Teaching About Race and Racism

For my entire career, I have taught courses addressing issues related to race, ethnicity, culture, and multiculturalism. One of the most challenging topics to teach about is race and racism. It is well documented that race and racism are provocative and emotionally charged topics to teach. Faculty who teach classes about race are sometimes subject to punishment by students in the form of poor courses evaluations and, in extreme cases, complaints to administrators. Students sometimes use course evaluations to express disdain at being intellectually and morally challenged. Teaching about race is often a thankless job that offers no extrinsic, and very few intrinsic, rewards. Over the years I have heard stories about faculty, particularly faculty of color, who experience resistance in the classroom. This resistance takes the form of either being challenged in ways that our White colleagues would not experience or by being met with a deafening silence when it is time for class participation.

In the current political climate, racial tensions have been heightened, making discussions of race and racism in the classroom inevitable. Students are nervous, yet eager, to have these difficult discussions. It takes a very skilled teacher to be able to teach about race and racism in a way that challenges students but also makes them feel safe and does not make them defensive.

Having been relatively successful in teaching courses about race and racism, I am fully aware of the privileges I have as a man generally, and as a Black man specifically. As a man, I recognize that I am afforded a level of respect and perceived expertise that many women may not receive. I am also aware that men’s sexism and women’s internalized sexism may cause some of them to treat me differently than a female professor. As a Black man, I am also cognizant of the possibility that I may be perceived as threatening; as a result, students who might challenge me in the classroom may not, because of my social identities and concern about how I may respond.

I temper my satisfaction with my teaching success with an understanding that it could be influenced by dynamics unrelated to my teaching skill or pedagogical mastery. That said, I do believe that my approach has greatly contributed to my success.

I have learned that it is very important to strike the right balance between objectivity and subjectivity. Given the emotional nature of race and racism, classes can easily devolve into a series of shared, painful anecdotal experiences about racism. I teach students about the scientific problems with the construct of race, along with the history and evolution of race as a social construct and its role in science. I also use contemporary issues from popular culture to help teach important lessons about race. While emotion is important and often necessary to help students encode material, I do not allow anecdotes that are polarizing or mean-spirited. Cathartic disclosures should be used to advance or facilitate classroom discussions and ultimately learning. Conversely, some students supplant emotion and shared experiences with an “objective,” rational approach that keeps them in an emotionally sheltered space. This is equally problematic because the class becomes nothing more than an intellectual exercise of memorization of facts and not a class that can lead to the changing of behaviors and transformation of consciousness.

Inevitably, there will be a situation where you will mess up. Professors are not perfect, and by virtue of being human beings we are fallible. Students appreciate professors who are honest and comfortable about their imperfections. Teaching about race and racism can allow for professors to be more “real” to students and to create a space that allows students to feel more comfortable with their imperfections and struggles with race and racism.