I said in
my last post that the essays comprising Everyday
Antiracism challenge
educators to take
action against inequality in their classrooms. I have learned over the last two
years that preceding any actions taken in the classroom should come deep
introspection and personal grappling with inequalities we have or have not faced
in our own lives, as well as our own contributions to these inequalities. “Nice is Not Enough: Defining Caring for
Students of Color” by Sonia Nieto gets at the heart of the personal development
that needs to happen. Nieto has encountered many teachers, usually white, who
feel that being a “nice guy” is all that it takes to meet the needs of our
students of color. But as I have learned and Nieto points out, our personal
attitudes, feelings of guilt, and being nice are NOT enough to rid our
classrooms or education system of racism. A teacher in the essay describes the problems
associated with just being a nice teacher:
"We have plenty of warm friendly teachers who tell the kids
nicely to forget their Spanish and ask mommy and daddy to speak to then in
English at home; who give them easier tasks so they won’t feel badly when the
work becomes difficult; who never learn about what life is like at home or what
they eat or what music they like or what stories they have been told or what
their history is. Instead, we smile and give them a hug and tell them to eat
our food and listen to our stories and dance to our music. We teach them with
our words and why it’s so hard for them."
Being nice is not going to confront the racist structures
and institutions holding our students back. Being nice is not going to provide
equal opportunities to ALL children. Nieto proposes that to move beyond “being
nice” we must struggle about the hard realities of inequality facing our
students, and the role that the institutions and WE play in perpetuating that
inequality. This means confronting our own privilege and realizing all of the
messages we have absorbed, even unconsciously, by racist media. Nieto’s action
step for educators is to educate themselves on the challenges faced by students
of color by reading things like minority students’ coming of age stories, etc.
We want to truly understand our students’ need, and I guarantee it isn’t just niceness.
This reflection SHOULD NOT be personally comfortable, but it is the only way we
can get to a place personally that allows us to be ready to take actions that
truly provide our students with the equal opportunities they deserve.
Arthur
Chu’s article “Who Died and Made You Khaleesi? Privilege, White Saviors, and
the Elusive Male Feminist Who Doesn’t Suck” describes the difficulty in avoiding
hypocrisy as advocates for social justice (he does this with a discussion of
media, such as Game of Thrones, Pocahontas, and Avatar). As teachers, I would
say that we are social justice advocates, and Nieto has already pointed out at
least one place of hypocrisy for many teachers. Settling for “being nice” and advocating
for equal opportunity for all children is hypocritical. Chu recognizes that
many white people working for social justice are “good guys”. However, many have not done the self-work that
it takes to act in un-oppressive ways for those they want to serve. He
describes the problem as such:
“People of privilege making an effort to be
better people face a difficult quandary. You get inundated by all these
examples and studies and historical anecdotes and moral arguments about the
tremendous destructiveness and evil of the sexist or racist system you grew up
in. You really want to not be a horrible person. (because you are a “nice guy”)
At the same time,
being used to being deferred to and having your opinion listened to and having
your feelings matter is very pleasant. Actually giving that up and stepping
aside to become the unimportant one for once is very unpleasant, even painful.
When you’re used to being in charge you perceive any balancing of the scales as
an attack, any leveling of the playing field as something being stolen from
you.”
“Leveling of the
playing field” is what we are actually trying to achieve in our classrooms,
right? If we want all students to have a fair shot and equal opportunity, then
we must be willing to feel uncomfortable and face the unpleasantness that is
reality. Chu describes how this type of introspection should feel:
“Becoming one of
the good guys should hurt. It should be painful. It should involve seeing
uncomfortable and ugly things about yourself that you’d rather not see. It
should involve changing your behavior in ways that you’d honestly rather not
do.”
“Your motivation to
try to fix the world should not be the prestige, or the money, or the sense of
satisfaction…It should be because the state of the world makes you feel sick
and you want to stop being sick.”
When I think of the
racism, patriarchy, and the many other discriminations facing my students it
does make me sick, as it should. Those issues bring about a side of me, usually
suppressed by my Southern upbringing, which is not so polite. It has been a
journey to get this place, though. A journey brought on by teaching students
who had a whole system against them and desperately wanting to meet the needs
of my students and knowing that I was doing so inadequately. So, I read and I
read some more. I read about many of the obstacles facing my students, both in their
modern and historical context. I reflected on my life and my privilege, as well
as the hurdles put in my way. I am still reflecting and reading. I am a work in
progress and that will never change, or I sure hope not! I will continue to
work on myself because I know it is a necessity not only for my work, but for
my world. It is the first step in knowing the best and most effective actions
to lead myself, my students, and my society to a more equal world.
Get uncomfortable.
Confront privilege. Wrestle with hard questions and issues. Educate yourself.
Experience the pain. Avoid hypocrisy. Stop being just “nice”. Do these things
for YOURself, YOUR students, and YOUR world.
-Ariel Stevenson
Leave a comment!
Please share with us and other readers your own experience in the classroom or in life in general when you realized you needed to do some deep reflection and self work. Include what led you to do that work. I look forward to reading all of your insights!
Please share with us and other readers your own experience in the classroom or in life in general when you realized you needed to do some deep reflection and self work. Include what led you to do that work. I look forward to reading all of your insights!
Resources:
Arthur Chu’s “Who Died and Made You Khaleesi? Privilege, White
Saviors, and the Elusive Male Feminist Who Doesn’t Suck”:
Sonia Nieto:
Buy Everyday Antiracism:
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