New course: Race and Racism

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Together with Professor Rachel Falmagne, I am co-teaching a new course entitled Race and Racism: Theory and Experience. Working from a perspective grounded in Critical Race Theory, we are reviewing an extensive literature on the social construction of race, the persistent ways in which race and racism are embedded into the fabric of society, and the very real consequences of this history and current status. What we find particularly exciting about the class is that we are working hard to bring real-world experiences into the class, so that our consideration of race and racism does not just remain intellectual. We are hoping to accomplish this through in-class listening activities (in which pairs of students take turns speaking and listening about their experiences) and through an out-of-class interview project (in which students interview two Clark students about how race and racism have affected them). We are very much looking forward to getting this class started!

This course will involve considerable talking about issues of race and racism. Here is a great local TED talk about how we can try to think about conversations about race in less threatening ways.

Race and education

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It is fitting that there is a lot of attention on the educational disparities that exist in this country, as a solid education is increasingly critical for all to have in our modern, technological society. It is clear that many cities struggle with improving the academic performance of its students, which tend to be disproportionately students from low-income and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds. What is less clear, however, is what to do about it. Jay Mathews, of the Washington Post, summarized a report from the Broad Foundation that identified a number of themes that consistently emerged in low-income school districts that were doing well. Now, the report only worked with six school districts, but several themes that emerged are instructive nonetheless:

1. Increase the number of students with access to advanced classes. This seems self-evident, but it begins with challenging the notion that poor, disadvantaged children are barely struggling to make it. Once that assumption is tossed, then administrators can begin implementing advanced/gifted classes in greater numbers, which then gives greater numbers of students access to these courses. What is implied, but not expressly noted in the report, is that there might be a trickle-down effect to the non-gifted classrooms and teachers, whereby some of the challenging teaching approaches get used more widely.

2. Provide support for advanced classes and students. This may take the form of specialized tutoring programs targeted at AP exams, but it may also include long-term support for youth and families who are not familiar with college and university systems.

3. Be patient, particularly if gains are modest or slow in developing. This is a critical point, and one that may be most hard to follow, given our society’s fascination with immediate results in arenas where results may take a generation or two.

 

Race and crime

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Today, the Washington Post republished a chart put out by the ACLU in a comprehensive report that highlights the disproportionate arrest rate experienced by White and Black Americans for marijuana possession. The report highlights how much more likely Black Americans are to be arrested than White Americans despite roughly similar rates of usage. The report suggests that the rise in popularity of the broken windows theory of crime reduction is a direct contributor. According to this theory, institutions that work to reduce or eliminate social indicators of crime (e.g., broken windows) will reduce the likelihood of real crime taking place. So this theory has led to the controversial stop and frisk policies of law enforcement, which appears to disproportionately target Black and Latino Americans. It seems fairly self evident that such a policy would play a large role in increasing the disparity of arrest for marijuana possession, and given the dubious relationship between stop and frisk policies and crime reduction, it begs the question of to what end such policies?