Class info
Welcome! We are so glad you are here with us. This is where info about the class will live, as well as homework.
Please find the Zoom link here.
If you have not already, please send your class payment, info is here.
Thank you!
Independent Work to do before October 8th.
Please read:
European Trauma and the Invention of Whiteness, Chapter 4 of My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem.
Please do:
The ancestor body practice on page 53 of My Grandmother's Hands included in the PDF above.
Please listen to:
How Race Was Made of Scene on Radio's series Seeing White Part 2
Can Our Ancestors Hear Us? of All My Relations, Episode 9
Supplemental listening (optional to listen to now or to save for later)
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynold and Ibram X. Kendi Chapters 1-4.
Please explore this map of indigenous lands and learn about the land you live on now.
Independent Work to do before October 22nd.
Please listen to:
Made in America, Seeing White Part 3
On Crazy we Built a Nation, Seeing White Part 4 (an ableist podcast title….)
The Economy that Slavery Built, 1619 Podcast, Episode 2
Please read:
The False Fragility of the White Body, Chapter 7 of My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem.
To talk about with your partner, or to reflect on yourself:
Fear of open conflict is a characteristic of white supremacy culture, as articulated by Tema Okun.
How does this trait show up in grown ups in your life?
How does this show up in children in your life?
Do you see ways that ‘fear of open conflict’ has used as a tool to enable or justify the harm that has been done to Black and indigenous peoples?
Independent Work to do before November 5th.
Please read:
Children Are Not Colorblind by Erin Winkler
Please watch:
Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police on Refinery 29
Please listen:
Finding Our Way, Ep 6: A Radical Anger with Lama Rod Owens
To talk about with your partner, or reflect on yourself if you aren’t working with a partner:
Sense of urgency is a characteristic of white supremacy culture, as articulated by Tema Okun.
How does this trait show up in grown ups in your life?
How does this show up in children in your life?
Do you see ways that ‘fear of open conflict’ has used as a tool to enable or justify the harm that has been done to Black and indigenous peoples?
Individualism is a characteristic of white supremacy culture, as articulated by Tema Okun.
How does this trait show up in grown ups in your life?
How does this show up in children in your life?
Do you see ways that ‘fear of open conflict’ has used as a tool to enable or justify the harm that has been done to Black and indigenous peoples?
Independent Work to do before November 19th.
Please read:
The First R reader by Debra van Ausdale and Joe Feagin.
Please listen:
The World is Our Field of Practice: Onbeing interview with Reverend angel Kyodo williams
(if you have time) Mind of a Village on Hidden Brain
Please write and share (if you have a partner):
In class last week we did writing reflections on the many different ways children absorb information about race.
I, Grace, shared a story about my husband, Ian, who decided to write a paper in the 1st grade about poverty. The first line of his 6 year old essay was, “All poor people are Black.” He remembers his parents immediate emotional and animated reaction, “NO NO NO! That's not right! You can’t write that.” They were mortified but there was no further discussion. Ian had absorbed this information about race and class from the world around him and not directly from home.
Sometimes grown-ups mistakenly believe and practice the illusion of being the sole proprietors of information. They act as if children in their lives only absorb, interpret, and understand difficult subjects at the rate it is carefully doled out and strategically crafted by adults.
For us adults, controlling the information we share with kids can serve to feel in control of the world in which they live. This practice of control is also coupled with denial which also often makes us feel safe. White folks relationship to control and denial historically, and currently, enable and perpetuate so much harm and violence.
In an effort to build our practice around acknowledging and seeing the actual lives our children are living, and not the ones we want them to live, we can have a deeper understanding about what their lived experiences are. Instead of trying to understand what research (incompletely) tells us about what kids can understand at what age, we can build our practice of seeing their lives as the compass for what we talk with them about and when.
Please take some time to write answers to the following questions and meet with your partner (if you have one) to discuss your reflections. If you already started this in class, consider spending more time with your partner, listening to what they are thinking about, and reflecting if that does or doesn’t also feel true in your experience.
*What are the different ways our children are exposed to information and are communicated messages about worth, value, character, safety, and so on?
*What are examples of life at school and around formal education which influenced and shaped your experience and thoughts about race? What are messages around race that may be communicated to your children (directly or indirectly) at school?
*What are examples of how your religion influenced and shaped your experience and thoughts around race? What about your children?
*What do the demographics of their own group of friends, community, school communicate about race?
*How have your and your children’s experiences with healthcare communicated information or stories about race?
*What about policing?
*Art?
Consider if there are people that influence you and your children who model (consider writing names down):
*perfectionism?
*sense of urgency?
*defensiveness?
*fear of open conflict?
*individualism?
*right to comfort?
*power hoarding?
*only one right way?