IECA'S ANTI-RACIST EQUITY & INCLUSION INTRODUCTORY PRIMER
We ARE Embracing Accountability and Creating Change
A Workbook INTRODUCTION
This workbook serves as a supportive tool for the introductory primer you will be taking. Anti-racism requires that we engage an unlearning praxis; therefore there are several opportunities for reflection within this workbook. The resources provided are not an end all be all. They serve as an entry point into the work of social transformation.
NOTE: The content contained within this workbook may not be reproduced, duplicated, or transmitted without direct written permission from the author.
02 CONTENTS
01 I AM BECAUSE WE ARE
02 WE ARE OPEN TO THE UNCOMFORTABLE
03 WE ARE ENACTING CHANGE
03 I A M B E C A U S E W E A R E : I N T E R P E R S O N A L G R O W T H A S G R O U N D I N G P R A C T I C E F O R C H A N G E 01
04 Use the space below to write your Defining the reflection. Journal about the single stories that have been told about you. If you are unsure of those single stories you "Single Story" can use these questions to help you. "So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become."-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Where are you from geographically? Where did you grow up? Watch: The Danger of the Single Story Ted Talk What was your family structure when growing up? As described by Chimamanda Ngozi How do you physically present to the Adichie, the single story is the world? stereotypical narrative that we have What is the "single story that has heard about communities that have been told about your culture, been marginalized. Media consumes our identity, etc.?" consciousness! We learn about other How does this make you feel? communities and countries through a single lens, and that lens is predominantly white-centered. You can probably think of several movies that have communicated the narrative that Black students from poorer neighborhoods need someone to educate them and come and save them from their destitute lives. That is only communicated one story. Those single stories can create assumptions about the students and families you will work with.
04 "SINGLE STORIES" IMPACT OUR PRACTICE
Use this space to reflect and think deeply about the "single stories" that have been told about students you have worked in the past. What are the single stories that have been told about the students you have worked with or will work with in the future? Why do you think those stories have been told? How do the single stories that have been told about your history compare with that of the students you work with? Why is it important to be mindful of these single stories?
06 YOU ARE JOURNEYING WITH STUDENTS & FAMILIES
As you journey with students it is If you are an admissions counselor for a important to remember that the “single university, I encourage you to consider stories” that have been told about them the ways specific populations of have an impact on the ways they students have been taught that they engage with education. You should should not reach out to your office know those stories and work to disrupt directly because of the “single stories” the effects those stories have on a that made them feel as if they do not student’s expectations. belong at your institutions. How can you organize admission workshops with For example, those students who feel as though they must perform their stories for predominantly BIPOC communities and admissions will feel pressured to discuss for students with disabilities? For traumatic events that have happened in therapeutic counselors, consider the their lives. There are also students who ways students navigate the stigmas of feel as though they have nothing their “single stories” and the effects interesting to share because they haven’t faced any “challenges.” these stigmas have on the ways students perceive themselves? THE ETHICAL DELIMA
The college admissions process also has a story. Historically, essay prompts, scholarship applications, etc. ask vulnerable students to lean into the “single stories” of their experience. When working with students, have you ever had the ethical dilemma of feeling as if you are suggesting or asking students to "play up" their adversity, trauma, or identity in order to gain admissions? How does that make you feel? Why do you feel pressured to do so?
08 “The work is to crumble the barriers of injustice and shame leveled against us so that we might access what we have always been, because we will, if unobstructed, inevitably grow into the purpose for which we were created.”
-Sonya Renee Taylor The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
09 WAYS TO DISRUPT THE "SINGLE STORY" AS YOU JOURNEY WITH STUDENTS & FAMILIES
As you build relationships with When starting a journey with a new students and families, be student get to know them. Create questionnaires that help you to get to mindful of your lens. How do know a student’s values, desires, and you perceive their stories? Are dreams. As you develop these you starting this journey from a questionnaires, consider using Charlene deficit lens? Carruthers’s 5 Questions as a framework. Charlene Carruthers’ 5 Questions comes A deficit Lens focuses on labels, from her book Unapologetic and she limitations, and barriers. encourages readers to ask themselves 5 It negatively portrays important aspects questions as they organize for social of a student's identity or community and change. These questions have been engages a normative view of a student's adapted on the next few pages as a experience that needs to be "fixed" or framework for you to use as you disrupt "overcome." the single stories you may have when working with students. 5 Questions From Charlene Carruthers
Who Am I? Who Are My People? What Do We Want? What Are We Building? Are We Ready to Win?
https://www.charlenecarruthers.com/
Please watch the Unapologetic book trailer before answering Charlene Carruthers five questions for yourself:
11 CAN YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK IN EDUCATION?
Who Are Our Students & Families? Who Are Their People? What Do They Want? What Are Their Goals? What Are They Building? How Are They Defining Winning?
12 HOW WILL YOU BE COMMITTED TO DISRUPTING THE "SINGLE STORIES" IN YOUR PRACTICE?
13 W E A R E O P E N T O T H E U N C O M F O R T A B L E : G E T T I N G A M O R E C O M P L I C A T E D P I C T U R E 02
14 Language Matters bell hooks tells us, "language shifts how we know what we know." Therefore it is important to build a shared understanding of specific concepts, belief systems, ideologies, and structures. More often than not, many do not take the time to write down their understanding of these systems. Words like patriarchy, misogynoir, homophobia, islamophobia are more than buzz words. They are symptoms of larger systemic issues.
I encourage you to take time to reflect on these belief systems, ideologies, systems. How have you defined them for yourself? How has your learning expanded over time? I invite you to write your definitions of these belief systems and ideologies on the next few pages. Please do not rush to the resources I offer; take time to truly reflect on how you have learned these beliefs and ideologies and how you internalized them. Dig deep and uncover the ways they have impacted your life, the lives of those you love, the lives of students & their families, and the lives of those you may never meet.
04 How do you define... Please provide your definitions in the boxes below: Racism
White Supremacy
Colonialism
White Privilege
16 How do you define... Please provide your definitions in the boxes below: Race
Whiteness
Colonialism
Privilege
17 How do you define... Please provide your definitions in the boxes below: Micro Aggression
Macro Aggression
Intersection- ality
Racial Equality
18 How do you define... Please provide your definitions in the boxes below:
Decolonization
Anti- Racism
Intersection- ality
Racial Literacy
19 RACE & RACISM "But race is the child of racism, not the father."-Ta-Nehisi Coates
Racism: a vast SYSTEM that is five-dimensional: structural, institutional, interpersonal, individual, and internalized. Structural: normalization and legitimization of white supremacy that historically, economically, politically, culturally, educationally, and institutionally advantage white persons. Institutional: racist policies that are created and maintained in workspaces, schools, organizations, governments, the criminal punishment system, and produce outcomes that disproportionally advantages white people and marginalizes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Interpersonal: racism has been reduced to this dimension, yet the structural and institutional dimensions of racism have a significant impact on the ways racist acts micro/macro aggressions are enacted from person to person. Individual: "refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism in conscious and unconscious ways. The U.S. cultural narrative about racism typically focuses on individual racism and fails to recognize systemic racism." Internalized: "racist ideas, belief systems, internalized by people of color victimized by racism."
Race: is a social construct created to uphold, sustain, and maintain a racial caste system and the system of racism in all of its dimensions. It is not biology.
Resources to assist in your unlearning: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexandar Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice The Condemnation of Blackness Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad Dismantling the 4 Dimensions of Racism by Nicole Bedford Race and Racial Identity Racial Equity Tools: Internalized Racism Social Identities and Systems of Oppression Race Matters by Dr. Cornel West Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy Roberts Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity Love, and So Much More by Janet Mock How Does it Feel To Be A Problem? by Moustafa Bayoumi Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil by Dr. Emilie M. Townes
20 WHITE SUPREMACY "I found that white supremacy is more like a poison. It seeps into your mind, drip by drip, until it makes you wonder if your perception of reality is true."-Austin Channing Brown
White Supremacy: The belief that white people are superior to non-white people, can be explicit or implicit, explicitly connected to anti-Black racism. -Emily Schorr Lesnick
Tema Okun explains the characteristics of white supremacy: Fear: use fear to "divide and conquer, always in the service of profit and power for a few at the expense of the many." Perfectionism: uses perfectionism "to preserve power and the status quo." Perfectionism is the "conditioned belief and attitude that we can be perfect based on a standard set of rules that we did not create and that we are led to believe will prove our value." One should question "who decides what is perfect?" Qualified: white middle and owning class educated people "can internalize and assume their own inherent qualifications to 'improve' whatever is in front of them that is 'broken' without acknowledging or seeing their role in breaking it." Either/Or & the Binary: explores "our cultural assumption that we can and should reduce the complexity of life and the nuances of our relationships with each other and all living things into either/or, yes or no, right or wrong in ways that reinforce toxic power." Progress is Bigger/More & Quantity over Quality: characteristics "explore our cultural assumption that the goals is always to be/do/get more and be/do/get bigger." Worship of the Written Word: explores "our cultural habit of honoring only what is written and only what is written to a narrow standard, even when what is written is full of misinformation and lies...includes erasure of the wide range of ways we communicate with each other and all living things." Individualism: "look at our cultural assumption that individualism is our cultural story - that we make it on our own (or should), without help, while pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps." Defensiveness & Denial: "reflect our cultural dis-ease with truth telling, particularly when we are speaking truth to power...white supremacy culture encourages a habit of denying and defending any speaking to or about it." Right to Comfort, Fear of Open Conflict, & Power Hoarding: "these characteristics focus on our cultural assumption that I or we have a right to comfort, which means we cannot tolerate conflict, particularly open conflict...supports the tendency to blame the person or group causing discomfort or conflict rather than addressing the issues being named." Urgency: "a constant sense of urgency reflects our cultural habit of applying a sense of urgency to our every-day lives in ways that perpetuate power imbalance while disconnecting us from our need to breathe and pause and reflect."
21 HOW DO THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITE SUPREMACY MATERIALIZE IN YOUR LIFE? IN YOUR WORK?
Resources to assist in your unlearning: White Supremacy Culture - Still Here by Tema Okun Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Alisha Mernick Instagram Page
22 WHITENESS & WHITE PRIVILEGE
"Being white means that I have the privilege to think that I am not affected by racism. Or that I don't even have a race, because I have all of these other things like a gender and a sexual orientation and those are pretty neat, so I don't have a race. But I do, and I'm whtite."-Emily Schorr Lesnick
Whiteness: centers white culture, history, stories, perspectives, etc., as the norm by which to compare everyone and everything else. Highlights the ways racism elevates white people.
White Privilege: advantages that are taken for granted by white people that cannot be similarly enjoyed nor accessed by non-white persons. It does not mean that white people do not struggle or have barriers; it does mean that racism is not one of those barriers.
As a white person, when journeying with students and families (especially from predominately Black & Brown communities), it is important to reflect on the ways you center your experiences, perspectives, and views and ensure that you are not imposing your lens onto the storytelling or experience of a student whose race differs from yours.
Resources to assist in your unlearning: Explaining Whtie Privilege to a Broke White Person by Gina Crosley-Corcoran A Conversation With White People on Race White Anti-Racist Accountability Mini-Course Privilege 101: A Quick and Dirty Guide White Tears/Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
"Many years ago I began to use the term 'intersectionality' to deal with the fact that many of our social justice problems, like racism and sexism, are often overlapping creating multiple levels of social injustice." -Kimberlé Crenshaw
Intersectionality: "It’s basically a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts."
Resources to assist in your unlearning: The Urgency of Intersectionality Tedtalk by Kimberlé Crenshaw She Coined the Term 'Intersectionality' Over 30 Years Ago. Here's What It Means to Her Today Mapping the Margins Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene A. Carruthers Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory bell hooks on interlocking systems of domination The intersectionality wars
24 RACIAL EQUITY & RACIAL HEALING
"In America, nearly all of us, regardless of our background or skin color, carry trauma in our bodies around the myth of race." -Resmaa Menakem
Racial Inequity: when structural & institutional racism prohibits two to more racial groups from having equal access and conditions discriminatory outcomes
Racial Equity: " is the condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares."
Racial Healing: a continuous process by which one acknowledges racialized trauma in their lives and actively engages the work of restoring and becoming grounded, sound, and whole. Racial healing happens within an individual person and in community with others within and outside of their racial group.
"Healing interpersonal harm requires a commitment to transforming the context in which the injury occurs: the socio-historical conditions and institutions that are structured precisely to perpetuate harm." -Fania E. Davis (p.35)
Resources to assist in your unlearning: The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation by Fania E. Davis My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan- Cullors & Asha Bandele What is Racial Equity? Racial Equity Tools Racial Healing Conversation Guide The Priviledged Poor by Dr. Anthony Jack 25 RACIAL LITERACY & ANTI-RACISM
"In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist" -Dr. Angela Y. Davis
Racial Literacy: "Racially-literate people can discern how racism, both subtle and overt, influences the way we read the world and identify racist structures, examine and critic racial hierarchies, and give voice to the experiences of people of color." - LaGarrett Jarriel King (p. 1304)
Anti-Racism: to actively disrupt and dismantle racism in all of its forms. Deeply rooted in abolition, anti-racism is a continuous process of reflecting, unlearning, healing, divesting, taking action, holding yourself, institutions, structures, and others accountable, freedom dreaming, and actively working to create new systems that will transform society.
Resources to assist in your unlearning: We Do This 'Till We Free Us by Mariame Kaba We Want to do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Dr. Bettina L. Love Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of Movement Dr. Angela Y. Davis This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell Boderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa LaGarrett Jarriel King (2016) Teaching black history as a racial literacy project, Race Ethnicity and Education, 19:6, 1303-1318, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo Start Here, Start Now: A Guide to Antibias and Antiracist Work in Your School Community by Liz Kleinrock The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
26 PAUSE. REFLECT.
There was so much to cover in this section. The resources I offer are in no way exhaustive. They are a starting point. One that is mine and from my unlearning and growth journey. Which means there are so many stories, people, and voices that I have missed. I encourage you to continue your learning journey and expand on the definitions and resources I have provided. We are on this journey together!
Reflect on the following questions: What surprised you in this section? What did I miss? How can you expand these definitions? Where do you disagree with what I have offered? What questions do you have? What is something new you have learned? Where do you go from here?
27 W E A R E E N A C T I N G C H A N G E A N D B E C O M I N G P A R T O F T H E S O L U T I O N 03
28 How do you define... Please provide your definitions in the boxes below: Savior Complex
Patriarchy
Classism
Adultism
29 BE CONSCIOUS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
There are several systems, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that prevent us from fostering authentic relationships with students & families.
Savior Complex: Sytems(s) that affirms a hierarchical notion of who has power to change their circumstances, rooted in a single, charismatic savior, often connected to these other systems.
Classism: Implicit and explicit centering of people with class privilege. Classism results in the systemic oppression of working-class and poor people. Classism operates systemically, institutionally, culturally, and interpersonally privileges those who already have access to wealth, power, or resources.
Adultism: Behaviors and attitudes based on the assumptions that adults are better than young people, and entitled to act upon young people without agreement.
How do these systems, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes prevent you from fostering authentic relationships with students and families?
30 Our only chance at dismantling racial injustice is being more curious about its origins than we are worried about our comfort. It's not a comfortable conversation for any of us. It is risky and messy.
-Austin Channing Brown I'm Still Here
31 WHAT HINDERS ENGAGING & MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE ABOUT MULTIPLE FORMS OF OPPRESSION?
32 Unlearn, Learn, and Grow When discussing bias, discrimination, racism, injustice, or oppression: Read often Reflect continuously Engage in dialogue with others who are informed Reflect some more Pay for professional development Be present & listen
Too often, we choose not to engage in critical dialogue about racism, bias, discrimination, injustice, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Zionism. Xenophobia, Islamophobia, occupation, privilege, ableism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and so many other issues because we are afraid of saying the wrong thing or offending someone. Unlearn perfectionism (a characteristic of white supremacy) and just do it. Have those conversations. Push yourself past your zone of comfort. It is a moral and ethical failure if you do not. These systems of domination have harmed too many students and families, and every chance you get to enact change is an opportunity to create the world those students deserve.
One way to manage our anxiety about offending someone is to embrace the fact that we were socialized into an unloving world and hold racist and problematic ideas. I have created the When We Cause Harm Framework to help you address the impact of what was said or done in ways that do not burden the person or persons that were harmed. The framework centers on healing.
04 HOW DO YOU DEFINE ACCOUNTABILITY? WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? HOW DOES IT FUNCTION?
34 ACCOUNTABILITY AS A WAY FORWARD "Changing everything might sound daunting, but it also means there are many places to start, infinite opportunities to collaborate, and endless imaginative interventions and experiments to create." -Mariame Kaba
Change may feel daunting. Where do we even begin? That is the exciting part. Imagination is the beginning and it will activate and energize you. Consider the journey you are on with students and their families, where are there injustices that are hindering their thriving? What grassroots organizations are working to address those injustices, and how can you support them? How can you leverage your privilege and become a co- liberator in educational justice and equity?
Start here: Name a measurable action you will take to disrupt guilt and ignite change. Make an action plan. Commit to that plan. An accountability reflection calendar is also included as a resource for this training.
35 BE COMMITTED & TAKE ACTION Amplify BIPOC & LGBTQIA voices Address micro & macroaggressions Offer free workshops, sessions, & resources to first-gen & low- income students & their families Take political action Donate What can you add to this list?
There is so much more to explore, and I hope you take the opportunity to do so. I hope that you are unsettled, restless, curious, and inspired. Do the good work of changing your life from within and working outside of yourself to transform the world around you.
In solidarity & love, Ashley Keep in touch!
Ashley Y. Lipscomb [email protected] IG: @antiracitedinstitute Website: antiracited.org
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