Box of delight

Yesterday I was tagged in a post by an old high school friend asking me and a few others a very public, direct question about white privilege and racism. I feel compelled not only to publish his query, but also my response to it, as it may be a helpful discourse for more than just a few folks on Facebook.

A blog post entitled ‘Should we teach school students about white privilege?’ recently hit social media. Please take a peek before you read on. This is Part 2 of a 3-part blog post related to it.
In Part 1, I said that rather than less (or zero) teaching about the specific white privileges of racism, we should strive for better teaching of it, and to argue otherwise is dangerous. But to be open to learning more, students and educators need to be in a place where they can reflect on their own whiteness. They need skilled guidance to do this, especially since it may be so normal to them as to be invisible. I will use the blog post to help us see its whiteness and help to confront "our rigid refusal to look at ourselves" (Baldwin).