This is always on my mind now, when I’m at work. And when I’m not there, but thinking about work.
Here’s what I’ve noticed...just in the last month...
Here’s what I’ve noticed...just in the last month...
I teach one small US History class. When brainstorming what they could remember or connect to Civil Rights, I got some MLKs, a Rosa Parks, a few associations with racism or better treatment, and a surprising (to me) number of kids saying 2nd Amendment.
In my class of 18, no one could tell me anything about Malcolm X or the Black Panther Party.
This tells me whiteness is at work in a curriculum that never goes beyond MLK and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez.
I watched two Latina students reading Separate Is Never Equal avidly and discussing how they had no idea kids of Hispanic descent went to segregated schools, too.
One of these students said she’s looking forward to our spending class time learning about the Chicano Movement and the East LA Blowouts after Spring Break because “I want to know more about MY history. We never really learned this before, and I wondered”
So, to me, whiteness means leaving out the history of half of the students in my classroom, in my school, and in my state.
I have heard comments like “they only need to know Cesar Chavez for the test” from a team member in the past. And “what is the Chicano Mural Movement anyway?” from another.
(Because Cesar Chavez, the Chicano Mural Movement and Dolores Huerta are the only specific people/movements mentioned by name in our 11th grade state US History standards that fit in this 1950s-1970s time period)
Oh, wait...and Hector P Garcia.
I see whiteness at work when we just finished the month of February and I didn’t hear one announcement, see one poster or event, or hear a single mention from anyone about Black History Month on my campus.
And on the day after I read about the 7th grade teacher IN MY DISTRICT who asked kids to “draw yourself as a slave” and was enraged that (1) any social studies T would be so thoughtless & (2) my district would respond in such a milquetoast manner...
The very next day, I was reading through a World History test, modifying it for that team, I came across these questions—the ONLY questions on the test related to slavery: 
I’m seeing every single day evidence of whiteness at work in my curriculum, in my state standards, in the words of my colleagues, in the assessments we create, in the words that we use, in what we leave out.
I see whiteness in what trainings and professional developments and committees we DON’T HAVE. I see it in the demographics of my department, my campus, leadership in my district, in our board of trustees.
It impacts my students because my white Ss look visibly awkward when impromptu discussions of race come up. My students of color will discuss race and their experiences and perceptions eagerly when they’re in my room at lunch...but hold back in the whole class setting.
I see it everywhere now and I still haven’t wrapped my head around all the ways whiteness has disadvantaged my students...ALL my students.
I know I have so much to learn still. So much to examine in my own practice, but it is my sole focus now.
I know I have so much to learn still. So much to examine in my own practice, but it is my sole focus now.
The majority in this country want to keep kicking the problems and inequities created by white supremacy down the road to be dealt with later, and I don’t want to keep playing a part in that.
I appreciate the educators I can surround myself with here to learn how to do better. To see examples of anti-racist thought and teaching in action. Who are willing to call me out and ask me reflective questions that help me grow. You all are 🙌🙏❤️
