Discussing Race in the Classroom

            Race is a topic that is not frequently discussed within the classroom; however, it is an important topic that needs to be discussed at school. Whether a certain school system is predominately White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, over incredibly diverse, race plays a role in how a class functions and how students and teachers interact with one another.

            Personally, I attended a predominately White high school, and my graduating class of over a thousand only have 6 non-White graduates. Although I didn’t attend what would be considered a “diverse” school, race did play a very important role. For example, there were many times throughout my high school career that a new student would transfer to our school and would be greeted with very unopened arms. Racial slurs were thrown left and right and they were made to feel very unwelcomed at school. Along with this, I cannot recall a single time that race was ever discussed or inserted in the curriculum within the classroom, and I believe this is a main reason why interracial interactions were so difficult at my school.

            One resource on the Teaching Tolerance website that I found to be useful was the “Talking About Race and Racism” classroom resource. This resource is highly important because it focuses on racial topics and gives students the opportunity to reflect on their own comfort level when discussing race. They will also describe how stereotypes inform our implicit biases and how implicit bias impact our interaction, and also they will establish morns and learn strategies for having open and honest conversations about race. According to an article regarding talking about race in the classroom, although it is nearly impossible to create a classroom where every student feels confident discussing sensitive topics, “It can be useful to share with students the assumption that while we are not to blame for racism in society, we can assume responsibility for working against it” (Bolgatz).

            As educators, it is incredibly important for us to create a comfortable environment for our students. Through classroom conversations about race and racism, we can hopefully help our students to learn more about each other and encourage them to embrace, not criticize, one another’s differences.

Bolgatz, Jane. "Talking About Race and Racism in the Classroom." Talking Race in the     Classroom. Teachers College Press, 1 Jan. 2005. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.   <http://www.teachingthelevees.org/Talking_About_Race.pdf>.