Research Guides: Anti-Racism Teaching Guide: Self-Education

Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression

Anti-racism includes the actions, policies, and theories that challenge and oppose discrimination, inequality, and prejudice based on race.

Oppression is the use of power to disempower, marginalize, silence or otherwise subordinate one social group or category, often in order to further empower and/or privilege the oppressor. Social oppression may not require formally established organizational support to achieve its desired effect; it may be applied on a more informal, yet more focused, individual basis.

Pedagogy and Whiteness

Books

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F Saad; Robin J DiAngelo
Call Number: Available Online
ISBN: 172820982X
Publication Date: 2020
This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword by)
Call Number: Out of library , New Books--2nd Floor HT1521 .D486 2018
ISBN: 0807047422
Publication Date: 2018-06-26
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
Witnessing Whiteness by Shelly Tochluk
Call Number: Available Online
ISBN: 1607092573
Publication Date: 2010-01-16
Witnessing Whiteness invites readers to consider what it means to be white, describes and critiques strategies used to avoid race issues, and identifies the detrimental effect of avoiding race on cross-race collaborations.
Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence by Derald Wing Sue
Call Number: Available Online
ISBN: 1119241987
Publication Date: 2016-02-01
Turn Uncomfortable Conversations into Meaningful Dialogue If you believe that talking about race is impolite, or that "colorblindness" is the preferred approach, you must read this book. Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence debunks the most pervasive myths using evidence, easy-to-understand examples, and practical tools.
Teaching about Race and Racism in the College Classroom by Cyndi Kernahan
ISBN: 1949199231
Publication Date: 2019-12-01
In this book, Cyndi Kernahan argues that you can be honest and unflinching in your teaching about racism while also providing a compassionate learning environment that allows for mistakes and avoids shaming students. She provides evidence for how learning works with respect to race and racism along with practical teaching strategies rooted in that evidence to help instructors feel more confident. She also differentiates between how white students and students of color are likely to experience the classroom, helping instructors provide a more effective learning experience for all students.
White Terror by Allen W. Trelease
ISBN: 031321168X
Publication Date: 1979-03-21
A paper edition of a scholarly history--first published in 1971 and based largely on primary sources--that treats the post-Civil War South state by state and details the close link between the Klan and the Democratic Party. Trelease (history, U. of North Carolina-Greensboro) also looks at other "night-riding" groups, such as the Ghouls, the White Brotherhood, and the Knights of the White Camellia. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Articles

Utt, J., & Tochluk, S. (2020). White Teacher, Know Thyself: Improving Anti-Racist Praxis Through Racial Identity Development. Urban Education (Beverly Hills, Calif.), 55(1), 125–152.
This article asserts that White teachers in urban schools must turn their racialized focus away from implied deficits of students of Color in the “achievement gap” frame and toward the impact their racial identities have on their craft.
Applebaum, B. (2017). Comforting Discomfort as Complicity: White Fragility and the Pursuit of Invulnerability. Hypatia, 32(4), 862–875.
In this article, I trouble the pedagogical practice of comforting discomfort in the social-justice classroom. Is it possible to support white students, for instance, and not comfort them? Is it possible to support white students without recentering the emotional crisis of white students, without disregarding the needs and interests of students of color, and without reproducing the violence that students of color endure?
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: A Needed Change in Stance, Terminology, and Practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97.
In this essay, I offer the term and stance of culturally sustaining pedagogy as an alternative that, I believe, embodies some of the best research and practice in the resource pedagogy tradition and as a term that supports the value of our multiethnic and multilingual present and future.
Pierce, A. J. (2016). Interest Convergence: An Alternative to White Privilege Models of Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Practice. Teaching Philosophy, 39(4), 507–530.
"In this paper, I offer a psychologically informed critique of and alternative to approaches to teaching issues of race and racial justice that are based on the recognition of white privilege."
Ambrosio, J. (2014). Teaching the psychosocial subject: white students and racial privilege. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 27(10), 1376–1394.
This inquiry poses the question: How can white college students be induced or incited into recognizing themselves as racially marked and privileged people? The author examines white resistance to racial self-understanding by analyzing the relation between white racial identity development theory, appeals to racial discourses and themes, and the psychic need to defend against perceived threats to identity.
Torino, G. C. (2015). Examining Biases and White Privilege: Classroom Teaching Strategies That Promote Cultural Competence. Women & Therapy, 38(3-4), 295–307
This article discusses in-depth how a variety of effective classroom teaching strategies have been employed to assist White counseling trainees in developing a non-racist White racial identity (i.e., by examining biases and exploring privilege) thereby increasing cultural competence.
Jones, R. V. (2011). Pedagogies of Race: The Politics of Whiteness in an African American Studies Course. VCU Scholars Compass.
This paper evaluates students' arguments for a color-blind society to avoid discussions related to the continued existence of racism in USA culture.
Schick, C. (2000). “By Virtue of Being White”: Resistance in anti-racist pedagogy. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 3(1), 83–101
This research, which employs post-structuralist and psychoanalytic theories of identity, investigates processes by which white, racialised identities are inscribed as normative constructions in the discourses of white pre-service teachers at a Canadian university.
Giroux, H. (1997). Rewriting the discourse of racial identity: Towards a pedagogy and politics of whiteness. Harvard Educational Review, 67(2), 285–320.
Giroux places the study of Whiteness in a historical context, recognizing the various modes in which racial identity has been used by conservative ideologues and critical scholars who seek to expand the discussion of race and power.

Teaching Race

Books

Teaching Race by Stephen D. Brookfield
Call Number: Available Online
ISBN: 1119374421
Publication Date: 2018-11-20
A real-world how-to manual for talking about race in the classroom.
Teaching about Race and Racism in the College Classroom by Cyndi Kernahan
ISBN: 194919924X
Publication Date: 2019-12-01
In this book, Cyndi Kernahan argues that you can be honest and unflinching in your teaching about racism while also providing a compassionate learning environment that allows for mistakes and avoids shaming students. She provides evidence for how learning works with respect to race and racism along with practical teaching strategies rooted in that evidence to help instructors feel more confident. She also differentiates between how white students and students of color are likely to experience the classroom, helping instructors provide a more effective learning experience for all students.

Articles

Kernahan, C., & Chick, N. L. (2017). How Do You Listen to Your Students to Help Them Learn about Race and Racism? New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2017(151), 17–30.
Teaching and learning can be especially difficult when the content includes race. We argue here that an effective approach is one that includes multiple angles, learning from our students and from a broad range of colleagues and disciplines.
Thurber, A., Harbin, M., & Bandy, J. (2019). Teaching Race: Pedagogy and Practice. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.
A guide to teaching race that provides five guiding pedagogical principles.

Inclusive Teaching

Teaching Tolerance
This critical practices guide offers practical strategies for creating a space where academic and social-emotional goals are accomplished side by side.
Sathy, V. & Hogan, K. (2019). How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive. Chronicle of Higher Education.
Traditional teaching methods do not serve all students well. This guide is for any faculty member who believes, as we do, that education can be an equalizer. We share tips here that any instructor can use to minimize inequities and help more students succeed. We’re not suggesting a complete redesign of your courses, but more of an overlay to your current teaching practices.
Inclusive Teaching Guide (Brown University)

Allyship

An ally is "an individual who actively and continuously strives towards promoting justice and ending marginalization." (College of Dupage Library, "Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression: Allyship")

Patel, V. S. (2011). Moving Toward an Inclusive Model of Allyship for Racial Justice. UVM ScholarWorks.
This paper is prompted by a single question fueled by a lifetime of wonder. If I, an Asian American, work in the interests outside of my racial group to end a system of racial oppression from which I suffer and benefit from, is that considered allyship? Within the context of working towards racial justice, allyship refers specifically to White people working to end the system that oppresses people of color.
Sue, D. W., Alsaidi, S., Awad, M. N., Glaeser, E., Calle, C. Z., & Mendez, N. (2019). Disarming Racial Microaggressions: Microintervention Strategies for Targets, White Allies, and Bystanders. The American Psychologist, 74(1), 128–142.
This article introduces a new strategic framework developed for addressing microaggressions that moves beyond coping and survival to concrete action steps and dialogues that targets, allies, and bystanders can perform (microinterventions).
Rockquemore, Kerry Ann. (2016). How to Be an Ally to Someone Experiencing Microaggressions. Inside Higher Ed.
Kerry Ann Rockquemore shares guidance on how to respond when you see microaggressions occurring against colleagues.