Thread by @William_I_Brown

@triciaebarvia A3: Another great set of questions. I find myself wondering if people grasp the significance & complexity of how racial identities play out in home; school, society & future lives of students. We're talking about a man-made; scientifically flawed social construct...#IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): with an embedded social hierarchy that has been savagely & brutally enforced ; systemically politically, economically, institutionally, educationally, via law enforcement, etc., generationally, resulting in cycles of oppression that manifest intentional...#IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): psychological and emotional effects (positive for some, negative for others) & self-fulfilling prophecies that guarantee the maintenance and upkeep of the designed social hierarchy which, through reinforcement, is deemed and accepted as truth and an...#IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): unchangeable reality. Through this, race-based identities are imposed that also serve to uphold this hierarchy. We talk about our need as educators to help students construct knowledge; yet racial identities are constructed by external forces. So, engaging...#IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): students in a process that allows them to de-construct & construct their own racial identity (and subsequently the impact that identity has on their lives and society), could be an amazingly liberating & empowering experience...#IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): “The implication of this is that the mind’s possibilities are limited by its concept of its potential.”
― Na'im Akbar #IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): The thought of' the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies - Carter G. Woodson #IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): So, to invite students to reflect on RACE and their racial identity, requires creating a safe space, and the resources needed to permit students to deconstruct and reconstruct their racial identity. It requires clarity of purpose and planning, or...#IREL19

@triciaebarvia A3 (cont): you get knee-jerk reactions like "I'll show my students 'When They See Us'." @Tolerance_org's Social Justice Standards provide an excellent resource, specifically their Identity Anchor Standards, which are: #IREL19

@triciaebarvia @Tolerance_org A3 (cont): 1. Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society. 2. Students will develop language and historical and cultural knowledge that affirm and accurately describe their membership in multiple identity groups.

@triciaebarvia @Tolerance_org A3 (cont): 3. Students will recognize that people’s multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals. 4. Students will express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people. And...

@triciaebarvia @Tolerance_org A3 (cont): 5. Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in multiple spaces. tolerance.org/frameworks/soc…

@triciaebarvia @Tolerance_org A3 (cont): When we don't extend invitations for our students to deconstruct and reconstruct their racial identities, we send the message that the identity society has imposed upon them is accurate, that the systems that uphold them are just, and the results "natural." #IREL19