Suggestions from Drs. French and Brookfield

Starting Places

The impetus for the training came from the student-led Ujamaa Collective. Their demands were supported by a group of alumni.

If you’re looking for a place to start learning about antiracism, we suggest focusing on these videos:

  • A Conversation on Race: A series of short films produced by the New York Times about identity in America (those without subscriptions can sign up for Carleton’s group pass here: https://nytimesineducation.com/access-nyt/carleton-college-northfield-mn/)
  • Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity: This film asks America to talk about the causes and consequences of systemic inequity. Designed for dialogue, the film works to disentangle internal beliefs, attitudes and pre-judgments within, and it builds skills to address the structural drivers of social and economic inequities.
  • What Is Whiteness?: This video features Dr. Janet E. Helms, who explores the concept of whiteness. What is whiteness? What is white-bodied supremacy? Where did this come from in terms of the history of this country? How does it live in people’s psyches, movements, behaviors, and actions? What kind of research supports different ways of being?
  • White Like Me: Race, Racism & White Privilege in America: White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege.

Antiracist Classroom Assessment Tools from Bryana

Anti-Racist writing assessment ecologies https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/inoue/ecologies.pdf

Decolonize my Syllabus Checklist https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kyEPyyzxwGeUeB6qyu4k33y5VJI0RD8l

Anti-Racist Educator Self-Assessment and Rubric https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OT1-wV7ulYFpxQ3HAoo-7IID5Ap6s-MNEYwe3RRJGBo/edit


Anti-Racist Classroom Rubric https://otis.libguides.com/tlc/anti_racist_rubric

This is from an article specific to my field in applied psychology, but they offer these questions to assess student experiences in the classroom (using a Likert scale):

Examples of specific questions that can be asked (using a Likert-type scale), based on published feedback from BIPOC students on their experiences in the classroom (Chesler et al., 1993), are included below:

  • a. My professor’s expectations for me seem related to my racial or ethnic identity.
  • b. I have felt excluded or uncomfortable by assumptions made in class by the instructor. c. I have felt excluded or uncomfortable by assumptions made in class by my peers.
  • d. I am singled out as the “spokesperson” for my social identity group during class.
  • e. The curriculum content is inclusive.
  • f. Racially diverse issues or content are dis-cussed in ways that feel safe and inclusive during class.
  • g. The professor seemed comfortable leading open and respectful discussions of racial issues.
  • h. I have been ignored when sharing my ideas because of my race.
  • i. I have been patronized, embarrassed, or treated unfairly by my instructor because of my race.
  • j. I have been patronized, embarrassed, or treated unfairly by my peers because of my race.

AACU Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/VALUE/InterculturalKnowledge.pdf

Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment: For professional support in creating evaluation tools https://education.illinois.edu/docs/librariesprovider17/default-document-library/crea-brochure.pdf

Syracuse University’s Antiracism Toolkit https://thecollege.syr.edu/writing-studies-rhetoric-and-composition/writing-across-curriculum/antiracist-wac-toolkit/

“Continuum on Becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Organization”

Continuum on Becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Organization

Implicit Bias and Microaggressions

Guidance for Offices/Departments wishing to move to an explicitly antiracist orientation

Some of you have asked for guidance on how to begin to implement moving to an explicitly antiracist orientation in your specific office or department. Drs. French and Brookfield have offered the following 12 possible questions to pose. Depending on your office or department, some of these will have more relevance for you than others.

  1. To what degree are we making an intentional effort to find out how BIPOC staff, students & faculty in our department or office are experiencing the program?
  2. Are we doing everything we can to recruit a racially diverse staff, student and faculty body?
  3. For those BIPOC already in our office or department, how do we make sure they are fully supported (for example, by acknowledging the need for BIPOC-only spaces)
  4. What system do we have in place for making sure our BIPOC members feel safe & encouraged to share concerns based on racial dynamics?
  5. What system is in place to hold ourselves accountable when concerns are raised?
  6. When we engage in departmental or office-related decision-making, do we regularly pause to consider race by asking, what racial issues or dynamics might we have missed? what do BIPOC members have to say about perspectives we’ve overlooked?
  7. In reappointment, promotion, tenure, salary and contract renewals, how do we ensure that we give antiracist efforts & contributions appropriate acknowledgment & reward?
  8. How do we make sure we constantly update our knowledge of racial dynamics & racism? What are we doing on a personal level, and as an office or department (symposia, meetings, training) to keep learning about racial dynamics on campus and in the outside world?
  9. What kind of system do we have in place for auditing & discussing the progress we’re making towards becoming an antiracist department or office?
  10. How do we draw attention to the way in which knowledge within our field, and sub-field, is racialized? What are the racial identities of past & present thought leaders? Where did our discipline originate and what are the leading centers of research & study? What is the racial composition of gatekeeper bodies such as professional organizations, editorial boards, standard textbook authors, editors of encyclopedias?
  11. When appropriate, how do we strive to locate the way that our field’s knowledge impacts the wider society? In what ways is knowledge applied in the world outside academe?  Which racial groups most benefit from knowledge that is disseminated? What racial disparities exist in terms of how that knowledge is applied for the public good? 
  12. Have we done everything we can to feature work and good practice by BIPOC professionals, scholars & researchers?

How to Take Action

  • Brookfield, S.D. & M. Hess. 2021. Becoming a white antiracist: Practical strategies for educators, leaders and activists. Sterling: VA: Stylus. [On order via Gould Library]
  • Campt, D.W. 2018. The white ally toolkit: Using active listening, empathy, and personal storytelling to promote racial equity. Newton Center, MA: I Am Publications.
  • Crass, C. 2015. Towards the “other America”: Anti-racist resources for white people taking action for Black Lives Matter. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press.
  • Katz, J.H. 2003. White awareness: Handbook for anti-racism training. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (2nd. Ed).
  • Kivel, P. 2017. Uprooting racism: How white people can work for racial justice. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers (4th ed.). Available at CCCE, Sayles-Hill 150.
  • Warren, M.R. 2010. Fire in the heart: How white activists embrace social justice. New York: Oxford University Press. Available at St. Olaf Rolvaag Library.

Supporting BIPOC Colleagues and Students during the Chauvin Trial

  • Offer space for students to process in class if you have skills in facilitating racial dialogues.
  • Recognize the psychological toll and how this may impact academic and job performance.
  • As a result, consider offering extensions on assignments/deadlines, reduced class/meeting participation, or excused absences. 
  • Consider offering healing and wellness spaces for BIPOC students, staff, and faculty.
  • LISTEN and follow the lead of Black community members.
  • Support racial justice activism, directly or indirectly. 
  • Resist the urge to offer your interpretation of the events to Black community members or minimizing the impacts of the trial. 
  • Appreciate healthy cultural mistrust in the process and criminal justice system.

Additional resources

Current Events and History

  • Race in America (podcast): Although not specifically historically inclined, this wide-ranging series from the University of California explores how racism emerges in a number of public policy, media and community organizing contexts, from the Civil Rights movement to the rise of American multiculturalism.
  • Systemic Racism (video): Here’s a closer look at what systemic racism is and how we can solve it.
  • 1619 (podcast series): An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.
  • Intersectionality Matters! (podcast): Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.
  • Good Ancestor (podcast): Layla F. Saad’s interviews with change-makers and culture-shapers.
  • Pod Save the People (podcast): DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with Sam Sinyangwe, Kaya Henderson and De’Ara Balenger. They offer a special focus on overlooked stories and topics in the news that often impact people of color.
  • Nice White Parents (podcast): When Chana Joffe-Walt, a reporter, looked at inequality in education, she saw that most reforms focused on who schools were failing: Black and brown kids. But what about who the schools are serving? In this five-part series, she turns her attention to what is arguably the most powerful force in our schools: White parents

Whiteness

  • White Supremacy Culture: By Tema Okun (dismantlingracism.org). These characteristics show up in the attitudes and behaviors of all of us – people of color and white people. Therefore, these attitudes and behaviors can show up in any group or organization, whether it is white-led or predominantly white or people of color-led or predominantly people of color.
  • System of White Supremacy and White Privilege: In the past, “white supremacy” was a term that referred to extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan to neo-Nazis. Now it refers to a political and socioeconomic system that gives white people structural rights but not other racial and ethnic groups.
  • Resources for Anti-Racism Education (St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation): links to help you get informed about how you can build racial equity.
  • Good White People: This is a video featuring Dr. Shannon Sullivan, author of a book by the same name, in which Sullivan identifies a constellation of attitudes common among well-meaning white liberals that she sums up as “white middle-class goodness.”
  • Becoming a White Antiracist: Chapters from Dr. Stephen Brookfield’s book.
  • White Privilege in the Classroom:  This is a 2017 video featuring Dr. George Yancey.
  • The White Racial Frame (Feagin 2013): In this book, his publisher says that “Joe R. Feagin extends the systemic racism framework by developing an innovative new concept, the white racial frame. Now four centuries-old, this white racial frame encompasses not only the stereotyping, bigotry, and racist ideology accented in other theories of ‘race,’ but also the visual images, array of emotions, sounds of language, interlinking interpretations, and inclinations to discriminate that are still central to the frame’s everyday operation.”

Health, Survival and Healing

Racial Identity Development

  • Stages of Racial Identity Development  
  • Racial Healing Handbook (Singh 2019): The publisher says that “Healing from racism is a journey that often involves reliving trauma and experiencing feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety. This journey can be a bumpy ride, and before we begin healing, we need to gain an understanding of the role history plays in racial/ethnic myths and stereotypes. In so many ways, to heal from racism, you must re-educate yourself and unlearn the processes of racism.” 
  • A Race is a Nice Thing to Have (Helms 2020): A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life 
  • Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity (Cross 1991): The publisher says that the book “Presents the diversity that has always been the hallmark of Black psychology, exploding the myth that self-hatred is the dominant theme in Black identity.” Available through Gould Library. 

The Social Construction of Race

  • Scene on Radio (podcast): Produced at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, this podcast explores the historical construction of white supremacy and the meaning of whiteness.
  • Seeing Race (podcast): This University of Alabama series focuses on the supposedly scientific delineation of races in global contexts including India, Central and South America and Europe.
  • Race, Black Lives, and Protests: Dr. Joe R. Feagin is the Ella C. McFadden Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University. The Mellon Center for Faculty Excellence at Prairie View A&M University hosted a virtual series titled “A Series on Race, Black Lives, and Protests” to discuss the current systemic feature of race, the continued attack on Black bodies, and the subsequent protests to address structural racism in American society.
  • The Smithsonian’s Talking about Race website: “Race is a human-invented, shorthand term used to describe and categorize people into various social groups based on characteristics like skin color, physical features, and genetic heredity.”
  • Race: The Power of an Illusion: RACE–The Power of an Illusion asks a question so basic it’s rarely raised: what is this thing we call race? Since its release in 2003, the series has become one of the most widely used documentaries ever in formal and non-formal education in the US. Millions of people have used the film to scrutinize their own deep-seated beliefs about race and explore how our social divisions are not natural or inevitable, but made. 
  • Nell Irvin Painter (any of her work; books available through Carleton and St. Olaf libraries): About her book History of White People, her publisher says, “Telling perhaps the most important forgotten story in American history, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, illuminating not only the invention of race but also the frequent praise of ‘whiteness’ for economic, scientific, and political ends.”