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How Whiteness Was Constructed in the United States

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How Whiteness Was Constructed in the United States

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This fantastic podcast series/season explores the construction of whiteness in America. Chenjerai Kumanyika (now @ Rutgers) is a contributor to the series.

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it's an old story.

Why? Where did the notion of "whiteness" come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?

Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels ne

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Discussions of racism should be uncomfortable, especially for white folks. What about these opening chapters made you uncomfortable?

Reynolds emphasizes that this is not a history book, it’s a present book. What about the first sections of this book feels most “present” to you?

In addition to understanding the history of racism, it is important for us to have models of what antiracist action can look like. What examples of antiracism stood out so far for you? What inspiration do they give for your work?

The authors talk a lot about the contradictions of Thomas Jefferson. For example, he believed slavery was wrong but continued to own enslaved people. As we strive to be antiracist in our own lives, can we identify ways that we participate or remain complicit in current systems of oppression that don’t align with our stated beliefs?

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While Kendi and Reynolds use the term "slave" throughout Stamped, we think it's important to use the term "enslaved person". See this article for some content.

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This article supplements Episode 1 of The History of American Slavery.

1. Now Is the Time to Refresh Your Memory on the History of American Slavery

2. How Black Soldiers Showed the North That the War Couldn't Be Won Without Them

3. "The Psychological Effect of Slavery on [the Slave Owner] Was Fatal"

4. Blogging W.E.B. DuBois' Black Reconstruction

Should the historian's first responsibility be passively representing the past, or actively seeking to right its wrongs, even if in some small way? Academics are divided over whether to use the term slave or enslaved person to describe black victims of institutionalized forced labor in the United States. The debate has even spilled from the windows of the ivory tower, with a Straight Dope poll inviting respondents to weigh in on the harsh single word versus the multipart "circumlocution." ( Bondsperson has emerged as a distant third contender.) It may seem like a meaningless exercise in semantics, ancillary to the system's central sin. But larger questions crowd close.

Slave remains the more popular and widespread term. Yet, in the '90s, an era that saw sensitivities to language increase, especially in academia, enslaved person supplanted it as the "superior" phrasing. The heightened delicacy of enslaved person-the men and women it describes are humans first, commodities second-was seen to do important work: restoring identity, reversing a cascade of institutional denials and obliterations. As one academic posted on a humanities and social sciences message board, " Slave is reductive and static and does not accurately reflect reality. Enslaved individuals are ... complex human beings." To reduce the people involved to a nonhuman noun was to reproduce the violence of slavery on a linguistic level; to dispense with it amounted to a form of emancipation: "Doesn't emphasizing the personhood of people held as slaves allow us to escape the legacy of slavery, and free historians to better describe the past?" Or, as the writer Andi Cumbo-Floyd eloquently put it: "We carry them forward as people, not the property that they were in that time."

Advocates for enslaved person claim that slave imagines slavery as an internal or even metaphysical condition, not an imposed and arbitrary one. Whereas enslaved person makes clear that the status is involuntary, and-as one grad student argued on the message board-dynamic. "Slavery," he wrote, "is ... a process. It's constantly being negotiated. ... For slaveholders, maintaining slavery legally, socially, and culturally is a constant struggle. And the reverse is true, of course, for slaves."

But others disagree. Historian Eric Foner thinks substituting two words where one will do is needlessly obfuscating. "I was taught long ago by my mentor Richard Hofstadter that it is always better to use as few words as possible in conveying an idea," he emailed. " Slave is a familiar word and if it was good enough for Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists who fought to end the system, it is good enough for me."

Foner's stance is not quite expressive economy uber alles. Rather, "I do not think that slave suggests that this is the essence of a person's being," he clarified. "It is a condition in which people find themselves and that severely limits their opportunities and options, but it does not mean, as some claim, that the word means they are nothing but slaves. Slaves are human beings and can be husbands, wives (in fact if not in law), fathers and mothers, members of religious groups, skilled craftsmen. ... All people have multiple identities, including slaves."

Yet, if Foner questions whether slave does what its detractors say it does, still others favor the wordprecisely because it seems to blot out the complex skein of roles that constitutes a person. For this faction, enslavement " pervades and conditions all other identities, either chosen or given." To suggest anything else flies in the face of empirical fact-it "implies a degree of autonomy that was simply never there." More, sugarcoating the language of historical recall wastes an opportunity to reinforce slavery's inhumanity, to hammer home the brutishness of the perpetrators' worldview by forcing readers to inhabit it. (One thing the slave and enslaved person camps can agree on? The term slaveholder is far too kind. "That terminology is a gift," historian Joshua Rothman told me. "They are thieves of others' humanity. Man stealers. Vampires.")

All of which raises a host of questions. Is it more accurate to emphasize people's agency within the crushing institution of slavery, or to drill down into the system's demeaning horror? And accuracy aside, what's the more responsible route for a historian?

Peer through the keyhole of the terminology debate, and you'll glimpse a bigger argument being hashed out. If you sing the inventiveness and resiliency of enslaved communities-men and women who resisted, or educated themselves; who became fully actualized humans and created a rich culture-you risk implying that slavery wasn't that degrading. You insult the experience of the victims and almost apologize for the system. On the other hand, stripping enslaved people of agency would seem to reenact the evil of taking them captive in the first place. "There's a long history of people arguing over the 'degradation' issue and using it to justify paternalistic treatment," said Rebecca Onion, co-host of Slate Academy's History of American Slavery. "After the war, people said, 'exslaves can't take care of themselves so we need to do it for them.' "

In some ways, the debate echoes conversations about domestic violence. Are battered women "victims" or "survivors"? What's worth more to someone who has endured terrible treatment: an affirmation of their indomitability, or a respectful and empathetic acknowledgment of all they've been through? In theory, the two aren't mutually exclusive; in practice, they're tricky to reconcile. Historian Roberta Gold, drawing on her experience volunteering at sexual assault crisis centers, voiced doubts about mandating one term or another:

I am all for empowering people who've been abused, but I've often wondered whether these semantics weren't more important to the counselors and advocates than to the women who'd been raped and beaten. I've heard some of the latter say "victim" without seeming to think it was a dirty word. And indeed, why should victimhood be shameful? As well, the idea that there is a right and a wrong term seems to fly in the face of one of the best lessons I got from my counselor training, which is that different people respond differently to the trauma.

All fair points, and yet I'd argue that victim does something different, language-wise, than slave-while it defines someone as a passive recipient of abuse, it doesn't shear away her humanity. Enslaved person seems useful because it can convey the monstrousness of slavery without subsuming those it describes into a separate ontological category. In fact, by underscoring victims' personhood, this phrasing perhaps conjures the system's evils more vividly.

"I have come over the course of my writing over time to try to use enslaved people when I can," Rothman said. "But I am not quite as doctrinaire about it as some people are." In his work, he's "concerned with how a sentence sounds as well as the political implications of my language. I don't like reading anything that pounds one word into your head over and over."

Isn't the aesthetic argument-sentence variety, etc.-a bit of a cop-out? "It's impossible to strike the right balance between a dehumanizing institution and one in which people were able to carve out lives of meaning for themselves," Rothman continued. "There's no right answer." Still, he would rather downplay the self-determining powers of the enslaved than understate slavery's abasements. "There's no way to get around how dehumanizing it is to be turned into a commodity," he said. "You can try to use your scholarship to restore humanity to people, but it doesn't change the history of it."

"I think we like stories of agency too much, and they make us feel better about something that was totally awful," agreed Onion. That said, she prefers enslaved person to slave. Acknowledging slavery's real degradations doesn't have to mean "using words that strip humanity from the people who were affected." That's why in Slate Academy's History of American Slavery, she's referring to the nine human beings whose stories the series tells as enslaved people. Language should be a light cast back on the past, not another set of chains.

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This article supplements Episode 1 of The History of American Slavery . Now Is the Time to Refresh Your Memory on the History of American Slavery How Black Soldiers Showed the North That the War Couldn't Be Won Without Them "The Psychological Effect of Slavery on [the Slave Owner] Was Fatal" Blogging W.E.B.

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Great Canadian resource worth adding to your summer reading list

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Great Canadian resource worth adding to your summer reading list

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Hi Folks, I just thought I'd share a very powerful book called Black Life: Post-BLM and the Struggle for Freedom written by Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi. For me (a Canadian), it provided a real reckoning about Canadian history and how we (as Canadians) like to tell ourselves that we were never involved in the enslavement of people (a "myth", that the authors say we've created and that we perpetuate in our history classes). As a history teacher (and a white woman), I felt like the authors powerfully kicked my chair out from under me. At 95 pages, it is a short read but an incredibly powerful read. I encourage everyone (especially those who teach history) to check it out. It is valuable to anyone who wants to read more about how to overthrow the Eurocentric vision of history...and how to re-shape education systems.

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What is racism? (paraphrased from Keziah)

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What is racism? (paraphrased from Keziah)

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Racism is the belief that assigns innate thoughts and characteristics to a group of people based on their race/ethnicity. The notion of the "superior race" wields power over those groups seen as "inferior race." Power is essential to this conversation. Prejudice + Power + Enforced Racial Inferiority = Racism. While Kendi acknowledges how he and other Black folks may internalize racist ideas, this does not give white people an out from doing this work. While Black folks don't have power as a group in a white supremacist society, Black folks have been able to build power thru their agency to fight white supremacy.

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21-Day Racial Equity Challenge — America & Moore

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In 1996, America & MOORE, LLC was established to provide comprehensive diversity and leadership trainings, workshops, keynotes and consultation for schools, businesses, colleges and universities. After 20 years, our list of challenging and action-oriented sessions includes, but is not limited to White Women Teaching Black Boys, The N!gga(er) Word, America Is Changing: Are You Ready?, The Personal Achievement Gap, #Zero2Hero: An Addiction and Success Story, White Privilege 101, Diversity, Power, Leadership & Moore. Founder, Dr. Moore is recognized as one of the nation’s top motivational speakers, educators and consultants, especially for his work with students K-16.
Dr. Moore is co-founder of the on-line journal Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, co-editor of Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories and the forthcoming book, A White Women’s Guide to Teaching Black Boys. Dr. Moore received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Education Leadership. His PhD research is on Black Football Players at D3 Schools in the Midwest. (T): @eddieknowsmoore | (IG): eddiemoorejr

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"The ADL, Anti Defamation League, has great resources, but I also have read that BLM has had problems with the ADL. Is anyone knowledgeable about this?"

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Question 1:
- Experiencing a different type of uncomfortable - kind of uncomfortable in our anger and rage that this is still the same - and acknowledging that this anger is not helpful and not productive
- Also constantly feeling the need to recalibrate our thoughts to make them understandable for staff who are not on this path or interested in having these conversations
- Additionally we talked a lot about feelings of anger around how long change is taking in our schools and with our colleagues - things have taken years to even see the slightest amount of change

Question 2:
- We overwhelming felt that this whole book feels like the present, because it is all still happening
- systemic racism has made this a cycle and we can't seem to break out of this "present"
- same things keep happening over and over again, and the current news cycle feels like it already happened 50+ years ago (because it did)

Question 3:
- We struggled with this one

Question 4:
- Thomas Jefferson is our school administration who might have something written down in policy, but that is not how it plays out in the school including discipline rates
- And even if we do have policies - again actually having the back up, support, and enforcement from our admin
- Along with admin - we talked about not wanting this is be another checkmark - that we want to push our schools to actually create and implement these policies, but still acknowledging that some of our districts, including school board members, are openly racist and that our policy changes might not be approved due to these board members
- Talked also about how we want our admin to be leading this charge - but really its teacher coalitions of the willing who are doing this work and then sharing it with their admin

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What made me uncomfortable:

Feeling like I’ve been hoodwinked, feeling like I was told a lie about history my whole life.

Learning that people used the Bible to condone racism

Growing up liberal, but recognizing ways that I still participate and benefit from racist systems

Seeing myself in assimilationists

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Racism in my district has been reflected through test scores.  All too often the babies of color are ignored.  That leaves me with a visceral feeling after having read "White Rage."

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Racism in my district has been reflected through test scores.  All too often the babies of color are ignored.  That leaves me with a visceral feeling after having read "White Rage."

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Discussions of racism should be uncomfortable, especially for white folks. What about these opening chapters made you uncomfortable?
 
Thomas Jefferson “I have black friends, I’m not racist” - disconnect between overcompensating with niceness bc of being over conscious about race
 
Past teachings of Cotton Mather without the racist perspectives; only knowing/teaching the white perspective.
 
Assimilationist - Segregationist - Anti-Racist: Fear of falling into category of assimilationist. 
 
Highlights how little questioning we’ve done while learning White history. 
 
The fact that the historical accounts here are so different from what I was taught in school/what the norm is in school. 
 
Every time there is an inch of “freedom”, there is always some loophole that continues to uphold oppression. 
 
Reynolds emphasizes that this is not a history book, it’s a present book. What about the first sections of this book feels most “present” to you?
 
Narrative as the driving force (from a Black perspective!) realizing how susceptible we are to narrative. 
 
“a history of racist ideas is a product of these heartbreaks” (i.e. the murders of young Black folx) the injustice that is happening today is a direct result of the formation of the ideas that are outlined in the first few sections (i.e. abolitionists v anti-racists is parallel to reform v defund)
 
There are racist institutions and then people develop racist ideas as a result of that. 
 
No such thing as a “non-racist”. You are either anti-racist, or you’re not. 

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Room 38
-QUESTION 1: Uncomfortable with thinking about what my own family history could be: what could have been happening in our family that we don’t know about. Uncomfortable about being blind to these examples/ not knowing about them in the past. Uncomfortable with oblivion of the history of racism. Uncomfortable knowing Harvard and other major universities—which we have been taught to worship—have deeply racist roots. Uncomfortable with the idea that the American Revolution was founded on making money (tobacco) and knowing that part of what motivated colonists was the British disapproval of slavery. 
-QUESTION 2: Politics and drive for power/ greed are still so relevant now; power hoarding in order to maintain white supremacy and racist policies. Same ideas are here today, but have evolved (sometimes) into new forms. Coded language, like those from the Enlightenment, is very present today. The discussion of changing police funding feels very connected to abolition that 
-QUESTION 3:  Anti-racism: Leaning into some difficult conversations recently and getting some push back from that. Activism. Learning from William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator to think about what voices we are lifting up. 
-QUESTION 4: We remain complicit in how we teach/ what we teach. Contradictions of where do I sign my kids up to do an activity? Different choices we make with our families. Our approach in the classroom is often very white supremacist (sense of urgency, scheduling, etc.) Schools are set up as systems of oppression. How do you undo an institution? Going deeper in material instead of just going through/ covering material. It is political to get up and teach every day. Huge responsibility as educators to consider the opinions we put forth in our classroom (explicitly and implicitly).

Take-Away: TEACHING IS AN INHERENTLY POLITICAL ACT. We have a responsibility to consider the ideas and opinions we put forth in our classroom (both explicitly and implicitly).

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Uncomfortable--
Writing Style didn't mesh with what we have come to think of as "professional" writing that we've been taught to trust.
Reflecting on our own school experiences and how much we didn't learn or how we were taught to be an assimilationist in school was uncomfortable.

This is a "present" book---
So much unrest in our country right now.
Upliftsuasion is evident in our schools
Framework of segregationist, assimilationist and anti-racist highly applicable to today

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Ways that we participate or remain complicit in current systems of oppression that don’t align with our stated beliefs?

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Ways that we participate or remain complicit in current systems of oppression that don’t align with our stated beliefs?
Social justice focused in my school but the school still has racists systems.

Don't always spend my money in a way that matches my belief.

Schools still give SAT, ACT and AP

Tracking students

Live on colonized land

Myself and my children have benefited from generational (middle class) wealth.

Don't attend local political discussion to ensure local policies are antiracists and equitable.

I don't have to think about race all the time.

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Grew up in Texas, learned everything white. I realized that the things taught in school were whitewashed. This structure is not an accident. BIPOC students have shared family stories of college being too hard or not for them. I felt with my racial identity I was taught to keep quiet and not speak up. It is not an accident. Supplies are so limited. My brain is also mush. People in my community have sparked my antiracist work, have to be constantly active, take part in uncomfortable conversations, learn more and stand up for ending racism.

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-Thinking about few teachers pre-teacher service that are teachers of color and how to make sure they're comfortable.
Trying to restart conversation with family that isn't yet comfortable with the idea of systematic racism and what it means to be antiracist.

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We spoke about education and standardized testing - is there racism "baked in" to this systemic form of assessment ? Is racism responsible for the disparities of achievement?

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We spoke about education and standardized testing - is there racism "baked in" to this systemic form of assessment ? Is racism responsible for the disparities of achievement?

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Breakout 29 again: We spoke about how we have unintentionally help up white supremacy in our classrooms--uniform codes, an unforgiving college rah-rah message. Also discussed how we can integrate discussions about race into various subject areas.

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Breakout 29 again: We spoke about how we have unintentionally help up white supremacy in our classrooms--uniform codes, an unforgiving college rah-rah message. Also discussed how we can integrate discussions about race into various subject areas.

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1- Uncomfortable to read the book, tbh - I was crying and drawing hearts in the book - I think I was expecting something hurtful, and I was so delighted with what I was reading. We can't try to change people - that's the point, that I saw myself. I always want to change people! I'm good enough the way that I am. It really shocked me that black people can't be racist against white people. I expected the book to be like white people are like that, but it's very straightforward. And I'm having a hard time with Abe Lincoln.

2 almost done with White Fragility. That's ok. I find myself, my discomfort - because I'm fresh out of the white fragility book, I find myself questioning every thing that I do and here, what did I just do that was racist. I know that Reynolds and Kendi's book...is needed. Making yourself so vulnerable. We ventured into this territory about five years ago with training our school - and the backlash that we got from our white teachers, that pushback - I can't be a racist - happened at the school. I get overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done.

3 the way that she found this book, approached stamped the ReMiX with a way to bring to ninth graders. What originally rocked me was uplift suasion and the difference between segregationists, etc. That happens a lot with white educators, especially in California, and need to help people codeswitch to meet an academic ideal, what is being left out of the conversation, and that was what felt present. The idea of uplift suasion...big. This is what is in this metaphorical language that we are using. Did not have a neat conclusion.

4 -grew up in VA, so the idea of uplift suasion, just remember having those ideas imparted to me, this is uncomforable, good Black people act like this, and just having to unpack that, those ideas, they remain. At one point, Reynolds says that Fred. Douglass was a (?), just taught that book to my ninth graders. But I thought what was really present was the unwinding of the history, that is the important work, and watching as my own ideas and interpretations have shifted, and that felt really good.

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Work and presence can contradict themselves as a white educator

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W- Hypocrisy of Jefferson: How do our own actions contradict what we say we belief? A lot of work we do in schools fits into assimilationist category. I want to interrogate that tendency in myself. I want to be careful how I define success so it is not just a white assimilationist idea of success. 
- Kendi talks

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Two teachers from Philly, 1 from Vermont, 1 from CT

What makes us uncomfortable?
- Assimilationist term hit hard/personally
-When SEL is used as policing (from Medium) - forcing an angry child to "calm down"
-The drive for assimilationism is deep; the examples from the book were challenging (Douglas; MLK, Obama, etc)
-Where are we complicit? We can't always recognize it (and that's part of it).
- Athletes/power/celebrity - often have to assimilate

Thanks for the great discussion! Nice to meet y'all!

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Joyce, Nancy, Lindsey, John, Bayard, Sarah

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- lots of thoughts going through the mind
- questions like "how much can I do? how far can I go?"
- trying to see the inequalities in our school and acknowledging
- seeing if there are policies in place to try to make an equal outcome
- constant reflection

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Lucy, Angela, Anna, Brittany, Nola, Nicola

Discomfort:
-"Uplift suasion" showing up in classroom
-I know I benefit from things that are racist - gentrification, myth that STEM is colorblind, environmental racism, Harvard's racist legacy.
-Science/math field founded on early racist founders/idea.
-The controversy/ ridiculousness/despicability of arguments around "What to do with enslaved Black people" in America
-Kendi and Reynolds show the nuances/complications of many prominent Black leaders/thinkers - they ascribe to assimilationist ideas - will some White readers see this as an out?
-Disturbing how familiar these long-ago European arbitrary ideas about Black people are today

Present:
-Respectability politics around George Floyd protests/property destruction (this is assimilationist)
-People today make the argument that racism doesn't exist anymore - "Why are people protesting" UGHH
-Facebook reveals people's bias, ignorance, and need for continued antiracist efforts
-Do we implicitly send the message to kids that they need to be the "good type" of POC? Do behavior management systems reinforce racial biases?
-Associating Blackness with criminality
-Thinking about how we teach history of institutions in America

Antiracist action:
William Lloyd Garrison: amplify/publish Black voices, change other White people's minds, defy stereotypes

Complicit:
-I can choose not to act/protest- this is my White privilege
-White educator of primarily students of color in an (underfunded) educational system that disadvantages them

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- intro
- how present the book is
- to be an antiracist we need to be persistent and self aware had Thomas Jefferson embraced those tendencies, it would have identified those contradictions he said he supported

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Surprised by the role and impact of religion
The listening of the book being listened to
The idea of how racist ideas progressed to fit the circumstances (especially in USA)
To understand how racist ideas progress...then you have an opening to a deeper understanding of how the systems are created and are used as a means to an end; to make racism validated.
The content...how did we not learn more of this?  How can we do better as teachers~!
The most present part--the effects of racism/systematic racism.
I'm a teacher; what else can I do...it's the system!  But to be an anti-racist leader...I can bring things to the school, administrators, AND my students. It's huge, but I have to do it.
I am willing to face my discomfort...as a white person it's not fair for me to stay in my bubble.
Why is there such a huge gap in my learning?  I am apalled by what I don't know!
Also worried about putting my foot into my mouth; to get rid of these ways of how the world sees ... it's uncomfortable.
And should I be pushing back (white savior aside), we have to work to push...to think of different ways to make changes
The various ways of being uncomfortable
We can walk away from this work (white teachers) or just go home or take the weekend off, while PoC cannot
Political Issue vs. Moral Issue...W.L. Garrison...with people wrestling with Black Lives Matter (a statement of fact); this is not political, it should be moral...some things are not up for debate.
We need to push back to make it less political
We can't be color blind...it ignores what is so pervasive; the more we don't talk about it; we need to speak out more often; to accept this as truth.  STOP BEING SILENT.
This is not political; this has to become a part of who we are
We need to experience discomfort; courageous conversations; or we are complicit (to avoid an argument, etc.); so important to break down the walls; call people out and get called out.  Color blind...when you are called out as "making a big deal" or "being mean" or calling out colorblindness...
Recommend--Courageous Conversations
How do we engage with others

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Breakout Room 50
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Breakout Room 8:
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Ways we currently benefit:
-Working in a selective private school
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We're all over the place in our book progress.
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Breakout Group 34
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Lisa, English teacher, says her initial teacher training was antiracist

Mark, 
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Breakout Room 7
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*Sometime we have guilty feelings about having white privilege.  Also working on ourselves as a white person.  How can we be actively anti-racist.
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Discussions of racism should be 

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- intros & talk about goals (how to bring race conversations into our school communities & do so w/out other white ppl "shutting down"; how to keep anti-racist work front and center plus actionable; "new to me"; raised in land of privilege and white suburbia -- some of us; including question re. how will this unit of study affect your diverse group of learners;
- responses to the 1st question:
- not white so not feeling uncomfortable but angry - as POC what kind of person is teaching
- the gaslighting continues across the centuries
- the systems that we're leaving in now , opening chaps help me see the starting point
- ppl in power doing whatever "they" can to maintain power (shifting the focus to maintain "their' own power)
- uncomfortable: assimilationist & uplift suasion vis a vis being conformist and a rule follower = complicit
- also uncomfortable with unknowing (not having been taught the history)
- where I'm at right now: you don't know what you don't know.
- others also uncomfortable w/ how much as a white person we are ignorant or uneducated to. Action - push/bring the issues into the classroom
- helping to unpack behaviors and attitudes I've/we've had as a white person (process & understand where things come from)
- sharing of overlap between Muslim ideology and beliefs w/ Judeo-Christian. Educ system set up to keep black students down rather than help them know and believe they have

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Sarah, Heather, Sheila, Marcia, and Dana.

Takeaway: The discomfort of recognizing what we didn't learn in our own education as children and the fact that we've been and are now mouthpieces for this problematic material and curricula in our classrooms.

Our textbooks: Do we teach them critically? Change them?

We need to do this work now; “be interruptors.”

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Payton (teacher in san diego), John (teacher in Chapel Hill), Kate (teacher n CT), Mary (middle school librarian in Chicago) & Ashley (social worker in MO)

We discussed liberals mentality, closing the achievement gap (even ESOL performing higher than Black students), what feels present? Students now speaking up - turning point in history - hopeful that there is a level of change reached, summer reading, biological theory,  white liberals, contradictions - wanting more diverse , discussed standardized testing & more equitable ways to test- asking students what they wanted to learn and then assess, project based and inquiry based learning - students makes choices around learning, due to Covd19 schools are refining themselves - how we can use this time to dismantle racist policies in our schools

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Points of contradiction/conflict
-Working in a selective private school
-doing antiracist work in a situation that is really inequitable
-benefiting from wealth
-Sense of safety in public spaces
-White women are  the least threatening people to police...thinking about how we benefit from that.

Considering "safety"....for everyone else to be safe,  is it necessary to give up safety?

Thinking about "great schools ratings".  Why are those schools getting those ratings?  How do schools manipulate those ratings through what they choose to report.  Considering privilege to "curate" our lives.
Reflecting on school choice, shifts in neighborhood diversity.  We are normalized to predominantly white neighborhoods and rooms very often.
On safety, the privilege of being able to teach our kids that cops are helpers.
On teaching...
Being a white teacher in a school of    students who are predominantly not white...what are the privileges that allowed me to get here....
Reflecting on the ways we (white people)  have all benefited from systems of oppression
Considering the gaps in our education, in the history we learned. Unlearning history. The racism of William Lloyd Garrison and Abraham Lincoln.

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Lisa, English teacher, says her initial teacher training was antiracist

Mark, who works in DEI, and is the only Black male who is a teacher (not just a coach) asking himself how he has been complicit in racist systems, or acceptance of racism. More barriers need to be removed (I.e. police brutality)

Hannah, who lives in Coeur d’Alene ID is thinking about correct and true information in her social studies teaching, especially for White students. Learning from Black Woman educators on Instagram. Headed Read Across America group at school away from Dr. Seuss celebrations.

(Clarifying Amberlynn, many “standards” in the elementary music classroom are rooted in racist traditions like minstrelsy.)

The group began a discussion about “age appropriateness “ and how it is really an excuse for White parents’ discomfort. Building up personal identity is really important... maybe foundational before deeper discussion.

Malcolm X’s idea of self-defense is more the American norm than peaceful resistance was.

Why and when are we learning and having these conversations?

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1.) Gaps in U.S. History. How we were taught history in the past and how much was missing. It is so different than even how I taught U.S. History years ago. Learning about John Locke and Aristotle in a very different way, in a white-washed way.
Constant brainwashing.
Uncomfortable looking at your own heritage.
Knowing where you come from, but knowing black friends and the fact that they may not know where they come from.

2.) The pacing and the tone of the book keep it present. The categories of segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists used throughout the book keeps it present.
Quick recap mentioned keeps it present. Beliefs are the same.
"whenever people rise up against bad things, things get worse" -page 24
Push-back against progress and activism just like we can even see today.

3.) William Lloyd Garrison as an antiracist and jumped right in to wanting to work for change. A sense of urgency.
Like today just seeing "reform" as a way to progress, but it doesn't change anything. Real abolition is getting rid of what is not right and build a new system.

Sorry we did not get to question #4

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We're all over the place in our book progress. Some haven't started, some are listening to audiobook, some have read the book and given it to someone else.

1. Discussions of racism should be uncomfortable, especially for white folks. What about these opening chapters made you uncomfortable?

We weren’t intentionally ignoring issues of race, we were just unaware. “Awakening” is a constant journey, one doesn’t just become “woke.”

1. Reynolds emphasizes that this is not a history book, it’s a present book. What about the first sections of this book feels most “present” to you?

In another book, a statistic was cited: there are more black people in the criminal justice system than were enslaved ten years before the Civil War.

There is plenty to learn about present-day racism, Angie pointed out the 21 day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge.

1. In addition to understanding the history of racism, it is important for us to have models of what antiracist action can look like. What examples of antiracism stood out so far for you? What inspiration do they give for your work?

The Mennonites who were Abolitionist early-on, a 1688 town petitioned against slavery.

We’re interested in parsing the difference between Abolitionist Teaching and Anti-Racist Teaching.

1. The authors talk a lot about the contradictions of Thomas Jefferson. For example, he believed slavery was wrong but continued to own enslaved people. As we strive to be antiracist in our own lives, can we identify ways that we participate or remain complicit in current systems of oppression that don’t align with our stated beliefs?

History questions on the state tests aren’t telling the most-honest version of History. Many of our kids don’t see themselves in the curricula.

Give teammates, family, and friends permission and endorsement to call out problematic actions.

How do we—as white employees in school systems—use our power to not be “Mouthpiece of the oppressor?”

Accountability in the school system can be racist, too: how much of the grade is swayed by Privilege (homework, e.g.) and how much of teachers’ evaluations are tied to the privilege (or lack thereof) of their students?

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Discomfort
Shock if historical figures and their role in perpetuating racist narratives (Thomas Jefferson)
Mind-blowing some of the racist ideas that people hold
Realizing the magnitude of the issues, being complicit when thinking we're doing a good job. Recently realizing that we're not doing enough.
Saying the wrong thing.  We need to normalize error.  It's ok to be told that and learn from it.  Overcoming defensive postures.  Supporting self and others through mistakes.
How awful people were/are through religion, economy, etc. Twisting the system to justify oppression.
Jason Reynolds writing style - accessible, fun, especially for young people

Confronting racism - how to do it and continue

Teaching young children - Important for these conversations to start early.  High school is too late.
Decisions to live in white places, white schools. Lack of diversity and culture.  Choices.
White educators in white schools can't turn their heads to the topic of antiracism

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*Sometime we have guilty feelings about having white privilege.  Also working on ourselves as a white person.  How can we be actively anti-racist.
*Feelings that we forget things that we should be holding in our mind.  As well meaning white people, we can be cognitively removed from racism because we have that privilege. Jefferson reminds us that we can be complicit.
* Moving beyond feelings of guilt into a place of active anti-racism
*Can transcribe for anti-slavery letters and documents for Boston Public Library.  Who stood out in the letters? Garrison and Douglass.  Formerly enslaved men were included as well.  Very inspirational.  Anger that  we didn't learn about them in school.  Ability to hold multiple truths (monuments, cancel culture).
*Joining book clubs is about people talking, but it doesn't always translate to action.  It allows for self-reflection.
*History is told by the power of the pen. It is determined by who writes it.  Whoever has the money has the power. Scientific rape is a disturbing topic that is very shocking and upsetting.
*Artis Kapahr recommended
*

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Q1:
--One of the most "uncomfortable pieces" is how "present" and relevant this book is
--Idea of comfort and how we are challenging and pushing ourselves in our schools
--Discomfort with the history of Portugal because of the personal experiences had in Portugal
--Discomfort with "knowingly benefitting" from a system
--Goal of building my "anti-racist" awareness
--What makes me uncomfortable is how much I don't know/perpetuating "white-washed" history
--The depth of the social construction of history
--Knowing that a curriculum isn't anti-racist and the challenges that that comes with colleagues/Dismantle and disrupt
--Pushing on this in personal relationships as well

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-The similarity between current events and the events surrounding Bacon's rebellion
-the creation of white privileges
-the forces of assimilation taking place today in our schools
-the insidious nature of racism- how long they have been around and have infiltrated everything
-constantly uncomfortable with the things i have not been taught and now seeking out that information
-the contradictory nature of our classroom structure. the oppressive nature of our behavior systems and the
-creating student groups that allow for
-DEI work doesn't go far enough, must be explicitly antiracist
-the racists don't stop, antiracist work can't either (learn for Garrison's mistakes)
-making sure we do the work first as teachers, before we begin antiracist work with our students
-being ready to "respond" to racist actions/comments
-being okay w not being perfect before engaging with students

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Laurie, Amanda, Derrick, Vicky, Leah

QUESTION 1:
-As a history teacher, buying into the lies and lies of omission in history and in the classroom.
-So much we do not have to think about due to our white privilege. "I'm not racist"/ colorblindness as a liberal white woman and this has been a wake up since it is so easy to ignore this.
-That was the case for others until this spring (so much came together at the same time such as George Floyd's murder, seeing comments from alum on teachers' complicity in racism, seeing social work during COVID, coming from all angles and that "safe white space" is gone)
-Thinking a lot about how to be an anti-racist MATH teacher.
-Reality of racism having an international history rather than just the racialization of enslavement in the US
-The different theories and justifications that we are still seeing even today, especially around religion (this also connects to the QUESTION 2)

QUESTION 2:
-The idea of creating a divide (at first white indentured servants vs enslaved Africans) that exists today
-Us vs. Them

QUESTION 3:
-The Mennonites and connection to Amish participation in recent BLM
- Assimilation vs. anti-racism
- Dual-consciousness as related to W.E.B. DuBois and Toni Morrison
- Garrison's journey (freedom vs. equality) and trajectory and changing his ideas and growing that we all need to do as we make mistakes and learn more
-Growth is so hard. The importance of being humble and seeing the pieces of ourselves that have different priorities (learning vs. sharing vs. action vs. praise vs. "winning" at anti-racism)
- What are the actions we can do to be anti-racist? Because it is more than in our head.
- Connecting literature to current issues. Refocusing from canon to issues that matter.

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Discussion questions:
The feeling of discomfort - happy to swallow history curriculum taught to me. Idea that a person made up a fiction in order to demonize a group of people in order to build wealth. This was not fleshed out so explicitly before. Only now starting to question the curriculum here.
- Taught for 30 year. Learning things all the time. How I taught history and social studies in the past. I've made so many mistakes, even in the last year. As a christian, how tied to chrisitanity the roots of racism are. I begin to question whether my religion is valid.
- discomfort in exposure. Coming to terms with who you are, knowing or not knowing who you are.
- Growing up in multiracial family, African American stepfather and half siblings. What does it mean to be antiracist instead of assimilationist? Struggling within family with past position as assimilationist, trying to conform to an image of what white supremacy wants instead of upsetting the apple cart.
- Canadian context - lack of awareness about the history of slavery in the curriculum. Encouraged to have more opportunities to discuss connection of Canadian history to US history.

Q2
Anchored in the present with imagery and discussions of racist institutions and robbing people of their liberty, George Floyd.
- Some christian groups today reinforcing things like puritans did. We have expected assimilation in the past.
- Antiracist, I love you because you are like you. Not because you are like the dominant culture.
- Religion as bolstering what it
- History teacher looking at the connections between cause and effect, how things come about.
- Pyramid of hate from anti-defamation league. Identifying bias in the texts you are reading, looking at community and civic minded ideas. Looking at exposure for examining hate and bias.
- Looking for credibility and reliability in the articles kids are reading.
- Looking for ways to act, service, PSA, philanthropy.
- Tension of how to introduce complexity of these historical parallels in a way that is contextually achievable for early childhood education. Bringing in experiences of joy not only trauma.

Q3
Complicity, not very far in the journey of examining own classroom curriculum, what we do in the classroom and the building. Feeling of being a complicit individual with unexamined science curriculum reinforcing racist beliefs.
- Visual of equity in practice is also steeped in white supremacy (something wrong with a short person). Instead evening out the slope as equity.
- Complicity in purchasing habits. Having unexamined habits, purchasing from prison labor. Purchasing local without thinking about racial equity is horrifying.
- Looking at a systems approach instead of looking at individual behaviors.
- Looking at foreign policy, and what actions can be taken.
- To turn to the expertise of people who have been active in social movements for guidance.
- Need for diverse books in early childhood education and resources.

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Themes of being anti racist, while also recognizing ways we are assimilationists -
actively during the pandemic
As ELL teacher and the idea of students having to code switch

How to start BARWE groups
Do this work within districts with limited budgets, as volunteers, and see it happening on administration level.

Distinction of present book vs. history book - this is a present moment issue

Question:
Willfully misled?
Work within the system to make change? Or dismantle it?

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John, Sarah, Clara, Sam, Shannon

-Racism is very attached to education and religion
-Aristotle's role in Racist thought
-The amount of contradictions in historical figures
-How we are socialized to accept racist ideas are, especially by leaders, bosses, family
-How present profit over people feels in our society in present day
-Still withholding rights from people
-White educators really need to do this work, need to get active, and deal with it being uncomfortable
-Book presented a lot of facts that were new, even to a history buff. Leads to question "accepted facts" and shifting perspective.
-Interesting to see that elite educational institutions perpetuate White Supremacy and don't actually combat it
-Book is written in a really engaging manner
-

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#1-what made us uncomfortable?
how much we didn't know, lacked knowledge of conrete examples
-learned a different narrative about race
-feeling "off the hook" becaue its always been "this way."
-assimilationist-triggering
-being "informed" wasn't enough
-believed in changing curriculum to not be "white-washed" but have I worked hard enough to change education; option to "check out" when I want to, not engage; feeling of needing to step up.
#2-
-assimilationists/racists/anti-racist - that the arguments/ people haven't changed.
-systems that amplified white power-tobacco, the church; today-churches, school curriculum, media
-we can't return to normal because if we do we're agreeing to perpetuate white supremacy in our education. Reynolds voice so masterful...
#3-
-Wm. Lloyd Garrison-antiracists still make mistakes
-we're not any one category- different behaviors at different times-journey and work to become antiracist-a verb not a noun
#4-How will we pursue this knowledge/subject? How are we contradictory?
-through groups like this
-being ok with being uncomfortable and making mistakes
-starts with internal work; patient with process but not complicity
-gentrification, spending,
-role as a teacher-have I been an assimilationist in the classroom
-Feeling a bit confused-what is the next step after the internal work.
-Find people to "do the work" with you. How can we "interupt" life in school with ideas we're leanng in books...?

**Nice chatting with you! Thank you!**

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Went over the history --back to the 1400s.

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-When black people behaved admirably, they could prove all people wrong...1790, but feels like it could be today.
-White America wants to see invisibility and conformist.
- The more at ease teachers can feel, the more open the discussion can be.
- Always think in terms of racist or non-racist, but it's really assimilationist, segregationist or antiracist.
- Looking at "heroes" in history. People dismiss their racism as a result of being a product of their time.
-There is a difference in the way our country treats anti-black acts and anti-Jewish acts.
-History is written by the dominant culture or the winner.
-Progress as a country has been minimal
-Reflect on what we have been doing to be complicit or to perpetuate things?
- Transfer ideas to study of missions/American Indians
-Be wary of SEL programs that reinforce white norms

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we all need to be anti-racist

not knowing our true History, upward suasion was uncomfortable, glorifying Abraham Lincoln

fluidity and journey from segregationist to assimilationist to antiracist

gaps in education/feelings of complicity/sense of urgency to learn

Declaration of Independence was written to upload racial hierarchy and slavery

Economic benefits of slavery outweighed humanity for Jefferson (privilege). =economy more important today than protecting people from Covid.

Many examples of Black resistance in parts 1-3

"whitewashing" science with Linneus/Darwin

intersection of racist ideas, systems, capitalism, & "morals"

assimilation in our schools/classrooms

how can school look different?

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Cycles of racism captured in the text—we recognize George Floyd as catalyst to a movement just as Emmett Till was—lead to questions: Will we be aware enough to recognize the latest iteration of racism when it's right in front of us?
Contradictions/ complicity: racist practices/systems within our schools—discipline, grading practices,
How to persevere in this work, to be disciplined about engagement, how to not give in to privilege of putting it down. How much permission/ support to do this work in context of elementary grades?
How to authentically represent other cultures in the curriculum?
Just being part of the school is like being Thomas Jefferson: complicity.

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Discussed reverse racism.

Feelings of being taught lies throughout the school age level of history class/textbooks after reading the book. Book is present because it is the rewiring of what we were taught. How did we not know?!! How can we as Christians counter the role that Christianity played in the system of racism.

Assimilationists part in continuing the power.  Purchasing power can be an active stance to support the black community.

Aristotle's climate theory was shocking: Africans are savages because of the heat in Africa!!  When we reflect, we still see that we, personally, have a lot of work to do.

Conversations with immediate family has been interesting.  Continue the conversations even though we have different beliefs.

We are in cycles/circles. We have not had progress! What will we look like in the fall? When we stand up how do we react to the push back? How will we show up after the current situation is not in the present? How do we move forward.

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*Reflection - more of an antiassimilationist than anti racist - but moving forward.
*Reflection - So many heroes were of a belief that they were better than another race or group.  And how far back racisim really goes
*Reflection - How much Racisim is related to vocabulary (blacklist, etc)
*Reflection - the continuous cycle of backlash when someone tries to make a positive change (all lives matter)
*Reflection - how the cycle keeps repeating, seem to be fighting the same battle over and over
*Reflection - how our history is taught in such a way that we didn't learn about some very strong leaders and how we only learned bits and pieces about select black leaders.
*Reflection - standardized testing is so big in our society and was begun as a racist system
*Reflection - we all have a part in this, we are all complicit in some way.  How are we figuring out how to dismantle the system and how do you create change.
*Recognize that I still have assimilationist thoughts that can turn into actions.  As a teacher I need to recognize those thoughts and actions so that I can make sure that I am not harming others.
*recognize that we have a lot of vocabulary that is embedded in our lexicon and we need to be aware of using different words.
*we as teachers need to teach where the racist ideas in society came from
*we need to assign books like Stamped and look at including more Black History in our history classes.
**Key Takeaways: Racism is a cycle of push for a change with a backlash. The people that we had an "image" of from history as being so positive were flawed and we were taught history through a very different lens than the truth.

Check this out: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=jason-reynolds-ibram-kendi-in-conversation-slj-day-of-dialog-2020-antiracism

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Elana, Laura, Mel, Katie and Erin
*Assimilationist/segregationist/antiracist - a lot of people are spreading assimilationist views so identifying the differences between these three is important
*What made us uncomfortable - feeling a lack of historically accurate knowledge. Where do these ideas that he have really come from? Our history is so connected, and folks have been making SO MANY changes all the way along to justify slavery and mass incarceration
*What feels present - education being a perpetuation of racism (Harvard back in the day, curriculums, tests, etc. today)
*How much of history is left out. Are we really teaching truths? Abe Lincoln as an example, what actually was his agenda? - this makes us wonder what actions are behind changes people are asking for now? You hear top stories but not all the details that show the truths.
-It is weird to read this book knowing SOME of this history. How is this story changed for students who don't know even parts of this history? There are so many articles/sources out there looking at history with varied lenses. You really need to dig in to get to the heart of these moments in history.
-Where does this text fit in a classroom?
-How can we incorporate more stories of Black joy rather than suffering and protest? We focus so much on enslavement, we need to find more resources/texts that show more Black excellence.
-Thinking about where do we start the story of the history of African people. We shouldn't just start with slavery, especially in elementary school.

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Book discussion:
- Read Stamped from the Beginning. Very few examples of anti-racists, first that stood out was hanged for his ideas.
- Crushed by so few examples of true anti-racists throughout early US history. Takeaway: whites can't be trusted based on history. Even abolitionists still operated with racist myth of white superiority, Black inferiority
- Kendi talks about having racist ideas. As a Black educator struggled with Kendi's discussion about Black people assimilating and levels of privilege inspired being reflective about own teaching practice, changing one's own language, e.g. "slave" vs. enslaved.
- Language challenging to work through with conditioning
- Being conscious with students about language, esp. as an English teacher
- Want to go deeper and read Stamped from the Beginning to learn more about history
- Struggle with students new to the U.S., how to fill in information about Black history
- Struck by uplift suasion: Black people fitting with white norms is racist - something I have done as an English teacher, teaching Standard English with the underlying assumption about students' language not being good enough
- It hadn't occurred to teacher to question the system, specifically judging English language learners
- Struck by the contradictions we live in: in Denver teacher strike that teachers won, groups in union became more active, including Black Educator Caucus who felt the union had not done enough. Union only 4% Black, district 80% students of color. Challenged by the critique as a white educator.
- Lot of work to regarding white colleagues' treatment of Black colleagues and in addressing achievement gaps between white and students of color. Gaps second highest in nation in Denver.
- Categories of assimilationism, segregationism, and anti-racism new. Definitions help break it down for students and others doing anti-racist work.
- In Philadelphia, Black History is a required course in high schools for students to graduate
-Stamped sent to teachers to use in this course
- Traditionally taught Black history in February, last February changed to Black Lives Matter with a focus on anti-racism. Most students are Mexican/Mexican-American, 4th grade, had a strong grasp of what was going on around them, had learned a lot from Latinx History month lessons.

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-Uncomfortable with the lack of recognition with the uneven playing field for Black people.
-Uncomfortable being in meetings and not knowing what to say or how to act so ending up listening.
-Unaware of how we perpetuated racist systems in New England.
-Thinking about how many times we have remained silent. Understanding that there is a need for speak. But it is hard to speak up.
-Questioning when to engage and how depending in where you see people in their journey.
-Starting to rely on asking questions to help others understand problematic ideas.
-Seeking out stories and metaphors to help with our discussions.
-First and foremost our role is a learner.
-Different school settings that we teach in: some in mostly white schools some in mostly Black schools.
-Division of working class white people against Black people and Native American people how long standing that has been, distracting from the central issue.
-Realizing that our role as white people is complex and ever evolving and we are required to listen and act

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Emily, Mykhiel, Heidi, Amy, Wendy
Question 1 and 2 linked. What makes them uncomfortable, concepts of inferiority which still feel very present today. The language is "coded", active white supremacist community in Portland, inspiring: Stevens call for reparations, Garrison use of the Liberator as a way to change minds, complicit: being in education which is a racist institution requires complicity,
-making yourself small to make white people comfortable, what language/policies, actively practicing/engaging in anti-racism but complicit in systems and negotiating
-committing to equity as actionable commitments (measurable), complicit in systems that do not align with our beliefs, using this as a text  for school, who gets to tell the story
-Working with "ELD"  connotations of white supremacy, from white area, didn't know ppl of color, learning to do outside of home to understand perspectives of POC, in VA
-Wondering how to be antiracist, feeling uncomfortable

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Themes: how do we change things -- from the inside?
duality/inconsistency
difficult conversations
increasing our engagement
willful ignorance by some
what was missing from our educations

Hamilton musical connections:
Being part of the problem and making change from the inside.
[JEFFERSON]
If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse

[MADISON AND JEFFERSON]
You can’t put it out from inside the house

[JEFFERSON]
I’m in the cabinet. I am complicit in
Watching him grabbin’ at power and kiss it
If Washington isn’t gon’ listen
To disciplined dissidents, this is the difference:
This kid is out!

The power of being the voice of history:

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

Every other founding father story gets told
Every other founding father gets to grow old

But when you're gone, who remembers your name?
Who keeps your flame, who tells your story?

Who tells your story (who tells your story?)

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-In group/out group and prejudices are innate
-Humans like to organize (in group/out group) and create hierarchies with power, which makes us uncomfortable
-reflecting on how we are currently participating in systems of oppression: in school, at protests (becoming scared and leaving), surrounding myself with mostly white friends
-What are our contradictions? We are comfortable with teaching lessons but struggle with talking to adults and/or how we spend money, etc. How are little things/purchases in our every day life participating in current systems of oppressions?
-uplift suasion and assimilation: this is present in our classroom
- We are uncomfortable with the fact that we were never taught this information in school.  Why didn't we learn this in high school and college?  We should teach what we want/know to be true so our students have the teachers we needed as a student.
-The entire book is "present" so students know who they are and where they come from and who they are... racist ideas and racist policy is a cycle which reaffirm systems of power in this country
-We work in racist institutions
-BIPOC are the ones speaking up in many schools to begin doing this anti-racist work... where are all the white teachers?
**TAKE AWAY from grp 40:  We work in racist institutions and we need to take our job as teachers seriously as anti-racist educators and change the racist systems.

# data[].attributes.body
Uncomfortable:
words matter, things never go away
what's been missed in terms of history
general lack of knowledge for teachers---that means there must be a lot of students who haven't had the opportunity to live this stuff
--even present in subject areas like math --

how do we make this a present book?
"What are we hanging on to?"

# data[].attributes.body
Uncomfortable: use of religion to justify racism, realizing underlying racist assumptions in ourselves,  how much we don't know or weren't told,  our own journeys of understanding racism as only actions not policies/laws/histories, loved Reynold's voice and reminders to sit with the discomfort, our own assimilation beliefs especially in school system.
Present: racist beliefs to justify stealing of Black wealth continue, racist beliefs in elected leaders, how we interrupt them or respond to them in our students, helping students see the present examples, not having our movements stop short the way that some abolitionists did.

# data[].attributes.headline
Group #5 Discussion Notes: Whiteness Operates as Assimilationism and Cautionary/Gradual Change 

# data[].attributes.subject
Group #5 Discussion Notes: Whiteness Operates as Assimilationism and Cautionary/Gradual Change 

# data[].attributes.body
W- Hypocrisy of Jefferson: How do our own actions contradict what we say we belief? A lot of work we do in schools fits into assimilationist category. I want to interrogate that tendency in myself. I want to be careful how I define success so it is not just a white assimilationist idea of success.
- Kendi talks about the racist history of standardized testing. It comes around and I don't resist it and I don't ask my students to resist it or to at least think about it critically? Are there racist outcomes due to these tests?
-  Garrison's gradual abolition to immediate abolition (while still holding on to gradual equality position) - I think about how I don't always strike the right cord with moving with urgency as I try to fight racism at my school because I have a desire to be cautious. I want to move with urgency but I don't want to also take leadership from Black students and educators. And I want to move with intention/strategy.
- The justification of slavery based on false theories and that we are still living with that.
-  In my district we are told to meet people where they are. We are told not to rush or push to get more people on board. Paul Groski says we need to hold up those deep in antiracist work as the model and at the center of the school. What will I do next and will it be performative?
- Notion of the achievement gap and what that message is to us and our students. We discuss the data and why are our Black students in the lower performing end. Pay tied to "performance" in DC. How will we resist or not?
-  Standardized tests are used to gatekeep admissions to magnet schools and they result in inequitable access to magnets
- Question of parents sending kids to public schools or not. Being in a neighborhood where there are way more white people living in the neighborhood than the student population at the neighborhood school.

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Before you discuss, have one person agree to add notes from your group to the Padlet.

Intros & Sharing (3 minutes per person)

Name, School/Location, Pronouns

Read or summarize your reflection on any question

Move to next person after 3 minutes

Open Discussion

After each person has had the chance to share.

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Question 1:
- The idea of "the 1st racist" and  how he developed the idea of racism
-William Garrison and how he shifted back & forth between abolition and assimilation -- why was he spotlighted this way? Was he a model of an anti-racist?
- Lincoln and his true plans for slaves

Question 2:
- "History doesn't repeat itself, it is just continuing"
- Hypocritical actions of people who founded this country & the removal of statues currently
- Anger over how history is expected to be a continuum, but it feels like we are going backwards, not forwards
- Johnson wanting to undo everything that Lincoln did -- similar to our current Presidential situation & white backlash
- "If people aren't careful, they can be tricked into believing a big deal is a done deal." pg. 110
- Examples on pg. 111 about what happens after we make progress -- feels like the fight continues
- Assimilationist view "To say that slavery -- in today's time, poverty -- makes Black people animals or subhman is racist" pg. 46

Question 3 & 4
- Anger over the hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson
- Will this time be the time for actual change towards anti-racism?

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Someone may have a racist idea and vocalize it, but what is the context? Is it someone who has been oppressed by a long history/system of racism that has resulted in anger?

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1) Please approach this discussion as a learner.
2) Step Up & Step Back
3) Be honest, be vulnerable.
4) As white people engaged in this work, maintain humility
5) Keep the focus on RACE
6) Expect and accept non-closure

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If you need help, especially during breakout groups, text me at ‪(267) 551-0087‬.

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If you need help, especially during breakout groups, text me at ‪(267) 551-0087‬.

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Any thoughts/feedback for next time? Leave them here as comments.

# data[].attributes.subject
Any thoughts/feedback for next time? Leave them here as comments.