(Name-mce) ListServ some quick assistance please

Tue Nov 28 16:21:34 EST 2006

Susan,
My first response after reading the email portion you forwarded is to
not do it. I say this not as someone trying to thwart opportunities to
talk about issues of race and racism in our educational institutions,
but instead as someone who sees the deep need for this conversation, and
as such the need for this conversation to be done very well. Let me
explain a bit more through some commentary regarding the email
forwarded. First, I would say that to give 20 minutes to define
"(stereotype, discrimination, prejudice, racism, race, other isms)" is
not nearly enough time to cover such deep, complicated and important
concepts. Some may argue, "true, but I just do not have time to cover it
in depth" and to that I say, "then perhaps you should not be doing it."
To truly understand how to "Successful(ly) Interactions Across Race
Differences" one MUST truly and deeply understand issues such as (to
name a few) dominance and subordinance, white privilege and white
supremacy (which I notice are not even mentioned in the terms or
outline), the historical nature of the social construction of race in
this country, the deep and complicated interactions between racism and
classism as well as "other isms", and many more. I believe this base of
information is the foundation of being able to do what this workshop is
seeking as its outcome. And, to shortchange that discussion is to
ill-equip the participants and thus set them up to a) fail in
successfully interacting across race differences OR b) labor under the
delusion that they have learned all they need to know and proceed from
an ill-informed perspective and potentially do more harm than good out
of this limited knowledge base.

Second, I would like to restate the importance of critically and
thoughtfully examining white privilege and white supremacy as it serves
to fuel racism and maintain inequitable systems of power and privilege
in this country and certainly in education in the US. I say this not to
reposition white people in the center of the conversation but rather to
hold white folks accountable for their direct participation in the
maintenance of the system of racism in this country. I believe there is
no way to truly talk about interacting across race differences without
talking about white privilege and the social construction of whiteness
along with the categories of color in this country.

Third, it has been my experience that it would take significantly more
time than 60 minutes to discuss what schools are doing well, not doing
well, etc. Whole books have been written on this and if I am trying to
help teachers, students, administrators, or any other stakeholder in our
educational system see what changes need to be made in order to create
an environment that can support successful interactions across race, I
need to do more than what is written here.

As such, I suggest the trainer do much more research than surfing the
teaching tolerance web site and establish a solid informational base to
help the participants see the depth and complexity of the topic.

Again, I am not trying to stop the conversation about race. But, much as
we have said for decades that a heroes and holidays approach to
multicultural education can do more harm than good, so too can a
superficial analysis of race, racism and white privilege. While I
definitely do not claim to be an expert on these issues, I have been
doing trainings on these issues in schools for a few years and have
developed a model that takes 16-20 hours to do depending on what type of
foundation they already have. Given that this group would need to start
with such basic definitions, I would say it would take 20 hours to
truly, deeply, critically and thoroughly cover this material such that
they actually have a change in their understanding sufficient to bring
about the desired goal of successfully interacting across racial
differences. This may seem excessive, but I took 7 hours to do my
pre-conference on this subject and the participants there would probably
tell you that we actually needed double that time to actually do justice
to the topic.

I imagine this email is not quite what you were hoping for and even
sounds a bit harsh, but I feel that it is imperative that discussions of
these topics be as thoughtful, thorough and critical as possible and am
extremely cautious / concerned when there is 80 minutes + process time
dedicated to train folks on a topic that takes much more time. 

Heather Hackman
Associate Professor
Department of Human Relations and Multicultural Education St. Cloud
State University
320-308-4095

-----Original Message-----
From: name-mce-bounces at nameorg.org [mailto:name-mce-bounces at nameorg.org]
On Behalf Of McKevitt, Susan
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 9:04 AM
To: NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural
EducationEmailDiscussion Group; Rethinking Schools Listserv
Subject: (Name-mce) ListServ some quick assistance please
Importance: High

Hi,

A friend is doing advanced workshops in a local high school on racism
and would like some examples of ideas and perhaps curricula that either
DO or DO NOT work to move the conversation in a positive way.  I have
attached some of her message below so you get the picture. She is an
experienced trainer on the subject. The quick part of this is her
presentation is on Th. of this week (Nov 30).

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Successful Interactions Across Race Differences

definitions: 20 min  (stereotype, discrimination, prejudice, racism,
race, other isms)

models: 60 min

          --what schools are doing that works (and that doesn't work)

          --what teachers are doing that works (and that doesn't work)

          --what creates good community climate regarding interrupting
racism (or bad climate)

discussion of the impact of these models on classrooms and hallways and
student morale

???

evaluation and wrap up.

I spent some time surfing around the Teaching Tolerance website on
Friday.  

My question for you is can you point me toward some information for the
models section, which is the same as the "What schools are doing that
works" section...

This is my immediate need, 

Sue

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter" Dr. Martin Luther King

Susan McKevitt

New Hampshire Department of Education

21 South Fruit St. Suite 20

Concord, NH 03301

phone: 603-271-6613 fax: 603-271-4079

email: smckevitt at ed.state.nh.us

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