Uh, WRONGO.
I don’t know who said this, but upon unpacking it’s meaning and understanding what it really mean, I can’t help but shake my head. When you google it, many interesting titles come up…
When we don’t acknowledge and further celebrate the differences amongst our students, we are putting them largely at a disadvantage. We get no further in closing the gap that racism so rudely continues to push wider. I have grown up in a society and culture where it is not uncommon to hear a person make a racist joke in my friend group or family. I am not proud of this. It seems that people think because they are making a racial slur about a friend, because it is socially accepted, that it affects no one else. But this is wrong. We think “oh those awful acts of racism would never happen in my school”, however our society perpetuates racism through white capital everyday. I was taught to see racism as individuals being mean, not through these complex systems of power. Although we think we are “Post-Racial” because there is less socially unacceptable racism, there are things everyone, particularly white “majority” including myself do everyday that is racist, yet socially acceptable. I have once heard and not challenged a racist joke. I have not fully come to the realization that people are oppressed by racism every day without even knowing it. Even they start to believe that things are not racist because of this democratic racism! I have made assumptions about what I see, and I have thought that there should be equality in school… but as I am learning I know that this is not equitable.
My backpack is quite full and heavy. Your backpack? You may ask. You cannot see it, just as you cannot see colour in your class, but it’s there, bringing me “up"… until now. Peggy MacIntosh (1989) refers to it as the invisible backpack, that hold daily effects of white privilege in her life. While reading through the 26 privileges, I was able to relate to all, if not most of them without having given it a second thought or felt so much appreciation about the notion before. So what do I do with this unearned privilege pushed upon me? I can acknowledge that it is there, for one, as well as probe those around me to think about their privilege. I can ask my students how to make curriculum meaningful to them so that they can move in any direction of their choice, not where society leads them to think they should be. I can leave assumptions and my perceptions of their own privileges at the door. I can advocate for my students of all races to succeed despite the systems of money and power that exist. I can show them that this is now how the world should work.
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