is an unearned advantage. Perhaps people think, "I'm struggling here to get my piece of the pie. Now I have to look out for other people too?" and feel overwhelmed and angry. Lastly, discussing white skin privilege or any racial issue raises the fear for white people that they will fulfill the dreaded stereotype that "all white people are racist."

So what to do? Recently I had the pleasure of attending a terrific workshop led by Dr. Steve Jones at the White Privilege Conference. Here is a paper he wrote which discusses privilege and uses the easier-to-access model of right and left handedness to explain it. I send this out as another tool that can be used to facilitate conversation and negotiate resistance. 

Discussing Diversity: Religion

We had our last Discussing Diversity session on Thursday evening with Dr. Pamela Taylor, Associate Professor at Seattle University. For those who were unable to attend, here were some of the highlights:

 1. Given the dominant Christian tradition in the United States and the current deep fear of Islam, Dr. Taylor started the session with an exercise with facts and quotations from holy books and we had to decide which applied to Judaism, Christianity and/or Islam. This exercise made clear the deep commonalities between these three Abrahamic religions, which are surprising even to those well versed in their own religious tradition. We also viewed a trailer for the documentary, "Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam" which Dr. Taylor recommends for those interested in learning more this. Here's a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLnMNfd1Iwo

2. We then had a far ranging discussion touching on atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism and our own personal stories. Noted was the challenge of respecting the traditions of our families and of others without being silent about the unfairness in the practice of religion towards the LGBTQ community and other religious traditions, for example.

Dr. Taylor's advice boils down to things we have already learned to be true about an ideal anti-bias curriculum:

a. Know your own traditions and beliefs and celebrate them with your children (Knowledge of self and group identity.)

b. Be knowledgeable about other people and groups. Read about and experience different traditions. (Empathic engagement with difference.)

c. Be mindful of your language and speak out against jokes and slurs and harmful myths and stereotypes. Silence sends a message that you are in agreement. (Ability for critical thinking and taking action.)

3. Some children's books that I have found helpful are: (click on links to take you to Amazon if you like)

Buddhism: Kindness, A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents

I Once Was A Monkey, Stories Buddha Told

Hinduism: How Ganesh Got His Elephant Head

Indian Children's Favourite Stories

Judaism: Classic Bible Stories for Jewish Children

JPS Illustrated Children's Bible

Christianity: The Children's Illustrated Bible

Islam: Stories of the Prophets in the Holy Qur'an

Muslim Child

Good Whites and Bad Whites: A false Dichotomy

Parents and Colleagues

I would like to share with you an essay I wrote recently about the tensions which can exist for white people who are interested in race and racism. Take a look.

Josie