Enhancing the School Success of Boys of Color Grades PreK-3

Train-The-Trainer Summer InstituteLansing Public Schools

July 13, 2011

Dorinda J. Carter Andrews, Ed.D.

Today’s Agenda

• Module 2: Engaging in Critical Self-Reflection as an Educator of Boys of Color

• Take-Aways/Wrap-Up

Module 2

Engaging in Critical Self-Reflection as an Educator of Boys of Color

Difference is Not the Problem

Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference, 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

The trouble around diversity isn’t just that people are different from one another. The trouble is that society is organized in ways that encourage people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass

Privilege: What is It?

• Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do.

Two Types of Privilege

• Unearned entitlement• Things that all people should have; basic human

and civil rights (e.g., feeling safe in public spaces, working in a place where you feel valued, an excellent education)

• Conferred Dominance• Privileges that give one group power over

another. Often manifests itself as race privilege (in the U.S.)

What Privilege Looks Like in Everyday Life

• Men can succeed without other people being surprised.• Male representation in government and the ruling circles of

corporations and other organizations is disproportionately high (even in education).

• Most heterosexuals can assume that their sexual orientation won’t be used to determine whether they’ll fit in at work or whether teammates will feel comfortable working with them.

• Heterosexuals don’t have to worry that their sexual orientation will be used as a weapon against them, to undermine their achievement or power.

What Privilege Looks Like in Everyday Life• Nondisabled people can ask for help without having to

worry that people will assume they need help with everything.

• Nondisabled people are less likely to be segregated into living situations – such as nursing homes and special schools and sports programs – that isolate them from job opportunities, schools, community services, and the everyday workings of life in a society.

Privilege as Paradox

• Individuals are the ones who experience privilege or the lack of it, but individuals aren’t what is actually privileged. Privilege is defined in relation to a group or social category.

• Race privilege is more about white people (i.e. Whiteness) than it is about white people. A white person is race privileged not because s/he is white but because Whiteness is privileged in this society, and s/he has access to that privilege only when people identify him/her as belonging to the category “white.”

Privilege as Paradox

• When it comes to privilege, it doesn’t really matter who we really are. What matters is who other people think we are – the social categories they put us in. (Johnson, 2006)

Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference, 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

OPPRESSION: THE FLIP SIDE OF PRIVILEGE

Oppression

• For every social category that is privileged, one or more other categories are oppressed in relation to it.

• Belonging to a privileged category that has an oppressive relationship with another isn’t the same as being an oppressive person who behaves in oppressive ways. It is a social fact that Whites as a social category oppress people of color as a social category; however, that doesn’t tell us how a particular white person thinks or feels or behaves towards people of color.

White Privilege

• The invisible knapsack of privileges based on race (Peggy McIntosh)

• Obliviousness about white advantage helps maintain the myth of meritocracy

• White privilege in schools (Olson article)

Terms Defined

• White privilege when used to oppress people is a form of white racism• Racism = systemic privilege + power (Beverly

Daniel Tatum)

Tatum, B. D. (2000). Defining racism: ‘Can we talk?’ In Adams et al. (Eds.), Readings for social justice and diversity (pp. 79-82). New York: Routledge Press.

Terms Defined: White Supremacy• White supremacy: a historically based,

institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege.

Terms Defined

• White Culture/Whiteness• White culture is an artificial, historically constructed

culture which expresses, justifies and binds together the United States white supremacy system. It is the cultural matrix and glue which binds together white-controlled institutions into systems; and white-controlled systems into the global white supremacy system. Since World War II, the white culture of the United States has been the center of the global white culture.

More on Whiteness

• It is the dominant culture in the U.S.

• It shapes one’s attitudes, thinking, behavior, and values.

• It consciously and unconsciously suppresses and oppresses other cultures.

• It consciously and unconsciously appropriates aspects of other cultures.

• It is normative: the standard for judging values and behaviors

• It is assumed, unquestioned, not on the agenda: the way things are

• It is hidden, not at all obvious to the dominating or oppressing practitioners, but often painfully obvious to people who have been oppressed by it

Exploring Identity

• Activity 2.2 – Social Group Membership Profile

• Activity 2.3 – Identity Wheel

• Activity 2.4 – Privilege Exercise

Million Dollar Questions

• What does all of this talk about my social identity have to do with my work with boys of color? What are the real implications for what goes on in the classroom and their academic and life success?

What Stuck?

• An ‘Aha’ moment

• A pleasant surprise

• Something that you had to struggle with to understand

• Something that you don’t agree with

• Something that you agree with strongly

• Something you thought was particularly interesting

• Something you didn’t expect

• An insight or solution

• Something you want to know more about/A question that you have