Thanks so much for this, Selva! I agree with all of this. I’m especially interested in figuring out how to get white people (self included) to speak up more. Because we simply must. One of the quotes from the podcast that stuck with me (and that echoes my experience over many decades) was about how we can’t expect POC to do all of the heavy lifting on confronting racism. It’s white peoples’ problem as well, and I think we need to own that.

Same way with the “me too” movement (this is kind of pivot, but I think it works): People who harass and demean women at work can’t do it alone. Someone always sees something, but few speak out or intervene…because they don’t think it affects them directly, or they hope they are misunderstanding the situation, or they are afraid of the consequences of saying something. Until we appreciate that we are all in this together and need to support and appreciate difference, it’s going to be a long, long road.

Thanks for this, Armin. I’m wondering how you will apply these ideas to your own teaching / classrooms?

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Thanks for sharing your perspective and your research agenda. This is very helpful. I’m wondering what you thought about the insights from the Heinemann podcast on dismantling racism in education? How do we as white people work to overcome racism and foster inclusive classroom spaces? (The Georgetown materials are helpful here.)

Arash — I love Hidden Brain as well, and the evolutionary psych perspective fascinates me (mainly from the perspective of humans’ interactions with domestic canines, but that’s a tangent I’ll leave for another day.) Here I wanted to flag the next podcast for Hidden Brain, which is an interview with Daniel Kahneman (author of “Thinking Fast and Slow”)

Definitely a good title! The hidden bias tests are provocative. The less biased we think we are, the more confounding (and irritating) the results, it seems. But the point of taking them isn’t to feel bad about yourself, but rather to get a reference on the disconnect between what you think about yourself and the extent to which certain attitudes are pretty much baked into our social DNA. The more aware we are of our hidden biases — the less hidden they are from us — the better able we are to resist acting on them.

I think you’re right about “brave spaces” being more productive for “uncomfortable conversations,” Ernesto. Maybe in class tomorrow you can talk some about the distinctions between brave and safe spaces?

I think the toolkit for “brave spaces” would resonate! You should read the article Ernesto references. The framing is really interesting.

Maybe we just need to accept that we’re going to be uncomfortable? I do think the paradigm will shift — because it just has to. But I doubt it will be a sudden re-orientation. As educators, I think we all need to own a piece of this conversation — make a commitment to work on it with our students and with each other. And we need to quit thinking about “inclusion” as being just about race and just for POC to care about. We all need to lean in on this.

Thanks so much for this, Ashley. I will add to what Kadie says about being sorry that you’ve had to put up with this racist system and society. And I thank you for leading by example. You’re right — you did have to be twice as good and work twice as hard to get half the credit, and you have done amazing work and overcome so much. I agree that we have an obligation to our students to engage and challenge them — to open their minds to the pervasive problems we face — and racism is a big one — and to empower them to take on those problems.
I will add that I think we need to figure out (more effective) ways to get white people to lean in on this one. Racism isn’t going anywhere until that happens. Help me be a better on this front, please. Also, we will really miss you tomorrow evening.

I hope we choose that latter as well. In fact, I think we have to. How can we as instructors (and future faculty) pretend to meet the needs of a diverse society and many different learning styles if we don’t attend to issues of inclusion? I’m not shocked anymore (I’ve been doing this for a long time), but I am still dismayed by the insistence that there are certain subjects and kinds of learning environments where this isn’t an issue.