Resources from Multicultural Ed & Equity Committee: Combating Systemic Racism & Inequity

SURVEYS

● This pertains especially to Black teenagers: learn more.

● The Harvard implicit bias test for race: learn more.

VIDEOS

● Ibram Kendi's YouTube video on How to be Anti-racist: view now.

He makes the points very powerfully that we are all racist, having 'breathed in' the white-dominated culture from our birth, and that there is no such thing as 'not racist'--we are either racist or anti-racist since there is no in-between.

● Emmanuel Acho’s YouTube video Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

Watch Now

● The Marshall Project: What Becoming American Means Now

● America to Me --series of films shot in a US high school

● A conversation with Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, Dena Simmons, and Brian Jones about abolitionist teaching and antiracist education: Watch Now.

PODCASTS

● The Deep End Friends Podcast, Episode 17: Interview with Ijeoma Oluo, author of "So You Want To Talk About Race?"

● 1619 (New York Times)

● About Race

● Code Switch (NPR)

● Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast

● Pod for the Cause (Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)

● Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)

● Seeing White

BOOKS for White people on racism

- White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo--does a good job of helping majority-culture whites realize the tensions experienced every day by our BIPOC friends and colleagues.

- How to be Anti-racist by Ibram Kendi (also see the link to his YouTube video)

- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

- We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love

- Solving Disproportionality by Eddie Fergus

WEBSITES

● Access lots of free resources.

SYSTEMIC RACISM IN ORGANIZATIONS

● https://korbettmosesly.com/blog/f/10-ways-to-practice-institutional-racism-at-your -non-profit

● https://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/okun_-_white_sup_ culture.pdf

● https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-implicit-bias-training/

ARTICLES

● Performing Whiteness by Sarah Bellamy https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/06/08/the-performance-of-white-bodies /?fbclid=IwAR37wZRXSwwTXfYdzMOIq1jVl0KPyWKpc5sC3y786l-97eO1T9Ber MPQ9iM

● Microaggressions & Microaffirmations, Brown University 2

● ASCD: Building Racial Justice and Equity

● In this edition of Equity Dispatch, Great Lakes Equity Center explores the concepts of Ally & Accomplice: Two Sides of the Same Coin

● Follow-up Article to Video 1-Bias-Howard J. Ross https://medium.com/national-equity-project/implicit-bias-structural-racism-6c52cf0 f4a92,

● https://medium.com/space-anthropology/diversity-is-a-dangerous-set-up-8cee94 2e7f22 (This is a long article but one that makes some important points. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein argues that "a focus on implicit bias at the expense of an attention to both explicit bias and the impact of bias may in fact be harmful to the fight for equality”.)

● https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/making-people-aware-of-their-implicit-biases-doesnt-usually-change-minds-but-heres-what-does-work (See section on discretion elimination particularly with its implications for assessment of learning)

● NextGenNavigator issue: https://www.nsta.org/blog/social-justice-science-classroom

● In this article in The Boston Globe, author/researcher Linda K. Wertheimer synthesizes insights from scholars and teachers on teaching about racism in secondary schools (these come from the article with only minor changes): https://mailchi.mp/aaas.org/arise-august-newsletter-equity-resources-and-more

○ Things to do:

- Before teaching about race, explore and recognize your own racial and ethnic identity.

- Cast a wide net to develop instructional materials, including resources from Facing History and Ourselves (see link below), Colorful Pages (geared to elementary schools), and university schools of education.

- Help foster a schoolwide culture that supports conversations about race and racism.

- Create a classroom community where students feel comfortable having difficult conversations.

- Set parameters for conversations on race, including a reminder that students should speak only for themselves and not for their entire race or ethnicity.

● Things not to do:

- Don’t share personal opinions. Focus instead on guiding students, using history and facts, to reach their own conclusions about what constitutes racism.

- Don’t use simulations, such as slave auctions, as a teaching tool. They can be traumatic for students of color.

- Don’t ask students of color to share their experiences with racism unless they choose to do so.

- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but be sure to own them if they happen.

- Don’t think of race and racism as a topic only for history classes. It can be taught as a part of literature, science, and other subjects.

Wertheimer quotes Hasan Jeffries, an Ohio State University history professor who hosts the Teaching Hard History podcast for Teaching Tolerance, on teaching about racism in mixed-race classrooms: “Most of the white students wind up going through the five stages of grief. It’s denial, anger, sadness, depression, then mad again because they should have known this stuff.” Jeffries suggests that teachers take care that students who are stuck in one of these stages don’t dominate a discussion.

4“Lesson Plans for Racism” by Linda K. Wertheimer in The Boston Globe, August 30, 2020; see also Facing History and Ourselves lesson plans.

Social Media Voices in STEM and Academia

Consider who is represented (and not represented) in your social media feeds. Follow people who share your same values and goals, but whose posts might make you uncomfortable. Reflect on why they make you uncomfortable. Are they calling out behaviors/thoughts/ideas that you hold that you weren’t aware were racist/offensive/hurtful?

#blackbirdersweek

#NativeinSTEM

#IndigenousinSTEM

#IndigenousAcademic

Resources for Teaching

● https://www.teenvogue.com/story/beyond-the-hashtag-how-to-take-anti-racist-act ion?fbclid=IwAR0cn3CItzvqwuJCnx9DMSbsFMN5hcBph4YFydJMFFicVPeteexd dfEPdKk&mc_cid=dcafe5d595&mc_eid=f700310acb

● https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/03/im-black-climate-scientist-racism-derails-our-efforts-save-planet/

● Learning for Justice | Education Resources A wealth of resources for teaching, learning, and self-reflection on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

● Embrace Race Action Guide: 10 tips for teaching and talking to kids about race

● Learning for Justice: Resources about Black Lives Matter

Organized Opportunities for Self Reflection

● Rachel Ricketts

● The Great Unlearn with Rachel Cargle

● Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor ● Check Your Privilege

Options for Action (aka Homework)

1. Take the Harvard implicit test for bias, then watch Ibram Kendi’s video How to be Anti-racist to explore the concept that there is no such thing as non-racist. We all know someone who says, “I’m not racist.” Having seen this video, what do you think of that statement?

2. Take the Harvard implicit test for bias, then watch Emmanual Acho’s video Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. Discuss the video with a partner. What did you learn that was new?

3. To think about how NSTA might unintentionally be replicating white majority values, read one of the 3 articles in the section Systemic Racism in Organizations, and reflect with a partner on how these values do/do not show up at NSTA. What action could we take to change this?

4. Racism in Education Video and Reflection: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q3DvRaKEFVlfjI-BMdRr3hkLPBz2izF0HIV ik9eQLY4/edit?usp=sharing