FNED Post #2: Race & Privilege

• A large part of the afro-pessimism intellectual milieu focuses on the dehumanization of the black person, as explored in "Against the Dark: Antiblackness in Education Policy and Discourse." I see this often in the language used to describe our schools, the buildings themselves described as "zoos," and the students as "animals." All problems to be dealt with. How can we as a community move past this damaging rhetoric and into a greater and more productive conversation around institutionalized racism and prejudice, and ways in which we can begin to break the mold around these stereotypes/assumptions? 
• Michael Dumas states that Afro-pessimist scholars contend that The Black is still seen as The Slave, which I believe makes sense when you consider the disproportionate rates at which black people face mass incarceration, suffer police brutality, endure the school to prison pipeline, and were unfairly persecuted during the War on Drugs. 
• Tying together "Against the Dark" and "You're Asian, How Could You Fail Math," it is striking how prevalent it is to pit one type of person of color against another. For instance, the exaltation of the Asian "model minority," which promotes a stereotyped image of a certain kind of successful minority against all the other "unsuccessful" minorities (Latinx and Black). Even though many view this stereotype as a positive one, it not only de-legitimatizes the great diversity of Asian peoples but also reinforces hierarchies of race, with people with darker skin almost always at the bottom. 
• Based on "Race: Some Teachable -- and Uncomfortable -- Moments:" The author depicts an interaction between white and black students around the "N-word." On a daily basis I encounter students using this word in a casual manner. Many of these students would identify as Latino. Some, but certainly not all, might identify as black. I grapple often with what my role in this discussion around language I have as a White Latinx educator. 
• I appreciated that Heidi Tolentino reflected on the amount of "native teaching" that might occur in her own classroom in "Race: Some Teachable -- And Uncomfortable -- Moments." Perhaps because she had the experience of being the only non-white person in spaces growing up, she is able to realize the amount of emotional labor that is often required of people of color to explain to non people of color the struggles and traumas of daily lived experiences. I think more educators need to consider this and not automatically turn to the only ____ kid in the room to explain the way it is for all people of that racial / ethnic category.