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Welcome to the Diversity Network blog, a source of information and resources for the Fleming community on issues of diversity, accessibility, equity and inclusion at Fleming College. Network members listed in the lefthand column are champions of diversity in their school or department and share information with their teams. To receive regular blog updates, become a blog "follower" by entering your email in the right hand box "Follow By Email". Resources can be found by clicking on the gold Diversity logo to the right.



Friday 13 April 2012

Reflecting on whiteness

In my last post, I shared a work sheet for "A Film About Races: A Fresh Look at Diversity" that we viewed and discussed in a PD session last month. White identity and white privilege are critical pieces of any discussion about race, and even more pertinent in a school where approximately 90% of students are white (Fleming First Year Student Survey - see the equity profile in the Diversity wiki, located at the gold Diversity logo, upper right).

As the film pointed out, whiteness may have no meaning biologically speaking, however as part of our social structure, whiteness in Canada has enormous importance. Many of you teach about the social determinants of health in your curriculum and it is well documented that racialized communities (visible minorities and Aboriginal communities) experience higher degrees of poverty, violence and exclusion (see the Colour of Poverty research located in the wiki this week). But what does being white mean? How do we teach about white privilege and understand our own, if we are white? And if we aren't, how do we negotiate the white spaces all around us?

A colleague has shared with me that using Peggy McIntosh's ground-breaking article on privilege, "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" (1990), may no longer be having the impact it once did in her classroom. This teacher is looking for new ways to address race and privilege, and our demographic reality makes that challenging, as members of minorities will often feel unsafe expressing their experiences. Teachers carry a heavy responsibility to ensure that classroom dialogue, one of our main methods for teaching about social issues, is actually expanding our understanding of one another and not shrinking it, because we are afraid to challenge, or because we fail to see how our whiteness excludes others.

I want to share a student's comments from an article in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication (cited below). It is written by a teacher about a classroom discussion in her U.S. university that occured among a group of 25 students, 21 white and 4 visible minority. A white student asks the question "I want to know - what do they think of us?', meaning what minorities think of whites. An African-American student replies "We think of you as white devils". After some volatile discussion, she further explains what she means.

"We trust you only when you give us reason to. We are always watching, aware that you might do us harm. Our experience with you has taught us to be careful. We are listening, especially when you don't realize. You don't even see us for who we are. You show us exactly what you think about us, and know nothing of who we are. And so we think of you as white devils." (Simpson, 2008, p. 189)

While you may already be refuting this in your head as an American classroom experience, my experience in Black, Latin and Aboriginal Canadian communities here tells me her words reflect the feelings of many in Canada as well. A profound comment like this rarely occurs in our classrooms though, as only the most courageous students (and teachers) will dare surface such deep and disturbing thoughts.

I have thought over and over how I would handle this discussion. How I would be elated at first that someone offered such a powerful position to work from. How I might become uneasy in my own white skin, as students polarized during the debate. The emotions of fear (Can I contain this?), and anger (White students don't get it! Let them live in the skin of another and see!!).

How would you facilitate the discussion if it happened in your classroom? The lunchroom? At a party?

Want to dialogue about race and racism? Post a comment and we'll explore the issue further.

Don't forget to sign up for the May 3rd PD session with the Canada India Education Council on the inclusive classroom and community integration. Register via the PD calendar on the portal.

Reference:
Simpson, J. (2008). "What do they think of us?": The pedagogical practices of cross-cultural communication, misrecognition, and hope. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 1:3, 181-201.