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Avoiding Racial Equity Detours by Paul Gorski.

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Avoiding Racial Equity Detours by Paul Gorski.

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Click the image to access the PDF.

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Do you think your
school or district
engages in any equity
detours? How might you
reexamine such initiatives
in light of Gorski’s equity
literacy principles?

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Do you agree with
Gorski’s point that schools
“must prioritize equity over
the comfort of reluctant
educators”? What would this
mean in your school or district?

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What might it look like, sound like, and feel like to engage community members in an article like this?

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The 4C protocol from Harvard's Project Zero is designed to structure a text-based discussion around making connections, asking questions, naming key ideas, and considering how to apply the ideas.

Please read the article and offer your insights in response to each of the four prompts. To add an idea, just click the + button and type. You can also respond to your colleague's ideas.

Since we will be referring to this when we are together, please be sure to include some specific passages from the text with page numbers so we can find it quickly.

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Very important to keep in mind that adopting diversity frameworks built around "culture" are misleading. Also important to not use a student's culture as the reason for any identified educational disparities.

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This article shares many themes with the book "White Fragility". I wonder if the authors of WF would consider the "Equity Detours" as mechanisms that systems unconsciously engage in to maintain the status quo.

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"Equity is neither optional nor negotiable."

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"Equity is neither optional nor negotiable."

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"We cannot fix a problem we refuse to name. If our equity initiatives feature the world culture more than the word racism, we are probably off track. If we adopt an approach that obscures racism behind vague nomenclature like cultural competency or the diverse kids, we might be off track."

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"We cannot fix a problem we refuse to name. If our equity initiatives feature the world culture more than the word racism, we are probably off track. If we adopt an approach that obscures racism behind vague nomenclature like cultural competency or the diverse kids, we might be off track."

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"In my experience "celebrating diversity" initiatives are crafted to help white students learn about diversity not racism but diversity in ways that will be most comfortable for them. In some cases students of color are used essentially as props for the gentle diversity education of white students through activities like "diverse friends day."

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"In my experience "celebrating diversity" initiatives are crafted to help white students learn about diversity not racism but diversity in ways that will be most comfortable for them. In some cases students of color are used essentially as props for the gentle diversity education of white students through activities like "diverse friends day."

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RO Ad Council Avoiding Racial Equity Detours Convo May 3 2021.pdf

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Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Training and Professional Development

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We offer equity, diversity, inclusion, and beloning training, professional development, and assistance for educators and for schools, school districts, and other educational organizations. We also offer equity assessment, policy analysis, and more.

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Equity Literacy for Educators: Definition & Abilities

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Equity Literacy for Educators: Definition & Abilities

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From Dr. Paul Gorski

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Gorski's work makes me think about our growth as a profession over the past 10-20 years.  We've had to confront to basic misunderstandings about this work.  Work that was superficial and sometimes harmful had to come to end.

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"Equity initiatives should focus on eliminating conditions that marginalize students - never on fixing students of color." p. 59, middle column

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Our focus should be on deep structural work that breaks practices that harm students of color.  Be wary of work that does not produce profound change. "We should be instinctively suspicious of popular educational approaches that often detour us around equity with a deficit approach. " p. 59, column 1

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I have not experienced or observed the idea that educators advocating for racial equity are marginalized by their peers. I believe it occurs or Dr. Gorski wouldn't write about it, but I haven't seen it anywhere I've worked in SE Michigan. (p.56)

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Are we driven by authentic desires for racial equity?

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Are we driven by authentic desires for racial equity?

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Organizations often have one of their tenets as equity, diversity and inclusion for all students. I think though that we really need to push on this and challenge one another to see if we are truly living into what we say we value. Otherwise it's just nice words on paper/digital paper(?)

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While I think I agree very much with everything in the article, as it has often felt like we were stuck in the mud and working on things that were more tailored for those that have not been so deeply impacted by systemic racism (e.g. "meeting people where they are"), I do think it has to be acknowledged that these conversations are going to be particularly tough as the level of burnout amongst staff is so high given the events of the past year plus.

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Seems like Gorski's work here builds off the work of abolitionist educators from a few years prior as moving the discussion into one of anti-racism and encouraging schools to tackle systemic issues and get out of the more patriarchal approaches of previous generations of focus on multiculturalism understanding.

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This struck me because I can't answer this for the collective/organizational 'we'. Equity work is hard. You're never doing enough and often you feel like you're doing it wrong. At times you feel unsupported, but you continue navigating through the system the best you can even though you know it's flawed. As a member of a team that makes building-wide decisions, I feel fortunate that I know I have a team that will stand behind me. That's an important part of the work because when you lose your way/will/or drive you need others who have your back so you can continue pushing on the status quo, traditional policies and fixed mindsets...

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Hard truth is racial equity cannot be achieved by "meeting people where they are"

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Hard truth is racial equity cannot be achieved by "meeting people where they are"

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"...while refusing to take a stand on racism is interpreted as a development process" (p. 57).
This definitely occurs...allowing someone to be in the learning process rather than holding them accountable for making equity happen.

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We offer students of color coping mechanisms rather than correcting in-school conditions.