October 2021

Small Bites Friday Five 10-29-21:

20-30m – Hang out on the National Park Service’s Telling All Americans’ Stories website (although you could spend hours on NPS.gov going on history adventures). Afraid of pushback for telling diverse stories? Consider having your classes do research on the history of regions, cities or even neighborhoods.

15-20m – If you think teaching about places is a more neutral way to enrich curriculum, mine the nps.gov site on “National Historic Landmarks in your community and across the nation” for content and context.

10-15m – If you are reading online publications with your classes, consider magazines like the Smithsonian’s “American Indian” which build present day context and cultural literacy. (Note, the moniker ‘American Indian’ is still an official US designation in legal documents and is used in certain settings. In the classroom setting, acknowledge national heritage–Cree, Choctaw, Caddo, etc.– when referring to your students)

5-10m – If you only have 5-10 minutes, look through “American Indian” and bookmark 2 or 3 articles to explore with your classes during November, Indigenous Peoples month.

0-5m – If you don’t have much time, take a couple of minutes to think about what you might not know and how you can make time to keep building cultural literacy when you are busy.

Every time I thought about the “SohCahToa” teacher in California who has sadly been vilified and shamed by her peers all across the country, I wondered how she must be getting along. This was not ‘Karen’ and the Scary Black Man birdwatcher in Central Park. This was someone who made a mistake–a very insensitive, unlearned mistake. And she won’t be the last to do so.

Learning gaps

We’ve all been taught a one-sided version of history and that’s a problem. The things I teach on through my work I have learned mostly through extensive research as an adult. Once I realized that there was more to the story, I began to dig. But like that teacher, I didn’t always know what I didn’t know. I was 16 and a high school senior before I realized that the Confederate army was not fighting for me.

While riding home from school one day when I was a young girl, our car
stopped next to a truck at the traffic light. The truck was standard issue
for the area—big mud terrain tires, a gun rack, and a red flag with white stars and
crossed blue bars in the window. I said to my mom that I wanted one of those flags
for my room. She and a friend from work who was also in the car laughed. I pressed
on, insisting that the flag was cool and would match my Americana theme. They
froze, exchanging a look of incredulity. They asked me one question: “Do you know
what that is?”

-Finding Your Blind Spots, Hedreich Nichols

Now, if I, a Black person, born in a Negro hospital, missed the fact that the Stars and Bars were not flying for me and that in actuality it was them “D*mn Yankees” who were fighting for my freedom, how can we expect someone who probably has not been touched by racism to get how wrong the whole SohCahToa thing was?

Complicity?

That teacher is a symptom, not the problem. What she did and didn’t learn–what we all did and did not learn–is the problem.

Look through your social media pages. How many of our friends regularly post pictures of diverse groups of friends? Further, churches, schools and neighborhoods are still often segregated. Lastly, what we are fed online ensures that our filter bubbles are pretty air tight. Don’t see this as an accusation. It’s simply our harsh, segregated reality.

Making Way for Change

So what’s the plan? What do we change to move toward real integration (because we want to, not because we have to)? How do we keep learning when our plates are already overflowing? What educational and legislative shifts are needed to keep these incidents from happening time and time again?

• Diversify your own circle.
• Don’t stop learning. Use the resources here and on reputable sites to broaden your cultural knowledge base.
• Ask your students whose narratives are centered and whose stories are missing. Ask them if they know why certain stories might be missing. STAY NEUTRAL. Let student led discussions land where they may.
• Use your voice to advocate for legislative change–or to fight against it.

It’s easy to look at someone else’s behavior and see how bad it is. It’s much harder to change our own behavior. Again, let’s do the hard thing–one small bite at a time.

NOTE: If you are enjoying the preview of Finding Your Blind Spots, please join me for my birthday bash and book launch on December 3rd. RSVP below.

Oh so NOW you’re mad? You want to try, judge and jail a teacher for being ‘racist’? You want to say with surety she did all that stuff we saw in the video with malicious intent? 

Was it bad? Yes. Was it an offensive and insensitive display mocking the sacred traditions of a community this country has already taken from over and over again? Yes. But before we go casting stones:

Could we have made the same mistake?

Have you ever watched a Western?

Did you watch Pocahontas without having conversations about the real daughter of chief Wahunsenacawh? 

Have you ever celebrated Columbus Day or Thanksgiving without telling your children and students the truth about the Taino and Powhatan?

On the flip side, have you ever organized or even participated in a protest against legislation that restricts multiperspectivity in classrooms?

Have you voted in every local election and researched stances of the candidates who sit on your school boards?

Are you willing to teach truth even if it means losing your job?

Between ignorance and appropriation

The teacher in California made a really bad mistake, one I wish she’d had the education not to make. But: let he who never celebrated Halloween with a “hula girl”, an “Indian”, a “hobo”, or a “gypsy” cast the first stone (fyi, all inappropriate terms and costumes). As an applied researcher, I spend countless hours learning things I should have learned in 18 years of schooling. Unfortunately, like this teacher, the education I got did not arm me with the cultural capital and historical truths to be knowledgeable and empathetic towards diverse populations.

It’s easy to feel self-righteous because you know how wrong and hurtful this is; but it’s much harder to do the work to ensure that everyone in this country understands that this is wrong and hurtful. 

Now’s the time to do the hard work and leave the stone casting to those pretending to care.

What you can do

Find out about your local politics here.

Find out how to contact your elected officials here.

Find an organization and get involved here.

This week’s Friday Five comes in the form of a chart with activities to help you make a difference.

Trade Guilt for Action

When talking about creating more equitable systems in education and beyond, there are so many triggering phrases. “White fragility, White supremacy, White guilt, White privilege…it’s understandable that districts and politicians fight against the propagation of curriculum the feel includes language that makes students feel guilty for being White.

What Do You Hope to Achieve?

What do those phrases achieve? Do they cause good guilt, the kind that moves people to moral action? Or do they just make people feel bad and shut down? My guess is, the latter. When we use language that causes people to turn away before looking critically at why they feel bad, we miss the mark. The goal of talking about systemic inequities is to create more equitable systems. That can only happen when we use persuasion. Yes, guilt works (helLO, how many of us never miss gatherings and events out of a sense of guilt and obligation). But while guilt and obligation sometimes get compliance, they don’t produce change.

In Finding Your Blind Spots, I talk about going for less guilt and more accountability. What can you be accountable for TODAY that will take a small bite out of inequities that you see in the world? What can you learn today that will impact your students positively, especially those who may lack equal access and opportunities? Most of all, what guilt can you let go of? When you look critically at the systems that marginalize and disenfranchise some, what actions can you take to make them better?

Action and Accountability

The best anecdote for guilt is action. Feel bad about not going to the gym? Go to the gym. Feel bad about eating too much junk food? Eat salad. Feel bad that so many stories are missing in current curricula? Find additional stories or teach your kids research and media literacy skills and let them find stories.

I understand that those words and terms have validity, but so does knowing that ‘these jeans really do make my butt look big’. Depending on how I feel about my butt and who tells me that it looks big, that phrase just might make me give up jeans to hide under mumus and big roomy tops. What is our purpose in using terms like White guilt and White fragility? Who is the audience? Where are they on their journey and what action will those words cause them to take? Will using those phrases help or hinder?

Go for the Goal

I don’t advocate tiptoeing around feelings or helping people to keep blinders on. There are inequities baked into our systems that we need to change; and that’s not comfortable to talk about. However, when we talk about the changes that need to take place, let’s do so in a way that makes a positive difference. If that means we use a spoonful of sugar to get the medicine to go down, so be it. Keep the end goal in view.

And if you need some sugar, let me know. I have extra.

Who are our heroes? What do we celebrate? Why do we celebrate them? And if it’s still Hispanic Heritage month, do we have to deal with it at all? So many questions. I have no answers. Except, decide to look beyond the surface.

It seems Columbus day was not all about Columbus after all. The holiday was always embroiled in turmoil and oppression. Now, this day means “see me” to Native American tribes. An acknowledgement of the decimation, genocide, sexual abuse and other crimes committed against indigenous peoples is what the day is about. As a start. So, let’s start. Read up on the early colonial lack of regard for life of non-Christian, non-western European people. And tomorrow, reflect and remember. And mostly, share this perspective.

Voices that have been silenced should be silenced no more.

No Man is an Island

If ‘no man is an island, no man stands alone’, then the same is probably true of schools. A school is not an island, separate from the community it supports. As we look for ways to close ‘learning gaps’ and combat ‘learning loss’, let’s first remember that until the 70s, this country was still legally legally non-White student access to the same education it provided White students. That means that 50-something Gen Xers–especially in the south– were just beginning to go to integrated schools. It also means that many teachers had to teach children they grew up believing were inferior.

Separate was never equal, but integration came with its own problems. The educational gaps we talk about began when it was illegal for my forebears to learn to read. And the great-grandmother who helped raise me was born only one generation out of slavery, so that was not so long ago.The disparities were always there, COVID has not unearthed something new. However, how can we acknowledge what the pandemic has highlighted and use that knowledge to make our educational system better for all students? 

I See, I Wonder…

This week, start with a little research. Archie Bunker, famed protagonist of Norman Lear’s All in the Family,  thought the playing field was level and that “Spics and Spooks” were just too lazy to get their piece of the American Dream. Let’s see if that holds true, or if there is inequity baked into the systems. Do some research on redlining, redistricting and gentrification. Oh, and here is a recent article about redistricting in my home state of Texas. As you read, make a few notes. What do you notice? What do you wonder? How is what you read related to ‘learning gaps’?Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or IG and let me know your thoughts. Knowledge is power, and learning about the roots of educational gaps will help us become real change makers. 

Additional resources:

The Counter Narrative Podcast on Redlining

All in the Family S1E1

Small Bites Friday Five 10-1-21:

20-30m – Pull out your college reading skills and read pp. 1-20 of “Academic Discourse and the Formation of an Academic Identity: Minority College Students and the Hidden Curriculum” from John W. White of the University of North Florida and Patrick R. Lowenthal of the University of Colorado at Denver to gain context for and understanding of hidden curriculum.

15-20m – Familiarize yourself with the trauma experienced by community members of the non-dominant culture with this research article, “Challenging Definitions of Psychological Trauma: Connecting Racial Microaggressions and Traumatic Stress” from Kevin Nadal and Tanya Erazo and Rukiya King. Can you empathize?

10-15m – Explore terms and inclusive language in GLAAD’s reference guide, intended for journalists, useful for all. Chances are, if you are not a member of the LGBTQ+ community or someone who keeps up with race and gender linguistic changes, you may not be as sensitive to inclusive language standards as you should be.

5-10m – Use the above link and scroll down to the glossary of terms. An inclusive classroom begins with inclusive, validating language.

0-5m – Read Douglas Starr’s take on scientist Jennifer Eberhardt’s work on implicit bias. As the article’s pullquote says, “She is taking this world that black people have always known about and translating it into the principles and building blocks of universal human psychology”.

Archie Bunker, All American Hero

This week, I watched “All in the Family“, a sitcom from the early 1970’s (start at 8:30 and watch, if you have Amazon). I played a portion of it for my son and he had to ask, what year that was. When I told him, he wanted to know how it could seem so current? As the protagonist used degrading terms towards women, Blacks, Hispanics and liberals, it all sounded so familiar.

Sadly, half a century later, the arguments and issues are the same. The group with power and privilege is trying to hang on to that power and privilege. Before you click away, let me explain. Archie Bunker, a working class White male, really believed that America was for him and those who looked like him. Anyone else was seen as an interloper. Personally, being neither White nor male, this often feels like my world.

Equity and Access

Watching the news of redlining and redistricting reminds me that systems still hinder equitable access to wealth and education. Reading about voter legislation that makes voting harder for disenfranchised populations in many ways feels more like the 1960s than the 2020s. In short, there is still much work to do at the individual, community and systemic levels in and beyond our classrooms. How can we make the American Dream is accessible for all?

Make that Change

For those still trying to tackle the hard work we do in creating access and equity on our campuses, Finding Your Blind Spots, my upcoming Solution Tree book, can help. Before the December 3rd release, I will be going through each of the book’s guiding principles to help you transform your campus one small bite at a time.

Begin by using the resources above to create a learning environment that welcomes and validates every student. I’ll see you next week with more.