“If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time …
But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
–Lila Watson
What is Anti-Racist Education?
Anti-Racist education is an approach to education which attempts to acknowledge the implications of systemic racial power dynamics for both teachers and students. Anti-racist educations implores educators to go beyond simply being non-racist and to actively attempt to dismantle racism within education.
This means that educators must acknowledge the history of racism that is present in North America and the ways in which this history continues to have a profound impact on contemporary race relations. Including developing an understanding of the racial biases that come along with an educator's own racial identity - especially when that educator is white and therefore someone who holds white privilege. This means recognizing that every student will have a unique educational experience which is heavily impacted by their race. Educators must take this knowledge into the classroom with them and rather than attempting to face their classroom with an attitude of colourblindness they must face colour head-on and recognize that race plays a huge part in shaping education. Educators must go beyond being simply non-racist and adopt a philosophy of anti-racist education. |
My research focuses on understanding anti-racist education through the experience of a white educator for several reasons. First, I am a white educator and this is the experience which I know. I am unable to speak to the experiences of educators of colour and while their voices are vital to this conversation, it is not my place to take on their voices. Secondly, white educators have the most work to do when it comes to anti-racist education. This is not to say that there are not educators of colour who do not experience racial privilege, however that becomes an entirely different conversation. The fact of the matter is that white people have historically been the number one instigators of violent racism and we continue to benefit from the immense racial privilege which our ancestors violently claimed. White educators, more than any other race, have a duty to understand this history and the lasting impacts of racial privilege, as well as the ways in which those dynamics affect the educational system and the dynamics within our classrooms.
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