Note: I wrote this article in the aftermath of the Charlottesville white supremacist rally. A much-shortened version appeared on Common Sense Education, but I’ve been wanting the longer one to see the light of day. So, here it is on the one-year anniversary.
Trolls and Torches
Ten years ago I was hanging around World of Warcraft and a lesser-known game called Habbo, studying racism, white supremacy, and trolling in online games. I was interested in how these games were trolled through something called “raids,” spur-of-the-moment events involving dozens of internet trolls (mostly young white men in their teens and twenties). Raids would begin with a call to action on a message board, then spill into a game world, overwhelming the space and its players with racist imagery (including digital blackface) and speech, meant to confuse, entertain (behind a flimsy shield of irony), and infuriate.
Looking back, I now realize that that community and those demonstrations were a laboratory for the alt-right demonstrations of white nationalism and supremacy we’ve seen across the country. The difference is that while their tactics remain the same (creating memes, inciting anger, manipulating the media, using irony as obfuscation), the playing field — national politics — is now deadly serious. I can’t help but suspect some of the same trolls I saw at raids also held torches at Charlottesville.
This whole time I’ve worked in education — first at the college level and now in K-12 — I’ve held hard to the belief that one of the keys to dismantling white supremacy is anti-racist education. I still believe that, but now that I’m helping K-12 teachers, I realize that it’s in those classrooms specifically — where teachers shape the core of kids — that we must focus most intently. While there are many teachers already doing this work, there are many more for whom discussions of race remain taboo. This is a feeling particularly prevalent among white teachers who feel ill-equipped to discuss race or at risk of stirring up controversy when they do. It’s also a product of whiteness, a culture that either out-right avoids discussions of race, or practices a toothless colorblind discourse. We must acknowledge, however, that being able to ignore, escape, and not address race is a position of privilege only white people have. It’s time to use that same privilege to stare white supremacy in the eye, speak its name in classrooms, and equip students to dismantle it. There’s too much at risk. And to those who’d claim anti-racist education is an out-of-bounds politicization of education: you’re right, and that’s part of the problem.
We must acknowledge, however, that being able to ignore, escape, and not address race is a position of privilege only white people have. It’s time to use that same privilege to stare white supremacy in the eye, speak its name in classrooms, and equip students to dismantle it. There’s too much at risk.
Filling the Void
The alt-right is the latest formation of white supremacy, a system that’s inextricable from American history. White supremacy, and the concept of whiteness that it relies on, is fueled by silence and complicity. It grows when it goes unnamed and unchallenged. In the absence of anti-racist education, it festers like a wound. In her extraordinary article on the white supremacist terrorist Dylann Roof, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah argues, “Roof is what happens when we prefer vast historical erasures to real education about race…. It is possible [he] is not an outlier at all … but rather emblematic of an approaching storm.”
When we don’t discuss race or excavate the history of white supremacy, we create a void. In this void, white nationalist groups (neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederates) see opportunity. They weave a false narrative and weaponize moments of crisis and strife to manipulate young white people, blaming their social and economic ills on people of color and Jews.
Sparked by a deeply divisive 2016 election, white nationalist groups have taken to the web, social media, and college campuses to stoke the fires of discontent among white people, especially those in their teens and twenties and “feeling powerless.” Whether this recruitment drive is working is tough to discern, but there are indications of growing interest, including a poll that found 9 percent (~30 million) of Americans consider white supremacist views acceptable. Regardless of their numbers, white nationalists have become more brazen, taking to the streets — often under the guise of “free speech” rallies — to spew hatred, incite violence, and even murder a young woman. They’ve also adeptly manipulated the media to seed conspiracies and influence the national dialogue in the interest of recruitment.
To starve this recruitment strategy, we must all move from silence to action. K-12 classrooms, however, have a particularly important role to play. Teachers can intervene early and often in the lives of young people and give them the tools to understand the insidious history of white supremacy, to excavate its toxic influence on many U.S. institutions, and to build students’ exposure to and empathy for people from different backgrounds.
White supremacy, and the concept of whiteness that it relies on, is fueled by silence and complicity. It grows when it goes unnamed and unchallenged. In the absence of anti-racist education, it festers like a wound.
The Role of White Teachers
The struggle, however, is that many teachers — white teachers in particular — feel underprepared to address race in the classroom, especially racial violence. In an ideal world, all educators would receive training in anti-racist education, social justice education, and culturally responsive teaching. Unfortunately, our world is less than ideal. Thankfully, there’s no profession better suited to digging in and doing the work themselves than the teaching profession. Teachers are nothing if not resilient. They’re the world’s best learners.
This is an especially important task for white teachers, who make up over 80 percent of K-12 educators and possess the privilege and institutional positioning to make change. As Tirhakah Love explains, “For this country to be anything greater than what it is today, the people in power — from white layfolk to political leaders — must realize how they got there.” By owning up to this history and their own privileges, white teachers can model for their students (especially white students) an antidote to white supremacy: reflection, responsibility, and action. The alternative — staying mostly silent or offering thoughts and prayers — isn’t enough. In fact, it’s dangerous. As Jenna Chandler-Ward of Teaching While White argues, “too many of us allow ourselves to believe racism, racial oppression, institutional segregation, and a host of racial inequities are things of the past. In doing so, we who are white remain complicit in these ongoing injustices.”
So where to start? Xian Franzinger Barrett offers some steps any teacher can take to confront white supremacy directly in their classrooms. (Barrett is a part of EduColor. For Twitter users, the #educolor hashtag will connect you with supportive folks who’ve been doing this work.) Inspired by Barrett, I offer similar steps below with helpful resources, including lesson plans, articles, and tools that can form the foundation of activities, lessons, and discussions. You’ll need to make adjustments based on your student population and school community, but it’s important for these conversations to occur in all classrooms no matter the grade or subject focus (math and science have just as much to discuss as social studies and ELA). Finally, let’s be real: It’s going to feel scary to take this plunge, but the thought of you and your students discussing these issues and histories is much scarier to white supremacists. That’s because frank and open classroom conversations about race — grounded in understanding and aimed toward equity and justice — are dangerous only to those who fear difference.
Frank and open classroom conversations about race — grounded in understanding and aimed toward equity and justice — are dangerous only to those who fear difference.
Review the Research on Reducing Bias and Prejudice
The first two articles offer concise summaries of the proven strategies for reducing kids’ racial predispositions. These strategies are effective from kindergarten to high school.
Five Ways to Reduce Racial Bias in Your Children (article)
Research-Based Advice on Teaching Children Not to Be Racist (article)
Teach the History of Race, Racism, and Prejudice
Every teacher needs to familiarize themselves with these essential resources for social justice education. Each has ready-to-go lessons spanning all grade bands, as well as professional development. Most importantly, they’ll place today’s events in context that’ll show students how material change ca happen.
Pull from Crowdsourced Syllabi
Activists and educators have co-curated illuminating and incredibly useful syllabi in response to recent events. Pull from these to put together your own action plan.
Anti-Racist Resources: #CharlottesvilleCurriculum (resource list)
The Charlottesville Syllabus (resource list)
After Charlottesville: Teaching About Racism, Anti-Semitism, and White Supremacy (resource list)
Syllabus for White People to Educate Themselves (resource list)
Unpack “Color Blind” Ideology and Whiteness
It’s critical for white teachers to productively acknowledge difference in the classroom and understand whiteness as its own privileged, racial construct.
Color-Blindness Is Counterproductive (article)
What “White Folks Who Teach in the Hood” Get Wrong About Education (article)
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (article)
Color Blindness (resource list)
The Do’s and Don’ts of Talking to Kids of Color About White Supremacy (article)
Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools (book)
Study the Rise of the Alt-Right
The alt-right, while firmly situated in the history of white supremacy, is something new. Teachers must understand where it came from, to help students dismantle it’s ideology.
What Is the “Alt-Right?” and “But What About Antifa?” (article)
Kill All Normies (book)
Create a Classroom Community and Cultivate Empathy
To counter bias and prejudice, students need to form relationships with people from different backgrounds and perspectives and learn to take the perspectives of others — acknowledging their histories, experiences, and feelings. Part of this also means not alienating students who may enter classrooms with prejudices. It’s important not to shut them down, but listen to them and broaden their perspectives.
Let’s Talk! (resource list)
Dangerous Discussions: Voice and Power in My Classroom (article)
How One School Builds Empathy Through Public Confessions (article)
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Ya’ll Too (book)
Give Students Media Literacy Skills Relevant to Social Media and the Web
White supremacists use propaganda, specifically on social media, to recruit young people to the cause. Give your students the critical skills to counter these messages.
Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers (PDF)
Hapgood: Mike Caulfield’s Blog (blog)
Support Students’ Interest in Activism
While teachers can’t explicitly advocate for any political movement in their classrooms, it’s important to support students when they find a cause they care about and want to fight for social change and justice.
10 Ways Youth Can Engage in Activism (article)
Black Lives Matter: From Hashtag to Movement (high school lesson plan)