This is an e-mail I found in my inbox recently.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around this, and I am wondering what you think about it. I’m a (white) teacher in a small district in Portland, Oregon. Each year, our entire district staff gathers together for an opening address from the superintendent. Since this is the third new superintendent in the time I have been there, I am pretty familiar with how these opening addresses go from new hires–usually they tell about their background in education, give a PowerPoint presentation about their family, and then they try to get us pumped up for the school year by talking about the progress we have made toward state testing goals. The majority of the staff had never met the new superintendent or heard her speak since she was hired over the summer, so this was our first impression of her.
This year, it seems, we are going to be doing some work with equity training. I think we do need equity training in our district, and I think that we need to be able to talk openly about issues of inequity. I think some of my colleagues have little concept of “white privilege” and how much it can affect interactions with our students. Our district is comprised of mainly white teachers, and we have a pretty diverse population; there is also a lot of evidence that we are not meeting the needs of all of our students, particularly our Latino population.
After introducing herself and going through the slide show about her family, the new (white) superintendent put up the equity slide and started to talk about why equity was important. To illustrate this point, first she had all of the administrators who went through the equity training come up and talk about changes in our demographics in the time that they had been in the district. Then she started talking about her own views on why equity training was important–she talked about the district she came from in Washington that had a large recent immigrant population of Vietnamese and Cambodian students. She said something along the lines of, “And as I looked at these little brown faces in my classroom…” then told a story about how a Vietnamese child brought a pepper in and challenged her to eat it, which she did even though it was extremely hot. After that story, she talked about her husband’s Nigerian pen pal who she and her church sponsored to come to the United States. Finally, she asked the audience members if they had any stories about a time that equity affected their lives. Three people went up and shared stories–one about teaching in Latin America, one about a former student coming up and hugging her in the store and telling her he had just got out of jail, and one about subbing in our district before she was hired on and having a black student question her and comment about how he had never had a non-white sub before (she was Hawaiian).
I felt really uncomfortable, and my first impression of the superintendent was pretty negative (which disappointed me since this is the first female superintendent we have had). I am trying to figure out if this was partly because we don’t talk about race very often, but I feel like it was a lot more than that. I felt like the superintendent’s two stories were condescending (the first one felt like, “Gosh, I just loved teaching these kids who were so different!” and the second one was about how she and her husband “saved” her husband’s pen pal.)
I have been following your discussions about race on your blog, and since you are an administrator, I found myself wondering how you would react to this presentation. While I had the chance to talk to a few different colleagues about it, I was the one who brought it up each time. Am I overreacting? Underreacting?
Cassie
While I took the time to email her back right away, I wanted to also share my response to her questions.
Hi Cassie,
Thank you for that question and for illustrating the background information so well.
You are asking all the right questions. I can only assume that “equity” training is the same thing that we call “diversity” training, but from what you’ve described it sounded more like “inequity” from the condescending tone of the overall conversations. My first impression is that this is what I call the Tacos & Sombreros approach to talking about culture and race. And that is a shame because it was an opportunity to truly discuss the actual Latino population that you have. It’s like having all those Latino students and teaching about culture but limiting it to bringing in tacos and a sombrero to the classroom to sum up an entire culture. It’s lazy and thoughtless and offensive to do that to people.
My views as an administrator are that we have to carefully navigate these waters. If I were to be presenting and had these Latino students in my demographic population I would have most definitely invited them into the conversation. What a great way to interview them and get their views on what is needed in your district. Why we don’t listen to the actual children we teach is astounding to me. All it takes is a few one-on-one conversations to get to the meat of the discussion. What would they say about equity and inequity in your district? What are their thoughts? What about the thoughts of the teachers of color who teach them? They should have been LEADING the conversation.
It is easy for me to sit here not having attended that meeting and see the flaws, but you already saw them. You saw the White Savior perspectives from the superintendent and that made you uncomfortable. Good for you! These are the kinds of things that I get weary from pointing out to people because I wish they would see them, too. And first. I don’t want to have to be the one to always say, “Excuse me, can we take a moment to talk about our perspectives on race and equity and get the other side of the discussion? Because those are the people from whom we should hear.”
With that said, it’s a start. A small one, but the door is open. As a leader, it’s my role to take this and tell staff that we have to take the next steps now. As a black woman used to these uncomfortable discussions, I would feel the need to mention that we will feel more discomfort as revelatory moments come to light and that we must have patience and better ears to hear from those in positions of having racism hurled toward them. Those voices cannot be marginalized in a conversation that is aimed at helping them get more equity in the larger scheme of things.
Readers. How would you respond to Cassie? Do you have words of wisdom to offer her? I told her I would use this so she could get more feedback from people and not just me.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
1. I’m sadden that ‘equity’ has now become synonymous with diversity when it’s not. Equity looks at structures and systems in a way that ‘diversity’ does not.
2. I would shy away from making TOC (teachers of color) the sole experts on issues of racial/ethnic diversity. It also places an unfair burden on them to educate White people. We need to appropriately challenge White folks who are unaware of their Whiteness to explore it. You can start with something as basic as Peggy McIntosh’s ‘Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack’ activity. Or the ‘Privilege Walk’ or ‘Circles of my Multicultural Self’. It’s simple yet powerful.
3. Why do White people think they have no culture? Read ‘How The Irish Became White’ or watch ‘Gangs of New York’. White folks are cultural beings, stop looking to the ‘other’ to define culture/diversity/multiculturalism.
4. I agree there is something so powerful about using student voices. They are honest testimonials about their experiences that can forever change the way we engage.
Regarding number 2 I would say that I don’t want to make the TOC the sole experts, but too often I watch things like this play out and I wonder why no one even ASKED for the opinion of those people. No, they’re not experts, but they have a voice here, too, that is far too silenced.
You summed up your number 1 so perfectly. Thank you for saying that.
I love that Laila brought up the invisible backpack. I love talking about the invisible backpack. I feel like I reference it just about every time I talk about race. But I think ultimately even discussions about the backpack won’t change anything until “we” (White) people learn to recognize that this is tough stuff and uncomfortable and that we have to work through the discomfort before we are going to get anywhere.
I would start by saying that I think it’s great that the superintendent put the issue of “equity” (which she is conflating with diversity) at the fore. It’s “a start”. But she is hiding behind the comfort of the savior idea, which we are socialized to use as the easier way to think about race. So it’s a start, but not good enough.
I think the book that had the greatest impact on my life in talking about race and thinking about race is John Edgar Wideman’s _Brothers and Keepers_. It is powerful, it is accusing. It made this 20 year old white girl squirm and feel defensive and angry. But then I read it again and the second time around I was able to deal with my guilt better- in part because Wideman himself is dealing with a certain kind of “white guilt” (the guilt of being a Black man who chose a “White” life). Until then, I could talk about the backpack, I could be conscious of it, but it never really hit me the way it should until I forced myself to grapple with discomfort and guilt and set aside the guilt that is about ME and not about the actual injustice.
The fact that I read that book 10 years ago and am still talking about it might be a hint at how profoundly it changed my life. I’ve recommended it to my own students in the past. I’ll recommend it now– perhaps the superintendent would be interested in starting a reading group/reading list that would help break down some of the discomfort.
Me, too, with the invisible backpack! That is classic and easy to use no matter the comfort level because of the discussion it sparks.
A hearty AMEN from me for this line you wrote: “But she is hiding behind the comfort of the savior idea, which we are socialized to use as the easier way to think about race. So it’s a start, but not good enough.”
I found two links for it:
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html
and
http://www.uakron.edu/centers/conflict/docs/whitepriv.pdf
And here’s a video of Peggy McIntosh speaking about it and realizing the existence of the knapsack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRnoddGTMTY
I cannot even count how many people’s eyes I’ve opened with a conversation about the invisible backpack. It’s a bit like that video where people are asked “when did you decide you were gay”?–people have just never thought of it in this way before.
What I’ve seen at the school I’ve been with the longest, which is half Latino and half-white with a majority of white teachers, and an African-American principal and a Latino dean of students, is that the difficulty lies in people listening–really listening–to one another. There’s so much defensiveness from all quarters and that really blocks progress and understanding.
Moving on from McIntosh’s knapsack–which is totally important is a viewing of The Color of Fear–it is an honest, if sonetimes, hard conversations about race and stereotypes. So much of education speak is mired in stereotypes (ruby paynevas a glaring example) and saving those disadvantaged students that the system works hard to keep disadvantaged, that it has become hard to have an honest conversation. I’d love all new teachers (and veteran) to watch the color of fear in small groups and have n open and safe discussion. That is what we need an we need all voices recognized.
totally typed the above comment on my phone–sorry for the typos.
I just hope the people within Cassie’s community are ready for REAL conversations about race, instead of whatever just makes them feel comfortable and distant. I’m glad Cassie was disturbed by it and willing to talk about it; I would’ve been disturbed (and confused?) as well. What a strange way to begin a year.
Having grown up in Portland, I am sad to say that the situation Cassie describes is very common. There is the belief among the white community that they are not racist when they actually are quite racist and have done a lot to keep minorities in their place. But they sure give diversity and equity a lot of lip-service. No one is interested in a conversation that might make them uncomfortable. It is the epitome of “I’m not a racist but….” conversation. I am glad that she sees the problem and I certainly hope she can help be part of a genuine solution. I’m afraid Oregon is way behind in getting beyond our “whiteness” and the inherent privilege that comes with it.
Thanks, Lucinda. I just remembered that I’m featured on BlogHer Culture and Race today so I’m sure to see more new comments (or get more emails?). I have no idea what Oregon is going to do about this until they are forced to – that is, if they ever are.